Vision behind the book 

Jonathan Lykes is a Black queer artist, activist, and academic dedicated to merging cultural organizing and systemic policy change. Founder and Executive Director of Liberation House, Jonathan works to teach liberation praxis by pushing the revolutionary edge of transformative movement work. A founding member of BYP100, he curates The Black Joy Experience album, blending Black radical traditions and healing.

Rev. Chad Collins is pastor of Valley View Presbyterian Church (2005 – present) in the Garfield neighborhood of inner-city Pittsburgh. He graduated in 1998 from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor’s Degree in Africana Studies (Black Studies) and he earned his M.Div. in 2005 from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Much of his ministry has focused on community and church engagement with issues of institutionalized racism, poverty, and violence, including police brutality and public education in Pittsburgh.

Moses Hernandez McGavin is an organizer with the Nonviolent Medicaid Army and the Freedom Church of the Poor. He is a Ministry Coordinator with the Church of the Common Ground in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a playwright, cultural worker, and teacher.

Rebecca Schuchat is a cartoonist and organizer with the Vermont Workers Center, Nonviolent Medicaid Army, Poor People’s Campaign and Freedom Shul of the Poor. Raised Jewish in the Bay Area, her commitment to Tikkun Olam (healing the world) inspires her to create political and socially-engaged art that investigates existing power structures and dreams of a world where power is in the hands of the people.

Ashley Hufnagel is an organizer, artist, and scholar active in the movement to end poverty since 2006. Originally from New Orleans, she co-founded Oak Hill Center for Education and Culture in Baltimore and is now Executive Director of United Workers. She earned her PhD in American Studies in 2021.

Shailly Barnes is the Director of Research and Policy for the Kairos Center and Policy Director for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She has a background in law, economics and human rights and has spent nearly 20 years working with and for poor and dispossessed communities.

William Burnett joined Picture the Homeless (PTH) as a member in 2004 and was instrumental in leading the Housing and Potters Field Campaigns. He was also a Board Member of PTH.

Ana G. Lara Lopez is the Coordinator of Freedom Church of the Poor Care & Engagement for the Kairos Center. Born in Antigua, Guatemala, Ana has lived in various places that shaped her worldview. She holds a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and an MDiv in Spiritual Care & Collective Liberation.

Kenia Torres-Alcocer is the co-director and organizer with Union de Vecinos and a leader in the Los Angeles Tenants Union. Since 2003, she has organized neighborhood committees in Boyle Heights and Maywood. An undocumented mother of three, she serves on the steering committee of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Anu Yadav is a critically acclaimed actress, playwright, facilitator and cultural organizer focused on poor people’s organizing, economic justice, and care. She wrote and performed solo plays ‘CAPERS and MEENA’S DREAM, and is developing WE THE POOR, a musical.

Julia Willis is a leader in the Nonviolent Medicaid Army of the Poor based in Wyoming.

The Rev. Holly Haile Thompson, DD, a Shinnecock Nation member, is the first Native American woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Holly has served among several congregations; on national committees concerned with Native American justice, the Doctrine of Discovery, and racial equity with the Presbyterian Church; and with the United Methodist Church in its ongoing Act of Repentance in relation to Indigenous people, justice, and the church.

Vanessa Cardinale is the Associate Director of the Center for Transformational Leadership, with 20 years of experience in community organizing and church leadership in the U.S and Latin America. She has served as Associate Pastor in Brooklyn and Lead Pastor in Massachusetts, focusing on cross-cultural bridge building, partnerships, immersion experiences, and advocacy across diverse communities.

Leonardo Vilchis, trained in liberation theology and a seasoned organizer in Boyle Heights, co-founded Union de Vecinos in 1996 to prevent the demolition of the Pico Aliso public housing projects, securing the right of return for 250 families. He also co-founded the L.A. Tenants Union in 2015 and continues to lead efforts against gentrification and displacement.

Erica Williams is a Faith Leader, Organizer, International Human Rights Activist, and Community Leader, contributing to such campaigns and organizations as Repairers of the Breach, The Poor People’s Campaign, National Council of Negro Women, and NAACP. She is the Founder of Set It Off Outreach Ministry.

Stephen and Jamie are childhood friends and Emcees with the Colorado-based band Flobots. They create and perform music as a resource for social movements. In 2014 they co-founded the NOENEMIES initiative, convening musicians, organizers, and community members to develop musical tactics for social movements. They are also co-founders of Youth On Record, a Denver organization empowering at-risk youth through music programs and a state-of-the-art Youth Media Studio. In addition to Flobots, they continue to pursue work that bridges the music, grassroots movements, and education sectors. Jamie is Director of Community Engagement at Project Worthmore, a non-profit organization serving refugees and immigrants. Stephen is Executive Director at Foundation Music School.

