Sharing Our Stories: Towards an Inclusive American Narrative

CMM Fall 2020 Fundraiser

Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, 5 - 6:30pm
Online Via Zoom

RSVP here: https://cmmfall2020.eventbrite.com/
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/750253848903209/

CMM will hold its fall fundraising event by Zoom on the topic, Sharing Our Stories: Towards an Inclusive American Narrative. The event will feature:

- Rev. Eugene F. Rivers (founder and director, Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies)

- Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor (Senior Pastor and CEO, Old South Church), and

- Jean-Luc Pierite (President, North American Indian Center of Boston).

They will be speaking to redefining the American narrative and invite your participation in the Q&A following.

We are all aware not only of the multiple narratives that are given voice today, but also of the need for a unifying vision that enables us to live and prosper together. The three persons on this panel, to be moderated by Dr. Kevin C. Peterson, are prophetic voices of people who walk the streets of Boston with us each day. Each plays a role in defining the nature of our city.

We encourage participation with your own drinks and hors d’oeuvres during the program and that you celebrate with a seasonal dinner in family settings after the program, in conversation around the topic of what it means to be an American. This event also falls on the Sunday prior to United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Day, December 10, lending gravity to this occasion. We hope this will be both a time of deep reflection and spiritual introspection in this time of uncertainty we face as a global community.

The cost is your support of CMM and its interfaith programming for social justice. CMM Sponsors and Supporter Ticket holders will be listed on the homepage of CMM's website. All sales will end approximately 1hr before the event. If you wish to give a secure online donation through a different method, please follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/givetocmm

Cost:

Ticket Levels:
- CMM Supporter Ticket - $100
- General Admission Ticket - $60
- Student/Low-Income Ticket - $25

Sponsorship Levels:
- Platinum Level Sponsor (includes 10 registrations) - $5000
- Gold Level Sponsor (includes 10 registrations) - $1000
- Silver Level Sponsor (includes 5 registrations) - $500
- Bronze Level Sponsor (includes 2 registrations) - $250

Program Schedule:
- 4:45pm - Pre-Music to Set the Mood (Login early to gather with us!)
- 5:00pm - Opening Remarks - Introduction to the Afternoon's Theme
- 5:05pm - Dr. Kevin C. Peterson, CMM Co-Vice Chair & Afternoon's Moderator
- 5:10pm - Speakers Series (10min each)
- 5:40pm - Inter-Speaker Q&A
- 5:55pm - Audience Q&A
- 6:25pm - Closing

Afternoon's Moderator:
Dr. Kevin C. Peterson
Dr. Kevin C. Peterson is founder and executive director of The New Democracy Coalition, a non-partisan and non-profit organization that focuses on civic engagement in Massachusetts and across the United States. The New Democracy Coalition is in residence at the College for Public and Community Service at University of Massachusetts, Boston. Dr. Peterson studied philosophy and politics at Boston University and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Collaborative Leadership at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has also served as a senior researcher at the William Monroe Trotter Institute in Boston. Dr. Peterson has served as a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Urban Studies Department in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has lectured across the U.S. and in the continent of Africa, including the countries of Mali, Senegal and Morocco.

Featured Speakers:
Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III
Reverend Eugene F. Rivers III, a former Sommerville gang member from Philadelphia, was educated at Harvard where he studied philosophy and history of science. He was the subject of a Newsweek cover story in 1998 and was prominently featured in a second cover story on the AIDS crisis in Africa two years later. Gustav Niebuhr in the New York Times identified Reverend Rivers as the Bush administration’s point man on faith-based and community service. He is the founder and director the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies and is a widely published writer and community activist who has lectured internationally. He also advised both Bush Administrations and the Clinton Administration on their faith-based initiatives and in the foreign policy arena regarding the AIDS crisis in Africa. He has provided commentary for ABC (Prime Time, Nightline, and ABC Morning News), NBC (Hardball, Morning Joe and MSNBC), CBS (CBS Evening News, Sixty Minutes II), PBS (Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers Show) and Fox Television (The O’Reilley Factor). He lives and works among the poor in inner-city Boston with his wife, Dr. Jacqueline C. Rivers.

Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor
Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor has served since 2005 as the 20th senior minister and chief executive officer of Old South Church. The dual nature of this role reflects Old South’s dual identity as both a thriving urban church, and an historic leadership institution in Boston (and, as such, steward of storied events and personages, of a National Historic Landmark Building, as well as collections of rare books and silver). The Church, recognized in 2011 as a United Church of Christ (UCC) “Center for Excellence,” has grown in its vocation as a teaching church and developed an exciting Vision for the 21st Century in which it is engaged. The Church has exercised ecumenical and interfaith leadership, for instance, in hosting worship services on the inauguration of Deval Patrick as Governor, convening the leadership who planned services and events on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, addressing growing instances of Islamaphobia, and ministering to the city following the bombings at the Boston Marathon Finish Line. Nancy studied at Macalester College (B.A.), Yale Divinity School (M.Div.) and Chicago Theological Seminary (D. Min.). Before her call to Old South Church, she served as Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC (2001-2005). During this time, Nancy was instrumental in introducing the legislation making clergy mandated reporters of suspected child abuse; worked to establish a public voice for the UCC; supervised a $1.5 million Lilly Endowment grant for pastoral excellence program; hosted Freedom Schooner Amistad’s visit to Boston Harbor; and worked with inter-religious leaders in the aftermath of 9/11.

Jean-Luc Pierite
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Jean-Luc Pierite now resides in Jamaica Plain. Prior to his election to the Board of Directors at the North American Indian Center of Boston, Jean-Luc was also elected to the Community Linguist seat of the Advisory Circle for CoLang for the period 2016-20. The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or "CoLang" is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. Currently, Jean-Luc volunteers with his Tribe's Language and Culture Revitalization Program which is a collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans. This program is based on tradition passed from Jean-Luc's great-grandfather Joseph Alcide Pierite, Sr., last traditional chief and medicine man of the Tunica-Biloxi. The Tribe is an amalgamation of members from the Central Louisiana communities of: Tunica, Biloxi-Choctaw, Ofo, and Avoyel. Jean-Luc has a B.A. in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans. He also earned an A.S. in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Jean-Luc currently is the International Procurement and Logistics Manager for The Fab Foundation. The Fab Foundation was formed in 2009 to facilitate and support the growth of the international fab lab network as well as the development of regional capacity-building organizations. The Fab Foundation is a US non-profit 501(c) 3 organization that emerged from MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms Fab Lab Program. Jean-Luc's previous positions include: Internet Marketing Specialist for Mohegan Sun, and Graphic Artist for Paragon Casino Resort. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2017.

For info, please visit CMM's website (www.coopmet.org) or email [email protected]

Sharing Our Stories: Towards an Inclusive American Narrative - Virtual Panel

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