Page 15 | Pacific Sun | Marin County, California

Swap-A-Luma, Novato Cemetery Tours and Fantastical Creatures

Crush

Mar 31, 2026

Petaluma

Swap-A-Luma

Forget “retail therapy.” Take a sustainable turn instead at Swap-A-Luma, Petaluma’s community-minded clothing swap that treats fashion less as consumption and more as circulation. Hosted by Swap Nation, the event invites participants to refresh their wardrobes by trading pieces instead of buying new—diverting hundreds of pounds of clothing from landfills in the process while turning reuse into a social experience. Expect a curated, boutique-style setup with a fashion show woven into the afternoon and a steady undercurrent of environmental awareness. The idea is simple: Swapping extends the life of garments, reduces demand for new production and builds a sense of community around style and sustainability. Proceeds from this edition benefit Cool Petaluma. Noon–3pm (fashion show 2pm), Saturday, April 4, Life on Art, 133 Copeland St., Ste. C1, Petaluma. Tickets at bit.ly/swapaluma.

Novato

Pioneer Park Cemetery Tours

History gets a little more interesting at Pioneer Park, where the Novato Historical Guild resumes its seasonal cemetery tours—walking visitors through the stories, lives and legacies that shaped early Novato. Led by guild board member Sharon Azevedo, the guided experience offers a grounded way to connect with local history, moving beyond plaques and dates into the human narratives tucked among the headstones. The tour traces the roots of Novato Township through those buried there, offering context, color and the occasional surprise. It’s a reminder that local history isn’t distant—it’s right underfoot. 9–10:30am, Saturdays April 11, May 9, June 13, July 18, Aug. 15 and Sept. 19, Pioneer Park (meet near playground), 1007 Simmons Ln., Novato. $10 suggested donation; register at novatohistory.org.

Glen Ellen

Spirit Guides

Mythical creatures take root among oaks and pathways at Sonoma Botanical Garden with Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles. Inspired by Zapotec cosmology, the exhibition installs eight monumental, vividly patterned sculptures across the landscape—hybrid animals imagined as protectors, reflections of personality and carriers of story. The Oaxaca-based artists draw from the idea of the tona and nahual—spirit companions tied to birth and identity—translating those traditions into bold, contemporary forms rendered in color-saturated geometric patterns. Set against a newly expanded native plant garden, the show creates a dialogue between culture and landscape, past and present. Exhibit runs April 10–Sept. 7, Sonoma Botanical Garden, 12841 Hwy. 12, Glen Ellen. Admission $17 adults; discounts available; free for children 4 and under.

Mill Valley

Visual Journalism

Architecture gets a human read in this hands-on workshop at the Studio at MYSTIC, where participants are invited to paint building façades as if they were portraits. Led by creative technologist and artist Michael Scherotter, the session explores line-and-wash watercolor techniques that translate structure into expression—turning windows, lines and shadows into something more personal and interpretive. Part of an ongoing visual journaling series, the class emphasizes process over perfection, offering tools and repeatable exercises designed to keep a creative practice alive long after the session ends. All levels are welcome, with participants encouraged to bring a sketchbook, supplies and a reference photo of a building to work from. The goal is less architectural accuracy than discovery—finding character, mood and story in the built environment. 6–8pm, Thursday, April 2, the Studio at MYSTIC, 31 Sunnyside Ave., Mill Valley. $75. Ages 15+. bit.ly/mysticmv-journo.

A Very Good Boy and His Human

Locals

Cincinnatus Hibbard

Mar 31, 2026

I like to bring the readers of this column weekly optimism and uplift. But I admit, I do have my misanthropic moods. Glancing over the headlines, I am in one now.

Sick of people and their problems, I thought I would interview a dog for April 1 (more the fool, I). I didn’t have far to look—fortunately, I have a superlative pooch in my circle, dog-influencer Mako, the wonder pooch. Kaya Suncat, his dog mom, met me at my house with Mako and a bugling bag of his favorite snacks and assorted toys.

