Third Annual Poverty Initiative Fellows Commissioning
Nine Poverty Initiative Fellows were honored on Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at the Third Annual Fellows Commissioning. The Poverty Initiative celebrates their contributions with a commissioning service not only because they have demonstrated tremendous capacity to do this work, but because they have each found ways to make commitments to building a movement to end poverty going forward. In accepting this call they are taking up a religious vocation, yet this is not always recognized with ordination by religious communities, churches, and denominations. Fellows include: Jenn Wilder (graduate), Kathy Maskell (graduate), Jill Beckman, Shay O'Reilly, Dan Jones, Aaron Stauffer, Lenora Knowles, Jason Riffe and Rose Schwab. Review the Fellows Commissioning Program
Follow the Pedagogy of the Poor book tour on Tumblr
Follow the Pedagogy of the Poor book tour on Tumblr.
More info about the book. Or visit the book's Amazon page.
From March 18 - 24, Poverty Initiative will be hosted by Poverty Scholar partners at Vermont Workers Center for a book tour throughout the state of Vermont with stops in churches, communities and colleges in Burlington, Barre, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, and more!
In April, the tour will head to Albany, NY with visits to the University of Albany's School of Social Welfare, the College of Saint Rose, and with local labor organizers. By mid-April the tour travels to Minnesota to visit with United Theological Seminary's Center for Public Ministry, as well as other area churches and community organizations.
March 18: Book event at Guilford Community Church in Guilford, VT, from 7 pm - 9 pm
March 19: Book event at Brattleboro Baptist Church in Brattleboro, VT, from 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Book event at Stowe Unitarian Universalist Church in Stowe, VT, at 6 pm
March 21: Book event at United Church of Christ Church in St. Johnsbury, VT, from 6:30 pm - 8 pm
March 22: Book event at Burlington Unitarian Universalist Church in Burlington, VT from 6:30 - 8 pm
March 23: Book event at Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre, VT
March 24: Willie Baptist preaches at Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre, VT from 10 am - 11 am
April 3: Poverty Initiative visits the School of Social Welfare at the University of Albany, 9 am - 11 am
Willie Baptists speaks at luncheon in the Science Library's Standish Room for the University of Albany's Chapter of United University Professions, 11:30 am - 12:30 am
Poverty Initiative visits the College of Saint Rose, 1 pm
April 9 - 12: Poverty Initiative visits the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth Community Action, NAACP- Duluth, and Holy Cow! Publishers in Duluth, Minnesota. View postcard.
April 13: Poverty Initiative visits Circles of Support in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. View flyer.
April 14 - 16: Poverty Initiative visits Lutheran Seminary, Plymouth Congregational Church, and Mercy Vineyard Church in the Twin Cities
April 15: Poverty Initiative, hosted by United Theological Seminary's Center for Public Ministry in the Twin Cities, offers an exciting evening with A Minnesota Without Poverty as a part of the GOD IN PUBLIC series entitled "Building the Movement to End Poverty," 7:30 pm - 9 pm.
Press: Anti-Poverty Leaders Ignite Movement (WDIO), The Persistence of Urban Poverty (The Saint Rose Chronicle)
For more information on these upcoming tours or if you are interested in having the Pedagogy of the Poor Book Tour in your area, email kathy.maskell@gmail.com
PI Immersion Course: Uniting the Dispossessed: The Struggle to Build a Social Movement to End Poverty in the US – A Case Study of Pennsylvania
“Uniting the Dispossessed: The Struggle to Build a Social Movement to End
Poverty in the US – A Case Study of Pennsylvania”
Dates: January 18th – January 26th
Locations: New York and Pennsylvania
Poverty Initiative immersion courses are part of the Poverty Initiative’s broader mission to re-ignite Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign was an attempt by King in the last years of his life to unite the poor and dispossessed across racial, geographic, religious, and other lines of division. King understood that the strategy of keeping the poor separated and oftentimes pitted against each other allowed for the perpetuation of systems and structures of poverty. W.E.B. DuBois described this process as “plantation politics,” and it is one of the most significant challenges to building a social movement to ending poverty in the United States today.
