This book joins several recent titles placing #socialjustice movements at a tipping point, suggesting that a wave of change is coming that must center healing and relationship. Current thinking can make this important shift seem like bypassing or denying urgency, and I’ve personally felt this fear and uncertainty in transforming my own relationship to activism. We may see the potential for a momentous collective shift, but also fear punitive dynamics within communities. And it’s tough to reject these dynamics and *also* avoid saviorism or dogma. The call is to come together, acknowledge our tremendous pain and grief and desire for something new, and integrate approaches: centering accountability, but also healing.

I thought Ginwright did an excellent job in this book of presenting what this change might look like at an individual and collective level, balancing acknowledgement of the astounding current level of need and oppression with a critical understanding of how our tactics need to change. The “four pivots” form an overarching framework to guide the reader through vulnerable storytelling, direct suggestions, and honest reflection on our present moment, shared history, and potential futures. The stories Ginwright chose to illustrate his points are broad enough to touch a range of readers, pulling from his own life as a parent, husband, community organizer, funder, and Black man. I also appreciated contextualized reflections from Ginwright’s past mistakes as a social justice leader, since funders and Board members are so often in CYA mode.

Through each pivot, you can consider a different mode of being: how to be more reflective, engage in transformative relationships, open up to possibility, and move through the world with greater spaciousness and adaptability. If the subtitle “Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves” appeals to you, you’ll find this book to be a valuable support. I would also recommend for organizational use.