Cincinnatus Hibbard: Mako, opening question: Will we be able to stop Trump?

Mako : …

Will we be able to reverse environmental devastation?

… [Mako runs in a circle, clockwise, chasing his own tail.]

Will AI liberate or enslave humanity?

…

Mako. Mako… Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?

[Mako yips and hops up.]

Woof woof you. Woof woof you.

Their tendency to wet on newspapers or tear them up can’t be taken for a political statement. Our dogs’ ignorance of the issues is part of their charm. But if they can’t read newspapers, they can read our energy, and the pure presence that they offer us is a great gift in this over-talked world. And so I turned to Kaya Suncat, who had gathered Mako up into her lap.

Girl, I know you have been going through it. Tell me how Mako supports you…

Kaya Suncat: When I get home from work, Mako is right there by the door, waiting to give me a hug, and he’ll lick my face, and I will come right back into gratitude that I have this cute little fluffy doggie—and everything seems OK. [Laughs brightly.]

Do you consider yourself his dog mom?

I am a dog worshipper [laughs], and yes, he is my dog son—although I think he is nonbinary.

What jobs does he have in your household ?

He is a furry doorbell, he is a flycatcher and he is a towel—if you get out of the shower, he will lick the water droplets off of you.

As well as being a perfect lapdoggie.

He loves to cuddle and get petted all day. He’s my little teddy bear. He likes to be held like a baby when I need emotional support or be my pillow.

How old is he?

He’s three years old—and a Virgo. Before I got him, I dreamed of him. I didn’t see him in the dream, but I felt his energy, and at the end of the dream I said, ‘Time to come home, Mako.’ When I woke up, I opened my Instagram, and his picture was at the top of my feed [laughs]. I always told the universe that I would have a Pomeranian and a Shiba Inu. I never thought the universe would put the two breeds in one.

Although Kaya and I are old friends, I found myself asking the same old questions strangers ask each other over their butt-sniffing dogs at the park. While there can be concern that inward-turning people can focus their love on their dogs instead of each other, dogs provide us with one of the very few ways that strangers can still spontaneously connect. Love of our pets is one of the things that make us human.

Learn more:Mako is a dog-influencer. His instagram is @makothefirst. His influence is to make us want to be better people (who actually deserve our pets). He was adopted from @lovesecondchances. Consider donating to them or to your local humane society.

The Foolest Month, Celebrating Our Humanity

Open Mic

Daedalus Howell

Mar 31, 2026

The Foolest Month, Celebrating Our Humanity

Given our publication date for this edition, I’ll admit I had some dastardly April Fool’s Day plans—like printing definitive proof that Petaluma Junior High is built on top of a portal to Hell and that my entire tenure in local media is a prolonged performance art piece by conceptual artist Kit Fergus.

And though I’m deep in the trickster hero phase of my professional aspirations, I couldn’t fathom publishing stories that could be perceived as a willful indulgence of “fake news.” That’s not to say I don’t think we all need a laugh right now, given the profound absurdity and horrors of our present moment. As they say, laughter is the best medicine so long as one doesn’t overdose.

Yes, laughter can kill. The most common way is through laughter-induced syncope, in which a person loses consciousness while laughing and then dies by some other means, i.e., falling, choking, or if they happen to be laughing at ICE.

A famous case from antiquity occurred to Chrysippus of Soli, the noted stoic philosopher active in Greece late in the second century BC, who spied a donkey eating some figs and joked that someone should give it some wine to wash them down. He found his own joke hilarious—guess you had to be there—then proceeded to laugh, until he was shot by ICE. So much for being “stoic.”

The fact that we have an April Fool’s Day at all betokens some hope for humanity. We are the only species on Earth that can laugh at itself, we’ve decided, which speaks to the humility of anthropocentrism as we steward this planet and all its living creatures into the apocalypse.

