Bridging Faith with Action
Sponsored by
A faith without works is incomplete.
This year’s Justice Camp seeks to privilege voices that are historically marginalized by bringing together the African American and Latinx voices of faith organizers and leaders. Bringing these voices together not only helps enliven faith with action, but also bridges together these two communities in critical ways by helping to tell the story of struggle and justice through several lenses.
Join us for a day of powerful conversations. Justice Camp will:
- Provide a history of the Southern Freedom Movement
- Unmask the Puerto Rican Struggle for LGBTQ justice and the religious violence that has materialized over decades
- Expose the relationship between LGBTQIA inclusion in churches and white supremacy’s impact in the conversation of inclusion
- Include a presentation on Christian Supremacy
- Conclude with a panel discussion in the afternoon
Presenters
Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
Curator, Justice Camp
Named at 1 of 10 Faith Leaders to watch in 2018 by the Center for American Progress, Dr. Robyn is an anti-oppression, anti-racist, non-binary Trans*gressive Latinx. Dr. Robyn takes seriously their call as an activist theologian and ethicist to bridge together theories and practices that result in communities responding to pressing social concerns. Dr. Robyn sees this work as a life-orienting vocation, deeply committed to translating theory to practice, and embedded in re-imagining our moral horizon to one which privileges a politics of radical difference.
To learn more, check out Dr. Robyn’s website: www.iRobyn.com
www.irobyn.com
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
46 Surviving The Tyranny of The Now
117 Preaching as Resistance
128 Taking to the Social Streets
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
290 Sacred and Profane
337 Bridging Radical Difference
Alba Onofrio
Rev. Alba Onofrio (a.k.a. Reverend Sex) is a Southern Appalachian First-Gen Latinx Queer Mama Evangelical Femme who lives and loves in la Lucha with QTPOC folks as a Spiritual Healer and Bruja Troublemaker to combat spiritual terrorism, reclaim Guad, and eradicate shame and fear wherever they are found.
As the Spiritual Strategist for Soulforce and a Co-founder of the Sexual Liberation Collective, Rev. Alba Onofrio trains across the U.S. and internationally on decoding white Christian Supremacy and healing internalized religious-based trauma in order to rebuild our ethics and reclaim our sacred desires and spiritual practices. They also serve as Evangelist-Missionary at Jubilee Interfaith Community in Asheville, NC.
www.ReverendSex.com
www.Soulforce.org
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
186 Decolonize-Heal-Reclaim
46 Surviving The Tyranny of The Now
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
T. Anthony Spearman
Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman is the senior pastor of St. Phillip A.M.E. Zion Church in Greensboro, the third vice president of the North Carolina Conference of NAACP Branches, and a candidate to become the civil rights organization?s next permanent state president now that Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is stepping away from the post he?s held for 12 years. He is a key leader in the Moral Monday and Forward Together Movement that has brought national attention to the broad coalition of social justice organizations that are working together to change recent legislation in N.C. such as denying the expansion of Medicaid, significantly reducing access to early voting, eliminating Sunday voting, cutting unemployment benefits to long-term unemployed people, and budget cuts that reduced the number of teachers in public schools. During his time in Greensboro in the 90”s, Dr. Spearman was a member of the Pulpit Forum, a group of primarily African-American ministers who stood in solidarity with Greensboro K-Mart workers.
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
311 T. Anthony Spearman – TBD
Jarrod McKenna
Jarrod McKenna is the co-founder of First Home Project, a community welcoming, housing and “giving a hand up not a hand-out” to recently arrived refugees, is the Teaching Pastor at Cornerstone Church in Perth, was a part of initiating the #LoveMakesAWay movement, and is a peace award winning nonviolent social change trainer, working primarily in the Middle East and Eastern Europe when not at home.
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-festival Event
169 Faith-Rooted Organizing
395 A Conversation with Jarrod McKenna
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera is a 30+ year veteran of the LGBTQ and Labor movements. Lisbeth has extensive experience organizing and training at the intersections of sexual orientation, gender identity, and culture specifically as they relate to communities of color. Lisbeth has crisscrossed the country training workers and community leaders in organizing, leadership development, and community building strategies from a grassroots perspective. She has also done extensive work supporting LGBTQ leaders in America Latina.
Currently, Lisbeth, is the Director of Faith Outreach & Training at the Human Rights Campaign, where she works with people of faith across denominations to ensure we can be who we are, love who we love, and practice our faith free of judgement.
Lisbeth ia a biologist and sociologist by education, with a solid Jesuit and SND formation that makes her passions flare and her days move forward. Today Lisbeth lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, alongside her wife, Lisa Weiner- Mahfuz, and their chosen family, both human and furry!!
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
196 Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera Topic TBD
390 A Conversation with Lisbeth Melendez Rivera
272 Just As They Are
Jared Vázquez
Jared Vázquez is the Associate Director of International Diversity and Inclusion for the Metropolitan Community Churches. He has also spent the last six years working on a Ph.D. in Theology, Philosophy, and Cultural Theory at the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver. Jared brings with him over ten years of experience in leading, facilitating, and developing dialogue around diversity and inclusion in both secular and religious spaces. He has taught in formal and informal settings. As an adjunct professor at Iliff, Jared teaches a diverse population of M.Div. students how to engage and lead their churches with regard to issues of diversity and inclusion. This work reflects Jared’s passion of bringing people together to have dialogue that matters as well as his academic work which has focused on theologies of inclusion and the effects of religious and social politics on the lives of queer folk.
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
289 Loving Our Way to Freedom
Robert Wright Lee, IV
The Reverend Robert Wright Lee IV is a pastor, professor, activist, and author. A graduate of Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, he received his Master of Theological Studies in May of 2017. He currently teaches on the faculty of Appalachian State University and is pursuing a PhD in homiletics at Chicago Theological Seminary.
Rob, who is a nephew generations removed of General Robert E. Lee, is also engaged as an activist in the field of racial reconciliation. He writes for a number of religious and secular outlets, and he recently appeared on MTV at the Video Music Awards to speak out against white supremacy and racism.
A native of Statesville, North Carolina, he lives there with his wife, Stephanie, and his toy poodle, Frank.
Sessions:
Justice Camp Pre-Festival Event
Check In for pre-festival events will be available on Wednesday from 1 pm to 5 pm, and Thursday from 7am to 9 am.
If you’re tent camping, there’s no additional campsite charge for Wednesdsy night.
Some campsite locations are restricted due to large venue tent construction in several areas.
RVr’s will need to purchase an additional night.