Priya Parker with Aaron Hurst

Name: Priya Parker with Aaron Hurst
Start: 2026-09-18T19:30:00-07:00
End: 2026-09-18T19:30:00-07:00
Location: The Great Hall

The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict

This event has already occurred

Date:: Friday, September 18
Time:: 7:30 pm PDT
Cost:: $10 – $35 + Optional Book Add-on

Venue

: The Great Hall
: 1119 Eighth Avenue (enter on Eighth Avenue)
Seattle, 98101 United States + Google Map

Event Format: In-Person

EVENT NOTES
Doors for this event will open at 6:30 PM. Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.

Headshots of Priya Parker and Aaron Hurst

Town Hall Presents

Across our modern landscapes, more and more people are voicing a want for community. Dynamic friend groups. High-performing colleagues and workplaces. Successful teams. And success means we connect meaningfully, reach our goals, and don’t fight…right? Conflict facilitator and advisor Priya Parker thinks there’s more to it than that.

In her newest book, The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict, Parker argues that many of us don’t understand the crucial element we need to forge long-lasting communities — healthy conflict. She rejects the idea that conflict is abnormal or that good groups don’t fight. All groups change and evolve, and hard conversations and disagreement are part of that growth.

In The Art of Fighting, Parker draws from her years as a facilitator moderating group dialogue and navigating race relations, as well as studying public policy, business, and organizational design. Her combination of detailed research and real-world examples aim to help people identify disputes, determine how to address them, and what to do if they are insurmountable.

Online or in person, from the boardroom to the locker room to the dinner table, The Art of Fighting urges that conflict is a normal part of life and we can choose how we tackle it. As our lives seem to get more and more complicated, building healthy skills around conflict can be a powerful resource. Whether readers approach this book as conflict-avoidant, conflict-prone, or conflict-curious, Parker strives to show that we can’t form and grow effective relationships without a fight.

Priya Parker is a facilitator, strategic advisor, and acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Her new book, The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict, is a New York Times bestseller and is out now. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, she is sought after by Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, universities, civic organizations, and various groups around the world to resolve issues and come together more intentionally. She studied organizational design at MIT, public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. She is the host of the popular Substack GROUP LIFE where she teaches regularly.

Aaron Hurst is the founder of the US Chamber of Connection and a social entrepreneur focused on building the infrastructure for social connection. He previously founded Taproot Foundation, pioneering the field of pro bono service, and was in the first cohort funded by Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. He later founded Imperative, a venture-backed company focused on purpose at work, and is the author of The Purpose Economy. His work has been featured in major outlets including The New York Times and Harvard Business Review.

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