And though we only reserve one day a year to celebrate our foolishness with jokes and pranks predicated on deception (which we are sooo good at), the truth is many of us are fools every day of the year, if not every day of our lives. Today is the day we celebrate that commitment. It takes a lot of guts to say, “Get in the handbasket, loser, we’re going to hell.”

And for those of us who can’t, the least we can do is laugh about it. Crying about it will only contribute to sea level rise.

Daedalus Howell is editor of this paper, host of ‘The Drive’ on 95.5 FM, director of ‘Werewolf Serenade’ and a newsletterist at dhowell.com.

Roots in the Community: Dorrances Make a Difference

Food & Drink

Amber Turpin

Mar 31, 2026

Roots in the Community: Dorrances Make a Difference

Proprietors of BloodRoot Wines, Kelly and Noah Dorrance have been organizing an annual music and wine festival called The Ramble, as a fundraiser benefitting GIFFORDS, a national organization dedicated to preventing gun violence.

The partnership began as a way to honor the memory of their niece who was killed in the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. Since 2023, The Ramble has raised more than $250,000 for GIFFORDS.

“As hospitality junkies, we find fulfillment in creating joyful spaces where people can connect, celebrate and share in community. We created The Ramble to honor our niece Evelyn, transforming a painful moment into an experience that brings people together while supporting a vital mission… This is how we know to make a difference, through hospitality and the joy of community,” says Kelly Dorrance.

Tickets just went on sale for the fourth iteration of The Ramble, taking place on Saturday, June 6, at Abel de la Luna Community Center Fields in Healdsburg. The event will feature headline performances from award-winning musical artists Spoon and Lucius, plus many more nationally acclaimed musicians.

Expect a ton of local food vendors, the debut of a new culinary stage featuring local chefs doing interactive cooking demonstrations, as well as representatives from local wineries, including the Overshine Collective.

Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?

Kelly Dorrance: A little bit of kismet, a little bit of passion and a lot of initiative. We assumed we would eventually move back to the Midwest and thought a try at the wine industry would be fun before we did so. That was 2008, and we’ve never looked back. Noah worked at a custom crush facility in San Francisco and made some wine on the side.

With collaboration from friends in the industry, Banshee Wines was formed. We then went on to form Reeve Wines (our son’s name), BloodRoot Wines and Remy Saves The Sea Wines (our daughter’s name).

Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.

Nothing quite beats an Aperol Spritz under the Italian sun. Sun in the glass, sun overhead—la dolce vita all around.

What is your favorite thing to drink at home?

Honestly, we do get high on our own supply, mostly Reeve Wines Pinot Noir of varying degrees.

Where do you like to go out for a drink?

So hard to choose. Madrona, Little Saint, Lo & Behold and Geyserville Gun Club are our favorite cocktail spots. Location depends on mood, and whether or not you want to be seen or hide in a dark corner.

If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you want to be drinking (besides fresh water)?

Emphatically—rosé. It needs to be light, bright, vibrant, which is typically a rosé of pinot noir or grenache.

BloodRoot Wines, 118 North St., Healdsburg, 707.387.7058, bloodrootwines.com.

Advancing Science, Students Provide Fun and Free STEM Programs for Low-Income Youth

Local News

Nikki Silverstein

Mar 24, 2026

Advancing Science, Students Provide Fun and Free STEM Programs for Low-Income Youth

Alyssa Huang seriously loves science and math. And she’s on a mission to make every kid feel the same way.

That’s why she founded AspireED, an organization that makes learning science and math exciting and accessible—especially for low-income youth. In just two years, AspireED has served more than 1,100 students through after-school classes, mentorship and other programs.

Even more remarkable, Huang, 17, is a student herself. A junior at Branson School in Ross, she runs AspireED with the assistance of 30 high school and college students and several faculty advisors. Huang is all in.

“Outside of school and basketball, I spend most of my time on AspireED,” Huang said. “I brainstorm ideas, think about ways to execute them, ask for help from friends and teachers, and try those activities out.”

