Everyday Choices

Loving Corrections by adrienne maree brown, Janine de Novais (Afterward)
AK Press, August 27, 2024

In Loving Corrections, adrienne maree brown offers a powerful meditation on justice, accountability, and liberation rooted in the intimate, everyday choices we make in how we relate to others, our bodies, and the planet. As this 12th book in the Emergent Strategies Series asks educators to perceive movement beyond punitive models of justice, brown advocates for “loving corrections”—acts of accountability offered with care, humility, and the intention to sustain connection rather than sever it. Drawing on decades of experience in social justice movements and facilitation, brown critiques hierarchical leadership and calls instead for relational, trust-based strategies. She emphasizes that systems change must mirror the change we seek in ourselves: if we want liberated futures, we must practice interdependence, solidarity, and transformation in our relationships. “We don’t want an apology without the shifts in behavior,” brown writes, calling for behavioral change over performative gestures. The author challenges the tendency in activist spaces to sensationalize conflict, reduce people to their worst moments, and confuse moral certainty with actual justice work. Instead, brown urges readers to embrace complexity and resist disposability politics. Through examples ranging from interpersonal disagreements to global conflicts, the book highlights how humility and curiosity must guide our stance toward accountability. Whether inspiration comes from public forms of advocacy, or tender and loving conversations with our loved ones, this wide-reaching text asks us not to abandon one another in moments of failure, but to move through them with courage, care, and the belief that transformation is always possible and for everyone.