Building upon Valley and Mountain Fellowship’s decade-long praxis of deep listening, creative liberation, and radical hospitality, the Valley and Mountain Center for Faith, Art, and Justice will foster the integration of the faith, arts, culture and social justice within the local, state, national, and international movements. Using the base community model of Latin American Liberation Theology, the V&M Center will be a “base of bases” where people of different ages, ethnicities, cultures, orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, and religious and spiritual affiliations/practices (or none at all) are called into relationship through a commitment to social justice, organizing, creativity and the arts, skill-building across the life-cycle, and a build just society.
Through partnerships with local, state-wide, national and international organizations, the V&M Center will offer a context and an environment that can nurture and inspire the next generation of artists, organizers, faith leaders and faith organizations; those who understand the arts not simply as the pursuit of the aesthetic, but as a vehicle and a means for social, and, often, spiritual, transformation, broadly and deeply construed; artists, organizers, and faith leaders for the most affected people are their primary resource. The Center has three areas of programming: Art, Education, and Organizing
ART!
Youth Open Mic
The Center hosted Some of the Things I Believe:
A Youth Poetry Workshop and Open Mic with Poet, actor, and performing artist Staceyann Chin. In the workshop, Chin shared her knowledge of poetry with an intimate group of participants, ages ranging from 16 to 25—allowing young adults the opportunity to develop their craft. After the workshop, poets took to the stage to perform their original works.
EDUCATE!
“Set Us Free From Fear” Series
The fear of the Other continues to a driving force in United States. Our political discourse is rife with dog-whistles and outright hostile to the othered. There is a belief that the other has gained too much power and is undermining traditional values. As the Jan 6th attack on the Capitol and hearings shape political discourse and the rise the Neo-Nazi organizations in our region, the mid-term election are proving to be as contagious as ever. Claims of Christian values forward fear, undermined elections, and more pointedly an attempt to return the United States to a pre-Civil Rights movement status quo. Simultaneously, white supremacist ideas in our traditions and individuals in our congregations are to be contended with, faithfully.
How do overcome the fear that is white supremacy? Do we confront the maintain faithfulness in the face of the evils of racism in U.S. politics? What is our responsibility?
The Center for Faith, Art, and Justice in partnership with the Innovation Vitality Team of Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church are offering to clergy, congregations, and community resources to understand white supremacy, religion, and the election cycle.
In addition to the expertise of Valley and Mountain’s pastoral staff, we have invited scholars and activists to share their wisdom. Rev. Dr. Obery Hendrick, Visiting Professor of Religion, Columbia University, Dr. Anthea Butler, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought and Chair of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and Rev. Dr. Edward Donalson, III, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Doctoral Ministry, Seattle University, School of Theology and Ministry provided our community with a keen insight into current political climate and its religious implications. Noted public intellectual Dr. Cornel West delivered a reflection entitled: “The Prophetic Tradition in the Time of Neofascism. Ash-Lee Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Co-Directors, Highlander Research and Education Center work to combat white supremacy organizing in communities and congregations.
ORGANIZE!
Militant Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Training
Beginning with the George Floyd Uprisings (Summer 2020) through the Fall 2020, V&M trained over 3,000 people in partnership with Valley and Mountain and the Washington State Poor People’s Campaign and other local interfaith organizations. These training took place outdoors in parks around the city. V&M has partnered local organizations and denominations to provide virtual trainings in anticipation of fallout from the 2020 presidential elections and subsequent inauguration. V&M has virtually-trained organizers and clergy in Minneapolis (The office of the Bishop of the Minneapolis Conference of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America), Rochester, NY (First Unitarian) and nationally, Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ. In partnership with the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, the Washington State Poor Peoples Campaign, and Valley and Mountain Fellowship, V&M hired Nubian Productions—a Black Woman-led firm—to produce a militant nonviolent civil disobedience training video which be view here.
Future Dreams
In order to continue the current work, we would like to acquire a new building for church gathering, co-working, and support for local nonprofits. The V&M Centre will house will feature the works of artists of color. We are also considering opportunities to collaborate on workforce development training ground for formerly incarcerated, unhoused, and juvenile offenders through partnership with existing programs. Partnership organizations may include collaboration with: Onda Origins, Seattle Barista Academy, Community Pathways, Second Harvest’s Community Kitchen program, and Andy Shallal of Bus Boys and Poets in Washington, D.C. , and Marcus Samuelsson of Red Rooster Restaurant in Harlem.
Base Community — congregational growth and expansion (Seattle, Portland and Salem). By supporting existing Local Interfaith Collectives (Seattle Interfaith Clergy Collective, Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance, and Salem Keizer Interfaith Network), the V&M Centre will offer a space for collective strategizing and modeling for such collectives. Through collaboration with local, national, and international organizers and activists, we will support the creation of an Organizing Institute to support the work of justice to strengthen congregations and the broader social movement(s).