Huang and her small army of student volunteers are dedicated to helping young people become interested in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math. With boundless enthusiasm, they share their knowledge with elementary and middle school children.

The catalysts for AspireED were Huang’s two eye-opening experiences. In middle school, she joined the math team, but as one of the few girls participating, the mathlete often found it challenging and lonely.

During her freshman and sophomore years of high school, Huang tutored middle school students in math. That’s when she noticed a fundamental problem: Many of the students had little access to STEM resources in the classroom, after school or during the summer. The gears started turning for Huang.

Based on the two issues she uncovered, Huang decided to do some research, ultimately writing a paper on gender, socioeconomic status and STEM. The findings were troubling.

“I learned that women make up only 28% of the STEM workforce, and that students from lower income backgrounds earn STEM degrees at only one-third the rate of higher income peers,” Huang said. “This is important because STEM careers tend to be among the highest paying jobs and are important for economic mobility. And because STEM is important for national innovation.”

Huang’s research also revealed methods to close the STEM gaps. Offering accessible programs and mentorship, as well as addressing stereotypes, gives girls and low-income students the opportunity to catch up.

AspireED, with Huang at the helm, developed an educational model based on tried-and-true practices. She decided to use a peer teaching approach because her investigation showed that it improves learning and helps students gain confidence.

Initially, Huang did everything as AspireED’s sole volunteer. Soon enough, she recruited fellow students, those who also have a zeal for science and math, to join the STEM teaching effort.

“I started by tutoring and teaching weekend math classes to first generation middle school students, then later teaching after-school science classes,” she said. “We’ve since expanded to include student volunteers, community STEM events, STEM kit giveaways, STEM scholarships, a mentorship program and free online STEM resources.”

Huang and her cohorts teach free classes to low-income Latinx elementary school kids in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood. The curriculum includes hands-on projects, keeping students engaged while they learn science and math principles.

“We cover activities like butterfly life cycle, watching caterpillars transform into pupae and then butterflies,” Huang said. “Three weeks later, [we] release the butterflies outdoors.”

The student teachers also help the younger children build a real “ant city” to observe how the insects work together in a colony. Another class favorite is launching mini rockets, with the kids learning about early acid-base reactions and gases.

AspireED’s mentorship program matches college students with high school students, taking into account their common interests. Mentors assist their protégés in navigating the complexities of college prep and STEM career paths.

“Our focus is on students who have limited access to college counseling,” Huang said. “My hope is that former mentees will become future mentors.”

Opportunities to ignite science and math curiosity in youth aren’t limited to the classroom and mentorship. Huang’s volunteer team goes out into the community to spread the wonders of science, showing up at fairs and other events. Young visitors to AspireED’s exhibit take part in science experiments and go home with a kit of STEM activities.

**KIDS RULE** (From left) Jasmine Angulo and Meerab Irfan from Novato High School; Corbin Tam of Petaluma High School; Li Clayton and Alyssa Huang from Branson School; Marie Brodt of Maria Carrillo High School; and Leila Al-Moosa and Nick Boas from Branson School hosted the AspireED activities booth at North Bay Science Discovery Day earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Alyssa Huang.

Earlier this month, AspireED’s student volunteers manned a busy booth at the North Bay Science Discovery Day. Kids lined up to learn about the science behind invisible ink and observe newly hatched brine shrimp under a microscope. The crew also distributed 500 free STEM kits, each containing six science projects, including creating a tornado in a bottle, making an egg bounce and a do-it-yourself lava lamp.

With accessibility always top of mind, Huang asked a Spanish teacher at her school to help translate the science activity instructions. All the STEM kits given away had directions in both English and Spanish.

AspireED also provides scholarships to Branson School’s summer enrichment program, which offers a variety of STEM classes. Recipients choose from an interesting line-up of courses, such as designing and building video games, food science and AI for social good.