This year’s immersion will focus on the state of Pennsylvania where the dynamics of plantation politics have a long and rich history especially as they apply to the Abolitionist movement, Reconstruction, the industrial labor movement, and the Poverty Initiative’s own organizational history with the National Union of the Homeless. We will explore this history and use it to ground and consider strategies for today’s struggle to unite the poor and dispossessed in a movement to end poverty. Students from Union will travel and learn with members of the Poverty Scholars network as we engage leaders, churches, organizations, and communities across Pennsylvania that are struggling across a range of issues (youth organizing and education, gas drilling, housing, healthcare, workers rights, etc.) to try and break their isolation in the daily and deadly battle against poverty. Participants will learn through presentation, discussion, Biblical study, theological reflection, and exposure to a variety of historical spaces. Organizations include Put People First - PA, Media Mobilizing Project, OneLove Movement, Northeast PA Organizing Center and more.
News from the immersion:
- Poverty Initiative Tour
News Channel 34
January 24, 2013 - Food Bank of the Southern Tier Announces Binghamton-area Tour for Students from the Union Theological Seminary’s Poverty Initiative
News Channel 34
January 23, 2013 - Students See Local Food Assistance Programs
Channel 12 WBNG
January 22, 2013 - Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Wilkes-Barre
Channel 16 WNEP
January 21, 2013
Liz Theoharis Ordained as Coordinator of the Poverty Initiative
Liz Theoharis was ordained by the New York City Presbytery as Coordinator of the Poverty Initiative on Sunday, December 14th, 2012 at Broadway Presbyterian Church. Liz sees her ministry as building what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Freedom Church of the Poor. Poverty Initiative leaders were featured throughout the service including Derrick McQueen preaching, Willie Baptist givingthe charge, Thia Reggio serving communion, Charon Hribar and Derrick McQueen singing, Shailly Barnes and Colleen Wessel-McCoy presenting symbols of ministry, and Adam Barnes, Kathy Maskell, Crystal Hall, and John Wessel-McCoy ushering. We celebrate this important recognition of Liz's ministry and the work of the Poverty Initiative and give thanks for everyone who was involved.
- Sermon by Derrick McQueen [PDF]
- Charge by Willie Baptist [PDF]
- Benediction by Rev. Liz Theoharis [PDF]
- Program [PDF]
Reels for Rights: U.S. Human Rights Media Arts Forum
You are cordially invited to attend the Reels for Rights: US Human Rights Media Arts Screening on Friday, November 30th at 6pm in New York City. Reels for Rights aspires to raise consciousness about human rights in the United States. It seeks to shed light on the domestic human rights crisis, amplify and advance the work of social movement builders, foster partnerships across sectors and communities and catalyze vibrant media arts dedicated to these goals. This Screening is the first step along the way to an inaugural Reels for Rights U.S. Human Rights Media Arts Festival and we hope you'll join us!
Overview of the Screening:
The Reels for Rights Screening is on Friday, November 30th at 6pm and will be followed by an after-party of dinner, music and dancing! This public event, hosted in conjunction with the U.S. Human Rights Fund, will showcase galvanizing and thought-provoking films and discussion as a taste of the media and collaborations that will be nurtured by the Reels for Rights Festival.
This program includes excerpts from: The Sky is Pink by Josh Fox, The Strength of the Storm by Rob Koier and the Vermont Workers Center, Dear Mandela by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza and Organizing to Protect our Fire Stations produced by Media Mobilizing Project.
Information:
This event is free but space is limited, so please register by Tuesday, November 13th! RSVP by following this link, clicking the 'Register Now' button, and we'll send you updates in the coming weeks. If you can think of other people or organizations whom you think would be interested in this event, please forward them this email.
Where: James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway, New York City.
Sponsoring Organizations
- Amnesty International USA
- Breakthrough
- Evening Star Productions, Coal Country
- Human Rights Project, Urban Justice Center
- International WOW Company
- National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
- Media Mobilizing Project
- Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary
- U.S. Human Rights Fund
If you have any questions, please email reels4rights@nesri.org or contact Ben Whelan at The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative on (212) 253.1710, ext. 313.
Lifting Up Fallen Fighters: A Memorial Service & Celebration of Ron Casanova and Larry Gibson
The Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary sponsored:
Lifting Up Fallen Fighters:
A Memorial Service & Celebration of
Ron Casanova and Larry Gibson
Friday January 18th, 2013
James Chapel - Union Theological Seminary
New York City
In the last year we have lost two of our dear Poverty Scholars and elder movement leaders -- Ronald Casanova and Larry Gibson.
Ronald Casanova, Poverty Initiative co-founder, Vice President of the National Union of the Homeless and president of Artists for a Better America, known as "Cas", passed on November 3rd, 2011. Learn more about Cas.