Rev. Chris Wylie, a United Methodist ordained elder, disability activist, and justice seeker who is active in many spaces, including with the Kairos Center and the Poor People’s Campaign in New York state.

Savina Martin, a lifelong organizer and an Army veteran from Massachusetts, has organized around issues impacting homeless families, women, and veterans in Boston and San Diego. Dr. Martin is active in the University of the Poor’s Homeless Union History Project, the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign, and serves as a Minister at the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Tammy Rosing is a Tri-Chair of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival and a Coordinator with Put People First! PA & the National Union of the Homeless.

Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen is the pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church and associate director of the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice at Columbia University.

Andrew Wilkes is the cofounding, colead pastor of Double Love Experience (DLE), a Brooklyn congregation dedicated to the liberating ministry of Jesus Christ. DLE advances God’s love and justice through worship, education, organizing, and radical discipleship.

Azmera Hammouri-Davis is a writer, artist, and theologian from Kea’au, Hawaii, with family roots in Palestine. She is a founding organizer with Black Christians for Palestine, and currently based in Los Angeles (Tongva).

Matt Rosing is a coordinator with Put People First! PA, a minister with the Freedom Church of the Poor, a board member of the National Union of the Homeless, and a faith leader with the Poor People’s Campaign. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Becca Forsyth of Elmira, New York, is a leader with the Poor People’s Campaign and the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Jessica Anderson deeply values learning as a site of liberation. She views herself as a student of her elders, ancestors, community, and the Divine. She is a graduate of the University of Florida (B.A.), Georgia State University (MPA), and Howard University (M.Div). At work, she trains an emerging generation of water protectors, activists, and freedom fighters. After work, she takes joy in accompanying young people on their spiritual journeys through youth ministry, as well as offering facilitation and spiritual support to movement kin and causes.

Te Martin is a community song leader, originally from Ramaytush Ohlone land in San Francisco.

Harrison Farina, organizer with Put People First! PA, currently co-coordinates their statewide Base Building Team. He is also a leader in the Nonviolent Medicaid Army and helped found the PA Homeless Union. He is a Medicaid recipient and has committed his life to uniting the poor and dispossessed.

Adam Thiesen comes from a family of unionized workers and grew from those roots to be a worker, musician, activist, and organizer. He has organized around issues including food insecurity, housing and workers’ rights. He is a leader in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, currently living in Illinois.

Claire Chadwick is a licensed American Baptist pastor and pastoral counselor with Creating Joy Therapy, LLC. She has been involved with the Kairos Center for over 15 years. Claire is now involved with the Kansas Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Katrina Ross Zezza has been coordinating creative content and digital products for over 10 years, and holds an M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary, with an interdisciplinary focus in Psychology & Religion, and Theology in the Arts.

Joshua H. Blaine is a community songleader, Jewish ritualist and storyteller, and cultural organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace and other movements for justice. He is currently pursuing the path of the Shomeret Shalom, or Practitioner of the Torah of Nonviolence, under the tutelage of Rav Lynn Gottlieb.

Adam Barnes is the Director of Religions, Faith, and Organizing. Adam helps to lead the Freedom Church of the Poor and supports the ongoing political and theological education and organizing of faith and community leaders across the nation. He holds a PhD in Comparative Theology from Union Theological Seminary.

Ciara Taylor is a multimedia artist and Director of Culture, Faith and Organizing at the Kairos Center, focusing on political education and cultural organizing. Co-founder of the Dream Defenders in 2012, she helped launch the People’s Forum in NYC in 2017 and co-created Songs in the Key of Resistance (SKOR) in 2018 to amplify movement music.

Amy Gopp is the Senior Pastor at Kent United Church of Christ in Kent, Ohio, and an accomplished author and editor. She co-edited Split Ticket: Independent Faith in a Time of Partisan Politics and the forthcoming Help and Hope: Disaster Preparedness and Response Tools for Congregations. Amy serves on the board of IMA World Health and is a founding member of the We Will Speak Out U.S. campaign to end sexual and gender-based violence.

Katie Vandersall Thiesen has a Master’s of Science in Social Administration and a Master of Divinity, concentrating in Interreligious Engagement. She is a daughter, sister, wife, worker and organizer. Katie is a leader in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, currently living in IL.

Tony Eskridge is a graduate of Rhodes College with a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and a minor in political science.

Sister Ramona Daily Navarro is a member of the Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Northern Virginia and is an active leader with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and Freedom Church of the Poor.