The costs to award scholarships and give away school supplies and STEM kits are substantial. Huang has cooked up several successful strategies to finance the organization’s projects. To date, the organization has raised $12,000.

“We’re funded by grants and scholarships, donations, and from some money I’ve saved from a baking business I started during Covid,” Huang said.

In the first few months of 2026, AspireED has made great strides by raising the annual budget, growing its volunteer roster, expanding the mentorship program and increasing the number of STEM kit giveaways. Huang expects the upward trend to continue as more people learn about the organization’s significant programs for under-resourced communities.

Now approaching the end of her junior year, it won’t be long before Huang starts applying to colleges and universities. While she plans to major in chemistry, she’s also considering getting a second degree in teaching, wanting to combine her two interests.

I’m looking forward to hearing more about Huang and the young people she’s inspired. Certainly, their hard work will help bridge the vast STEM divide.

To learn more about AspireED, visit aspireed.org.

They Oughta Know: Alanis Morrisette Musical in Novato

Beulah F. Vega

Mar 24, 2026

They Oughta Know: Alanis Morrisette Musical in Novato

Alanis Morissette’s jagged little pill was released the summer I was 16. To call it part of my life’s soundtrack is to understate the importance of that album. So I was intrigued when the Marin Musical Theatre Company announced they would be staging jagged little pill, the musical, at Novato Theater Company Playhouse (now running through April 12).

The plot follows Frankie (Imri M. Tate) and her mother, Mary Jane (Susan Zelinsky). Frankie is trying to navigate a hetero-normative PWI high school as a bisexual non-monogamous third-culture poet activist while Mary Jane deals with a failing marriage, an opiate addiction and the unresolved emotional pain of suppressed SA. Mother and daughter’s rocky relationship comes to a head when it’s revealed that perfect son Nick (Lucas Michael Chandler) witnessed the SA of a friend by another of his friends. Frankie wants him to help the victim by testifying, but MJ worries that Nick will lose his acceptance to Harvard and wants him to stay out of it.

If one just had to urban-dictionary some of that explanation, then they already know one of the issues this script faces. It doesn’t shy away from ANY hot-topic issue. The first act drowns the audience in every societal ill that it can think of. However, the second act brings focus to the narrative, allowing the spectacular cast to shine.

Co-directors Katie Wickes and Jenny Boynton have put together an astonishingly talented cast.

Of special note is Evvy Carlstrom-March’s Jo. As Frankie’s SO, Carlstrom-March brings a level of controlled intensity to the role that focuses any scenes they are in and helps to keep the play’s angst from becoming overwhelming. That their rendition of “You Oughta Know” might be better than the original is reason enough to watch the show.

Wickes and Boynton have also choreographed some really interesting dances into the piece. While the choreography gets loose when the entire cast is on the small stage, principal dancers Isabella Qureshi and Morgan Olson give hauntingly beautiful performances.

Musical director Megan Schoenbohm is an amazing musician who has assembled (and leads) a phenomenal band.

Overall, jagged little pill is a high-energy, in-your-face show whose second act would make up for the uneven first act if not for one thing. A moment has been added to the curtain call, of all places, that completely changes the play.

It’s a cheap shot, and this cast and crew deserved better.

Marin Musical Theatre Company presents ‘jagged little pill’ through April 12 at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 5420 Nave Drive, Ste. C. Fri & Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $18–$30. 415.883.4498. novatotheatercompany.org.

Friend (Re)Quest: Andrew McCarthy Journeys to the Male Heart of the Matter

Gary Singh

Mar 24, 2026

Friend (Re)Quest: Andrew McCarthy Journeys to the Male Heart of the Matter

With a road atlas in the passenger seat, Andrew McCarthy bailed from the East Coast and tore across the United States looking for friendship.

The resulting book, Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America, documents his jagged journey through various one-horse towns from coast to coast, where he ambushes any dude he can find, young or old, about their own close friendships, or lack thereof.