Larry Gibson, protector of his West Virginia Kayford Mountain home from the destructive path of strip mining, passed away on September 9th, 2012. Larry greatly impacted our Initiative having welcomed past immersion and Poverty Scholars Leadership School participants to his mountaintop. To read more about Larry Gibson please visit the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation.
This was an evening in dedicated to the memory, life, leadership and legacy of these great men. Through image, song and word we reflected on the lives and work of these Poverty Scholars and seeked guidance together in the carrying forward of their legacy.
Poverty Scholars Intensive Study & Film Tour with Youth Leaders from South Africa's Shackdweller Movement
This month, the Poverty Initiative, together with Sleeping Giant Films, National Economic Social Rights Initiative and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), will host two youth leaders from the Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shackdwellers) movement of South Africa for a month-long exchange and film tour. AbM leaders, Zodwa Nsibande and Maikelo Ndabankulu, are featured in the award-winning film Dear Mandela by filmmakers and Poverty Scholars Dara Kell and Chris Nizza. These inspiring leaders will share their experience and analysis of the largest social movement of the poor in post apartheid South Africa.
From September 21-23, our Poverty Scholars Program will host an intensive study together with Maikelo, Zodwa and a cohort of Poverty Scholars at Union Theological Seminary that will focus on the global implications of the Shackdwellers movement. The study will explore the movement's foundations and philosophy, the transition from racial to economic apartheid in South Africa, Abahlali’s call for a ‘University of the Poor’ and the narrative and making of film Dear Mandela.
Beyond the week-long film run in Brooklyn, NYC Sept 21-27, the film tour will travel to Boston and Chicago, as well as to visit with Poverty Scholars partners in Baltimore (United Workers), Philadelphia (Media Mobilizing Project), Detroit (Michigan Welfare Rights Organization). The tour will end with a visit to Haiti with CCR to meet earthquake survivors living in displacement camps and to screen the new Kreyol version of Dear Mandela. View the latest tour dates.
PIs Crystal Hall & Willie Baptist on Vermont Radio Station
Poverty Initiative Scholar-in-Residence, Willie Baptist, and Fellow, Crystal Hall, were interviewed on the Vermont Workers' Center's "Live at 5:25" television show on Friday, June 22nd. Talking with Vermont Workers' Center member Traven Leyshon, the title of the show was "Educating as We Organize." Willie and Crystal reflected on the conditions of the current economic crisis, and discussed the need to develop consciousness in developing and uniting leaders committed to the unity of the poor and dispossessed. They also drew lessons from the Poverty Initiative's own organizational history about the importance of placing political education and leadership development at the center of building the movement to end poverty, led by the poor. Watch now.
Fallen Fighter - Ron Casanova
 Photo by Harvey Finkle |
The Poverty Initiative mourns the passing of Ron Casanova, co-founder of the Poverty Initiative, vice president of the National Union of the Homeless, and president of Artists for a Better America. He is the author of Each One, Teach One: Memoirs of a Street Activist (available at Amazon.com) and is featured in the documentary Takeover (available at skylightpictures.com). Known by many as Cas, Ron was a true Poverty Scholar by teaching as he fought and learning as he led. Homeless since childhood, Cas was a leader in many important events in our nation’s history, including the Tompkins Square Rebellion, the Housing Now! March on Washington, and nationally-coordinated housing takeovers in Kansas City, Philadelphia and New York. He was the heart and soul of the many organizations in which he was a part—including the Tompkins Square Tent City, the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless, the Up and Out of Poverty Now! Coalition, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, the University of the Poor, the New Abolitionist News, Broadway Community Incorporated, Housing Works, and many more. Cas was an artist, a mentor, a movement leader, and a fighter. He was a model of how those most impacted by this world’s social problems are leading the way to poverty’s end. More details on ways to honor Cas will be available here shortly. A radio tribute to Ron Casanova by Joan Baptist of WRFG Radio (originally aired May 9, 2012) is available here.
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The Poverty Initiative's 2nd Annual Fellows Commissioning & Community Celebration
The Poverty Initiative's 2nd Annual Fellows & Roman Catholic Women's Commissioning & Community Celebration
Friend and family welcome. Reception to follow.
Wednesday, May 16, 6:30-8:30 pm, Social Hall
A New and Unsettling Force: Reigniting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign - a Poverty Initiative original publication is 