Karenna Gore is Director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Previously, she worked in the legal center of Sanctuary for Families and as Director of Community Affairs for the Association to Benefit Children (ABC). She has also worked as a writer and is the author of Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Law School and Union Theological Seminary. She lives in New York City with her three children and serves on the boards of the Association to Benefit Children (ABC) and Riverkeeper.

Wesley Morris, the senior pastor of Faith Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, has worked with the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, home of the nation’s first “Community Truth and Reconciliation Process,” for over a decade.

Trini Rodriguez is co-founder and former executive director of Tia Chucha’s, a cultural center/bookstore that transforms communities through ancestral knowledge, literacy, and the arts. Rodriguez is a former teacher, interpreter, and editor who now works for personal and collective healing in harmony with systemic social change.

Carolyn Foster was born, raised, and educated in Birmingham, AL. She is a deacon at Saint Mark’s Episcopal church and co-chair of the Commission on Truth, Justice and Racial Reconciliation for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. She has served as executive director of the Alabama Faith Council and is currently Faith in Community coordinator of Greater Birmingham Ministries.

Jacob Butterly is a banjo playing revolutionary of peace, a coordinator with Put People First! PA, and a theomusicologist with the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign.

Christine Lewis is a multi-disciplined performing artist: an actress, poet, musician, organizer, activist, and member of the Domestic Workers United (DWU). From advocating in Albany for a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to hosting poetry Pop-ups in the Park, Christine amplifies the need for fair labor standards and a decent living wage, while advocating for power and respect for women who live and work in the shadows.

Jamel Coy Hudson, a lecturer, professor, and rhetorician, is a former tri-chair of the New York state Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and a powerful theomusicologist in the movement.

Kelly Smith is a leader in the New York State Poor People’s Campaign and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army.

Lu Aya is a Co-founder of the Peace Poets, a Hip Hop and Spoken Word crew from The Bronx that has made an indelible mark on the social movements of our times by composing and leading songs sung around the world for justice and liberation. He is a Fordham University graduate with a B.A. in Public Health and Healing, and designs programs integrating art, human rights, and public health, facilitating community workshops in over 30 countries.

Dan Jones is an educator, organizer, and librarian based in Miami, Florida, and a member of the University of the Poor and the Freedom Shul of the Poor. His research and writing focuses on the roots of Jewish traditions of justice in the historical freedom struggles of the ancient Israelites and their meaning for us today.

Sarah Weintraub is a dedicated mother and organizer who joined the movement for healthcare rights in 2008 through the Vermont Workers’ Center. Now based in Milwaukee, she organizes with the Nonviolent Medicaid Army and serves as a tri-chair of the Wisconsin Poor People’s Campaign.

Beth Johnson is currently the Minister of the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, having served Palomar UU Fellowship in California for 18 years. A minister, activist, and spiritual director grounded in trauma-informed somatic practices, she focuses on embodied, soulful, justice-centered worship and intersectional issues including immigration, environmental justice, and Palestinian liberation.

Ari Douglass is a leader in the Poor People’s Campaign and the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Steff Reed is a singer, songwriter, producer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist and graduate of Union Theological Seminary.

Rev. McNair is the director of social transformation at My Sisters’ Place, a domestic violence service organization located in Westchester County, New York, and organizer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a multiracial, multigenerational, movement-building organization based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Alex Zane, MDiv, is a leader in the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Cedar Monroe is an activist and interfaith chaplain with over a decade of experience supporting people facing homelessness, incarceration, and addiction. Raised in a poor rural community, they focus on cross-racial organizing and combating white nationalism. Monroe holds an MDiv from Episcopal Divinity School and lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Chelsea MacMillan is ordained as an interspiritual minister and GreenFaith organizer. She is founder of THE ALTER, a community of spiritual changemakers, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism.

Tim Shenk is a bilingual movement educator. He is a leader with the University of the Poor and the New York State Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Jessica Williams, a pastor and theological educator, serves as Director of Development and Engagement at the Kairos Center, working with Freedom Church of the Poor. With a Master of Divinity, MSW, and Ph.D., she has pastored churches, led theological programs, and published works on poverty and social justice. She lives in Kansas City.

Nubia Chong is a trauma attuned psychiatrist and therapist, intuitive somatics educator/facilitator, and organizer with Freedom Healers DC. She believes in building collective resilience through community and embodiment. She is part of a circle of clergy and healers who support organizers and community leaders protesting the occupation and genocide in Palestine.

Phil Wider has been an organizer and political educator in the U.S. movement to end poverty for over 35 years. He currently serves as a Coordinator of Political Education and Leadership Development with Put People First! PA and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. He is also a leader of the University of the Poor.

