This is part one of a fascinating two-part conversation with author and advocate for nonviolent action, Rivera Sun, using our “Homegrown Solutions for a Patchwork World” framework to guide her reflections. I encourage you to find her books and follow her weekly publication of Nonviolence News here:  www.riverasun.com.   Please read, watch, listen and share so that others can learn how to use the more than 300 nonviolent alternatives to resolve issues without resorting to harmful actions.   






















Rivera Sun is a trainer in nonviolent action and author of novels that utilize nonviolent movements for change within their plot lines.  She also edits a weekly newsletter called Nonviolence News that features 30 to 50 stories of nonviolence currently happening around the world.  HOMEGROWN RIVERA When asked how she got started in her work focused on nonviolent activism, Rivera says she used to respond that it started with the “Occupy Movement”, but she now recognizes that the focus really evolved for her as she started to recognize that there are two kinds of nonviolent action.“There’s the kind of activism that says ‘No’ to problems and says ‘Stop the damage and the destruction.’  And then there’s the kind of activism or nonviolence that says ‘Yes’ to solutions, that says ‘We’re going to build something that’s needed in the world. We’re going to teach ourselves how to do life differently.’” She recognizes that she’s been involved in this second kind of nonviolent action, the kind that builds something necessary and different, almost all of her life.  Rivera grew up on an organic farm in Northern Maine.  Her parents had two sets of twins and a sister in between for a total of five.  As the oldest of the first set of twins, Rivera was thirteen when her parents moved the family to the farm on the northern tip of Maine. “My parents were kind of crazy and kind of visionary…I literally grew up pulling weeds and picking potatoes. My farm was part of a cooperative of 10 small farms that started a distribution company where we would drive a truck around the state of Maine. We would pick up products from all these farms and we would deliver them to Maine restaurants and grocery stores and buying clubs. That company, Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative, is still in operation today. My twin sister actually is one of the founding partners and continues to help run it.”Rivera’s definition of nonviolent action for change includes her family’s farming initiative that saw a need and worked to meet that need by nontraditional means.  Her twin sister continues in this work serving over 300 businesses throughout the state of Maine.  Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative (https://www.crownofmainecoop.com/) has enabled the local food movement to connect farmers with people who like to eat healthy local food.  Her parents created a market for their farm produce that didn’t previously exist.  On their own, they were unable to compete with major markets, but by joining forces with other local farmers, they created an alternative system for providing high quality produce to those who sought it while supporting a family of five children. Rivera now recognizes her parents’ enterprise in alternative farming as her intro to “doing nonviolence.”RIVERA’S SOLUTIONS