Date: Friday, February 7, 7am; Saturday, February 8, 6pm
Instructor: Charon Hribar
RSVP: This course is sold out

While Democrats have championed the middle class and Republicans have promoted tax cuts and corporate welfare, poor and low-wealth people have not heard their names or condition in American public life for the past 40 years. In the dozens of primary and presidential debates leading to the 2016 election no time was given to the issue of poverty, yet the census tells us that 140 million of us, nearly half of the nation, are poor or low-income.

This course will join the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival for the We Must Do M.O.R.E. (Mobilize, Organize, Register, Education) Tour taking place in Rochester, NY on February 7, 2019. The tour will draw on our deepest constitutional, religious and moral values to challenge both political parties to address an economy that isn’t working for most of us. The course will include a community site visit in Rochester and a Mass Meeting featuring Rev. Dr. William Barber, II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis along with community leaders from across New York State. The course will shine light on the struggles and stories of impacted people from the community and provide a platform for them to share both the conditions they are facing and the solutions they believe in. Furthermore, we will discuss the call for people of conscience to engage in deeply moral civic engagement and voting that cares about poor and low-wealth people, the sick, immigrants, workers, the environment, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, and peace over war.

Note: Travel will be required for this course. Students will leave New York City for Rochester, NY by 7 a.m. on Friday, February 7th and return to New York City on Saturday, February 8th by 6 p.m. Additionally, for life long learning students enrolled in this course, costs will be required for travel ($50 bus fee) and lodging (TBD).

About the Instructor

Charon Hribar is the Director of Cultural Strategies at the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. She also serves as the Co-Coordinator of Arts and Culture for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Over the past 15 years, Charon has been dedicated to the work of political education, leadership development, and integrating the use of arts and culture for movement building with community and religious leaders across the country. Believing that music is a powerful tool for social change, Charon is a vocalist who uses and teaches the art of protest music to embody the connections of culture, art, and history and promote collective action. Charon has a B.A. from Mercyhurst College (2002) and a M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary (2007). She received her Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University where she also served as the coordinator of Drew University’s PREP (Partnership for Religion and Education in Prisons) Program at Northern State Prison in Newark, NJ. Charon is also a trainer with the Veteran Organizing Institute, a veteran led program to develop the leadership and organizing skills of veterans who are working for progressive social change.

Originally from Aliquippa, PA (a small steel town 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh), her passion for justice and liberation grew from a family rooted in the values of Catholic Social Teaching and strong labor unions. As a liberation theologian and ethicist, Charon is interested in exploring the capacity of Christian social ethics to re-imagine a radical response to systemic racism, a growing disparity of wealth and poverty, militarism, and ecological devastation today.