Micah Bucey serves as Minister at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, a congregation committed to curiously seeking the intersections between expansive spirituality, radical social justice, and uncensored creative expression. Bucey has also served as Multifaith Coordinator for the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City and is a regular contributor to Spirituality & Practice.

Luis J. Mixcoatl Itzlacuiloh Rodriguez is an acclaimed poet, novelist, journalist, and activist with 16 books to his name, including the best-selling memoirs Always Running and It Calls You Back. He co-founded several organizations, including Tia Chucha Press and Tia Chucha’s Café & Centro Cultural, promoting arts and community in Los Angeles.

Shane Claiborne is an evangelical Christian leader, author, and founding member of The Simple Way, a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia. He is also a cofounder of Red Letter Christians and a social activist known for his advocacy of nonviolence and service to the poor.

Patrick Dupont is an ordained deacon in the United Methodist Church and the minister of outreach at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, where he is building a Freedom Church of the Poor community.

Arelis Figueroa is the co-founder and Lead Pastor at La Iglesia Del Pueblo, a PCUSA 1001 New Worshiping Community. With over 20 years of experience as an activist and community organizer, she has worked extensively with marginalized communities both in the USA and abroad. Arelis also serves at the Dominican Women Development Center and is a member of the NYS Poor People’s Campaign. She holds an M.Div from Union Theological Seminary.

Isaiah Briggs has a MDiv from Harvard Divinity School where he focused on the role of music in social movements and faith communities. His work centers on bringing creative/social development programs to young people dealing with PTSD and complex trauma.

Charito Calvachi-Mateyko is a Restorative Justice international consultant, and a passionate promoter of racial justice and the Latinx/Hispanic causes and culture. She has been a member of the Delaware Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and Iglesia del Pueblo. She has had rich and diverse experiences such as being a radio show host, an author, a storyteller, and a Delaware Humanities presenter and facilitator.

Joanna Dickson is a leader with the Union of Southern Service Workers. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, she aged out of the foster system at 18 and became a mother to her amazing son Peyton in 2010. This movement is close to her heart because she too has struggled and witnessed some of the worst unjust in our poor societies. She stands in solidarity.

Liz Theoharis is a theologian, pastor, author, and anti poverty activist. She is the Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing in poor and low-income communities for the past 30 years.

Letiah Fraser is an ordained pastor, organizer with the KS Poor People’s Campaign, a disability advocate, a hospital chaplain, and identifies as a proud African American woman who lives with Cerebral Palsy. Rev. Dr. Letiah Fraser received her B.S. in Adolescent Education with a concentration in English from Nyack College (now Alliance University) in NY. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City. In addition, she received her Doctor of Ministry from NTS in April 2022, with a focus on disability theology and spiritual formation.

Lindsey Krinks is the cofounder and director of advocacy at Open Table Nashville, an interfaith homeless outreach and advocacy nonprofit. She has worked on the streets of Nashville for nearly twenty years and is the author of Praying with Our Feet: Pursuing Justice and Healing on the Streets.

West McNeill is the NYS Labor-Religion Coalition Program Director. They are ordained in the United Church of Christ and have over a decade of experience organizing with community, faith, and labor organizations across New York State. They were named to City & State’s “Faith Power 100” list of New York’s most influential religious leaders. West holds an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a B.A. in journalism from Ithaca College, and is a graduate of the Union Leadership Institute of the NYS AFL-CIO and Cornell.

Lynn Lewis is an oral historian, educator, and community organizer. She served as Executive Director of Picture the Homeless for 17 years, has been an adjunct professor at The New School since 2020, is an advisor to the Housing Justice Oral History Project there, and teaches Fieldwork for the oral history MA program at Columbia University. Lynn has been instrumental in initiatives like the East Harlem Community Land Trust and Communities United for Police Reform and is formerly homeless.

Tonny Algood has worked as a union organizer in Mississippi and Alabama, served as a local pastor for the United Methodist Inner City Mission, the National Union of the Homeless, and the Freedom Church of the Poor.

Tim Seitz Brown has been an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor since 1987. He has served congregations in Easton, Ephrata, Thomasville, Biglerville, Lancaster, and Landisville in Pennsylvania. As an ELCA Global Mission volunteer, he has also taught Bible Knowledge at a high school in Tanzania. Currently, he is active as a faith leader in the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and March on Harrisburg.

Kate Kanelstein is the director of the Vermont Workers’ Center and leader in the Nonviolent Medicaid Army.

Sunita Viswanath, cofounder of the human rights organizations Women for Afghan Women, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, and Hindus for Human Rights.