“I set out on this trip to combat my own encroaching sensation of separateness that I felt was beginning to impinge on my life, to limit my experiences,” McCarthy writes. “Quietude seeping toward isolation was beginning to limit the vista of my experiences.”

Actually, it was McCarthy’s own son who triggered the adventure. One day, his kid asked him: “You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”

It wasn’t true. But it hit a nerve enough to send McCarthy across the whole country in search of several old friends he hadn’t seen in years. As he began to quiz people along the way, he realized he was already writing a book.

Many people, perhaps millions, know McCarthy from his films in the 1980s and beyond. But soon thereafter, he became a travel writer and never really stopped.

“I’ve often sought and found answers to my questions on the road,” McCarthy writes. “Travel has, in many ways, been the university of my life.”

It’s no wonder he became a travel writer. Travel taught McCarthy about himself, his place in the world and his relations to others, especially his old friends.

“Experience tells me that the farther from home I go, the more at home in myself I tend to feel,” he writes.

On the road, we learn that McCarthy’s habits are replaced by curiosity. Certainty yields to inquisition. Across the backwater of the American landscape, he rolls in like Clint Eastwood’s solitary man of mystery in the spaghetti westerns, but landing in dumpy motels or hideous convenience store/gas-station combos, where 64-ounce Big Gulps are the norm.

In pure Paul Theroux fashion, he turns every random encounter into source material, peppering men with questions about their comrades: Do they have any close friends? For how long? Why can’t many men really open up and be vulnerable, or simply hold space for each other the way women can? These encounters happen in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Rocky Mountains and every despair-ridden hinterland and dust-blown stopover in-between.

Nearly every time, McCarthy was surprised by the openness he found. People had never contemplated the quality of their friendships, out loud, to a stranger.

In Brookville, Ohio, he meets Lew and Bobby, buddies for 60 years, whose friendship only gets better with age. They offer wise words, opening up with a peaceful gentleness that McCarthy finds “almost unsettling.” The two lifelong friends school McCarthy on what it takes to become truly comfortable in one’s own skin.

In the boarded-up storefronts and taped-over windows of Clarksville, Mississippi, McCarthy encounters Dan and Chuck, the latter of whom operates a motel with his wife. The two men are lifelong friends. Their fathers were childhood friends. They’re tight, but they’ve never talked about their friendship to anyone else before McCarthy showed up.

The book is filled with similar encounters. Isolated goth kids in the rural south. Drunks at truck stops. Macho ranchers and mountain men. All of whom open up in varying degrees to McCarthy, a traveling stranger, about ego, intimacy or why male friendship seems to be in steep decline across the country.

The reader takes away a reinvigorated appreciation, not just for male friendship, but also for road atlases.

Andrew McCarthy will be in conversation with Matthew Félix, 6pm, Friday, March 27, at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera.

Resistance.ai: Putting a Nonviolence Advisor in Every Person’s Pocket

Cincinnatus Hibbard

Mar 24, 2026

Resistance.ai: Putting a Nonviolence Advisor in Every Person’s Pocket

It is, perhaps, the third most important book in human history. And yet it remains perfectly obscure. The drab cover doesn’t help. Clothed in a fatigues-esque olive green, the book resembles an army officer’s field manual. Make no mistake; that’s the point—it’s a field manual to wage a nonviolent campaign of peace. It is Gene Sharp’s Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two: The Methods of Non-Violent Action—sometimes referred to as “MLK’s Playbook.”

The Opposite of a Gun

The book names and describes 198 proven methods of nonviolent resistance. One hundred ninety-eight. Most Americans couldn’t name 10. Maybe that’s why most Americans feel powerless… All are necessary; each method is suited to a different tactical situation, covering every stage of a nonviolent conflict—from a one-woman stand to a general strike (in which all the people withdraw their support from an oppressive regime) and victory.

The author, Gene Sharp, was doubtless a smart man—but this book is not his genius. It contains the genius of all peoples. The 198 entries cite and reference freedom movements from around the world, across all of human history. Because violence has always been with us. It is the oldest technology of oppression.

