#WagingMoreLove

Written By Pink Flowers

I don’t think I’m waging enough love, y’all — for realz!

I get anxious and blame myself for that shit. There’s things I could do to change the world but don’t. I could use a lot less plastic. Half the shit I buy comes wrapped in plastic. I could waste fewer resources. I definitely let the water run way too frigging much. They say the waste of individuals is just a small percentage of the problem. Meh! I think it’s a big part of the problem. It’s action against the whole—it’s suicidal behavior.

I’m not trying to beat myself up, or get pity or impress with honestly. I am just being honest about the work I know I need to do. I am in no position to fight anyone about anything. I’m not in any position to make demands from others when I got so much shit of my own to fix to claim the right to wage love on the world.

I could stand up for love more. I shrink when people say “love is not enough.” I second guess myself when people bad mouth personal transformation. I’m the one who knows my shit ain’t correct. I need to start asking, “Who do you know that’s waging love? How you get to say whether the shit works or not? How many people you know committed to personal transformation?”

It ain’t that love ain’t enough, it’s that people assume love ain’t an answer ‘cause they assume they way got to be the “right way.” Otherwise, why would people keep defaulting to hate and violence, right? How many people are really ready to let go of their rage and fear and anxiety so they can really start to understand the “other” (I think we all other a little—a lot!).

Waging love is being the “crazy” person scooping bulk items into a jar brought from home. Waging love is walking, when it’s so much easier to drive. Waging love is refusing to “other” anyone or anything, regardless of how much I “hate” the things they do. There are no “theys” and “thems” in waging love. There is no “me” in waging love. There is only “all of us” which includes everything.

If anything, I hope I have inspired someone to take a similar inventory and, before hitting the street, get yourself correct. Get mindful and stop solely looking at other people to make a change. Perhaps we can make this movement about all of us learning to wage love.

Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers is a Black trans artist, peacemaker, educator, and pleasure activist whose work lives at the intersection of embodiment, governance, and cultural transformation. Trained in Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, and Navajo-informed Peacemaking practices, Pink designs spaces where conflict can be addressed, power can be examined, and joy can be reclaimed.

Her artistic and pedagogical practice draws from African trickster cosmology, Brazilian Joker traditions, shamanic ritual, and cooperative economics. She is the founder of the award-winning Falconworks Theater Company (2005–2021), which used popular theater to build civic capacity and participatory leadership in historically marginalized communities.

Pink served for over five years as a trained Peacemaker in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, facilitating restorative processes within the New York City court system. From 2015–2018, she worked in cooperative business development with the Center for Family Life, supporting worker-owned enterprises in immigrant communities.

She currently serves as Director of Education and Training for the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor, where she leads leadership development and conflict engagement initiatives. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the Stretch Festival in Berlin and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference.

Across ritual, performance, mediation, and institutional design, Pink’s work asks a central question:

What becomes possible when we refuse shame and choose conscious power instead?

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