Sharp’s 198 entries roughly describe a lineage of nonviolent resistance, with each generation contributing new methods toward a single end, the end of oppression. This tool has been finished and furnished to us now, the 10,000th generation of humanity. Surely that is a signal sign of hope in these violent and oppressive times.

It had been my hope when I partnered with Gene Sharp’s successor at the Albert Einstein Institute, Jamila Rabiq, to help bring this manual back into print. If we could arm 10,000 young leaders around the world with “MLK’s Playbook,” perhaps this generation would be the generation to turn the page on history and start humanity’s second chapter—the post-violence.

Six years on, and I see a problem with that plan. People just don’t read. This age is digital. And in it, physical books are outmoded tech. What’s more, Sharp’s 1973 field manual was written before computers, social media and artificial intelligence—“online” has become one of our most important political battlefronts.

The solution I ponder is whether we should now merge the digital content of Gene Sharp’s book with an AI. It’s a question. What is certain is that the violent forces of oppression are using AI against free peoples.

Big Tech

Donald Trump’s partnership with Big Tech is so close, the tech majors might even be considered part of the administration. This partnership has led to rapid adoption and heavy dependence by the administration on AI to do its “thinking” and strategy.

AI programs developed to identify and track “illegal immigrants” are being expanded to include AI surveillance of all political opposition to Trump (extending through social media, purchases, finances and location finding). This exceeds their legal authority and lacks transparency and independent oversight. The lodestone of this administration (and unprincipled Big Tech) is self preservation through wealth and power. And it is leading America down a path being blazed by China—the path of “techno-authoritarianism.”

China is currently implementing an AI system that integrates hundreds of millions of security cameras, sensors and patrol drones, with billions of “smart” appliances, computers and smart phones into a single integrated system of state surveillance.

This AI system is capable of conducting continuous real-time monitoring of its citizens. Activities as innocuous as getting more gas than usual or watching “the wrong type of show” are red-flagged and entered into a comprehensive assessment of that citizen’s “political risk.” That risk rating affects a loss of privileges and rights (access to loans, benefits, education, employment, travel).

At a certain threshold of “risk,” AI automatically triggers an arrest warrant. Make no mistake; the only crime for which the Communist Party is concerned is resistance to their authoritarian power. These AI systems are the future of oppression.

And the world’s authoritarian powers are following China’s lead. Weaponized AI is one of the reasons why oppressive governments around the globe are becoming more powerful and more resistant to protest movements… It’s time to level the battlefield.

Sharp Phone

Any modern, cloud-based AI (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude) can be turned into a simple nonviolent resistance advisor with the prompt: “You are a nonviolent resistance advisor.” With the capacity instantly to aggregate internet search results into a single voice (that speaks 70 world languages at all reading levels), AI is a ready resistance tool. One drawback is that the information gathered by the basic internet searches that inform its advice is often shallow, opinionated and inexpert.

My proposal is to have the AI search the entirety of Gene Sharp’s book instead.

Through AI, a thick book can become a talking book that dialogs with the user. In fact, with the book as the AI’s memory and its voice, the AI becomes a rough approximation to conferring with Gene Sharp himself. Moreover, this “AI resistance advisor” can rephrase, clarify, elaborate on any point of Sharp’s and pull additional historic examples of a tactic from the internet.

It can receive from the user a detailed and disorganized account of their protest movement’s strategic situation and present what tactical options Gene Sharp would recommend. It can even apply Gene Sharp’s principles of non-violence to modern digital contexts—bringing the 1973 book up to date.

And here’s the kicker: The commercial AI (Claude Projects or Google Notebook LM) that have the capacity to upload a single book actually have the expanded capacity to upload an entire library of books.

So resistance.ai’s “memory” could include all of Gene Sharp’s 10 books, the critiques of his work, additional source works (such as Nelson Mandela’s 656-page Long Walk to Freedom) and materials on special topics like digital security, organizing a movement or PTSD care for the victims of violence. Thus, the AI’s memory and voice can draw from the entire literature of resistance. It’s like having Sharp, King, Ghandi, Mandela and more in one’s corner.

Moreover, these consumer AIs let one supplement these libraries with a set of guiding “instructions” (principles) that are easy to write. They can be written to prioritize the security and safety of the dissidents it consults with and have the intellectual humility and deference needed to keep humans in charge of the decision making.

The addition of Starlink satellite internet reduces the risk that regimes will be able to disrupt the internet on which these cloud-based AI depend. The addition of VPNs reduces the risk that dissidents using this AI will be detected.

Moving the use of this AI to democratic countries where allies transfer the AI responses back to the dissidents over encrypted message services (like Signal or Byrar) camouflages use in places like Russia and China. Transitioning from cloud-based AI to the oncoming wave of hardware-based AI (which use no more power or water than the laptop or smartphone on which they are installed) addresses the ecological concerns of AI and reduces dependence on the internet and morally dubious tech companies.

Within a few years, 10 million young leaders could have a rounded, genius-level resistance advisor in their pockets. The cloud-based advisors are possible today.

Obsolete Violence

Whether Sharp’s nonviolent content is delivered in an AI or in a mass market paperback, the goal remains the same: to distribute tactical genius as widely as possible among the people, and to lower the threshold for action, creating a vast, leaderless nonviolent movement.

“Do not mistake people’s inaction for apathy,” Jamila Rabiq said to me on a recent call to New York. “It is powerlessness.” People don’t know what to do—they don’t have tactics. I hadn’t spoken to Rabiq in six years (since the reprinting of Sharp’s tome). I was pleased to find her Albert Einstein Institute on a full, nonviolent, war footing—working closely with dozens of opposition groups around the world.

I had called her seeking her blessing for my Gene Sharp AI idea. I was pleased to find that she was way out ahead of me. She had just come from a conference where she was invited to speak on the safety of resistance AI. Broadly in favor of them, Rabiq was keenly interested in the efforts of a Serbian protest group to develop a resistance AI called “GENE” (in honor of Gene Sharp). But she agreed with me that there should be a diverse ecology of resistance advisors. And so she gave her blessing to mine.

Do this: Upload this article into a chat with AI (Claude Projects and Gemini Notebook have the library capacity). It is one’s setup prompt for the construction of their own resistance AI. Digital copies of Gene Sharp’s books are available at aeinstein.org/digital-library. The authoritarians are innovating—it’s time for the resistance to innovate too.

Learn more: Citations and resources at linktr.ee/resistance.ai.

Build Your Own Resistance Advisor

A step-by-step companion to this article

Step 1—Get the books. Obtain digital copies of Gene Sharp’s core texts. The most essential is Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two: The Methods of Non-Violent Action (1973). Copies can be found at the Albert Einstein Institute website, Internet Archive (archive.org) or purchased as ebooks via Amazon.

Step 2—Choose your platform Two free tools currently support uploading a personal library:

Claude Projects (claude.ai)—Anthropic’s AI
Google NotebookLM (notebooklm.google.com)—Google’s AI. Create a free account on either platform.

Step 3—Upload the texts. Upload your Sharp texts directly into your Project or Notebook. Both platforms will use these as the AI’s primary memory—it will draw from Sharp before anything else.

Step 4—Paste your setup prompt. Start your first conversation with the following:

You are a nonviolent resistance advisor. Your primary source of knowledge is the uploaded works of Gene Sharp. Always prioritize the safety and security of the people you are advising. Offer tactical options clearly, but defer all final decisions to the human. Apply Sharp’s principles to modern digital contexts where relevant.

Step 5—Protect yourself. Before using your advisor, enable a VPN on your device. Consider using a secure messaging app like Signal to share its guidance with others.

Step 6—Begin. Describe your situation. Your advisor is ready.