– OCTAVIA E. BUTLER | FEMINIST, AUTHOR, POET, GIFT
Auburn believes that a key way to support movement leaders as they confront challenges and work to create more pathways for love and justice in the world is by creating community to make connections that allow us to bring our full selves to the table.
Named Living A Movement Life, Mountain Top 2019 was inspired by the words of adrienne maree brown. Reflecting on the quality of relationships we need to foster in order to “live a movement life” in these times, brown writes,
“Things are not getting worse. They are being uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”
In light of these words Mountain Top 2019 asked:
What does it mean to live a movement life? What does it mean to befriend and love each other in movement? Who are we willing to be? How are we willing to live? What are we willing to build? What are the narratives and practices — personal and communal — that “holding each other tight,” require, and how can a self-conscious and active commitment to cultivating conversations and spaces within and among our people build power for us? How can we build spiritual power and the power in the world to replace supremacist practices and logics that define the precariousness of our times, with a way forward that holds us accountable to creating futures grounded in the full flourishing and dignity of all?
Oakland Marriott City Center
Oakland, CA
December 9-11, 2019
A deepened awareness of our pain and power as people of spirit, faith and moral courage in social movement spaces in this time of dis-covering, unveiling.
A set of experiences practicing together what it means and feels like to “hold each other tight” — even when it’s difficult.
Deepened connections that support our trust, relationships, and thrivability across and within geographies, identities, spiritual practices, and issue areas.
A set of reflections on our practice together.
A clear sense of how we can continue our community building after we leave this Mountaintop.
December 8
Hotel arrivals and check-in at the Oakland Marriott (for those staying on-site) Dinner on your own.
NOTE: MOUNTAINTOP 2019 BEGINS WITH REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST FROM 7:30-9:00 AM ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, AND ENDS AFTER LUNCH AT 2:00 PM ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11.
Please plan to be with us for the entire event.
December 9
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
We will focus on the call to “pull back the veil” on the struggles that mark these times through a day filled with community building, story-telling, and reflection. With hearts set on discovery and exploration, we will focus on the Bay Area and do our best to understand the pain and power that are being uncovered in our movement communities across the nation. We will look at what befriending or loving means when things get hard or when there is harm.
5:30-8:00 PM
Small group dinners – hosted by local faith communities and leaders.
December 10
9 AM – 5:00 PM
We will break into small “communities of practices” to experience a variety of ways we can “hold each other tight” while working and living in social movements spaces.
Later in the day, we will leave the hotel to deepen our connections with each other and with communities, institutions and Mother Nature in the Bay. There will be a chance for you to gather in groups at a variety of local spots to offer support, service, and appreciation to local allies, Mother Nature and cultural institutions.
6:30 – 8:30 PM
Joy + Resistance: An Auburn Conversation featuring
Invite your friends in the Bay to join us for a public event where we will ask: What place do joy, pleasure, and celebration have in our liberation movements?
Light dinner and beverages served.
December 11
9 AM – 2 PM
On the final day, we will collect the threads of our many relationships, experiences conversations to support our way forward as people of faith, spirit and moral courage working and living in the midst of systemic change, peril and possibility.
W/ Collective
United Methodist Church
Spirit Grove (healing co-op); Soulshifting (community of healers and earth stewards); Southerners on New Ground (SONG – southern regional liberation organization); and my New Orleans-based spiritual family that makes home and ritual together. We call ourselves “the blessing”
Rev. Melinda Weekes Laidlow
Southside Presbyterian Church/Presbyterian Church (USA)
Highlander Research & Education Center staff and Board; southern freedom movement leaders and elders; young people; chosen kin; church folk and clergy mentors
Guest of Auburn
Muslim, organizer with 9to5 Georgia, grounded by community in Southwest Georgia, DMV, and Israel/Palestine
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav and the First Mennonite Church of San Francisco
Jewish Social Justice Roundtable
Compton’s Transgender Cultural District
Muslim, organizer with 9to5 Georgia, grounded by community in Southwest Georgia, DMV, and Israel/Palestine
People of African descent, Communities of Color and Queer Folx
Work at the National Council of Churches; Worship at Covenant Baptist UCC Church; Sister-Friends ground me
New Georgia Project and Truth On The Loose
Auburn; Women’s March; SONG
The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Brooklyn, New York
Metropolitan Community Churches
Jewish, Jewish Renewal, Queer community
Auburn STLC
Relational Uprising
Black femmes + women
Auburn
Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Vice President of Applied Research at Auburn Seminary
Auburn Seminary
Our Bible App
Interaction Institute for Social Change; Food Solutions New England; Chesapeake Foodshed Network; new food system movements,
Jews; Reform Jews; Post-denominational Jews; Progressive Faith Leaders; Deep Thinkers; Open Inquisitors; Compassionate Humans
Community Church UU; PP National Clergy Advocacy Board; HIVE Cohort in LA
Auburn; Jews; Discordians; Witches; Genderqueer folk and anyone working to end the idea of a gender binary; Lovers (of music, art, food, and c); Anyone with jokes that tell truth
Black Transwomen Inc
Mmapeu Management Consulting; Freedom Road; and the three spiritual communities I am part of (Heart and Soul Center of Light, East Bay Community Center, Fire Family)
Planned Parenthood; Muslim, Immigrant, and Iranian communities
Makor Or: Jewish Meditation
Unitarian Universalist clergy, queers, progressive Vietnamese community, National Bail Fund Network
I work for the Sacramento LGBT Center
Strategies4Freedom: Black Love Convergence
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA and Concord Baptist Church of Christ
Grace
United Methodist Church
Keshet
Jews of Color Field Building Initiative
Masjid AnNur
Nathan Cummings Foundation
I work at GLIDE in SF. I am a student of A Course In Miracles; I am founder of Soul Matters; people who are at least open to forgiveness as a valid path to social justice.
Legacy Center for Social Justice
GLIDE Memorial Church / GLIDE Foundation
The BTS Center, Faith In Public Life, Foreside Community Church
Black Theology Project/KINETICS/CLLCTIVLY/Baltimore
I’m currently Program Associate for Compton’s Transgender Cultural District. I also am Bay Area President of FLUX. The trans community is where my heart is and it grounds me.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
My family is central to grounding me, especially my 2 sons. My professional grounding place is Auburn where I’m privileged to be part of a team that supports and equips the multi-faith movement for social justice.
Faith Matters Network
The Kitchen
JCRC, synagogue
The Guild & Global black, brown & indigenous healers, spiritual warriors & wisdom carriers
The Kitchen
With/In Collaborative
Free Black Dirt, my wife. Queer people, Black people, Caribbean people. Black Diaspora people. Artists, creators, healers. lovers. People who love good food!
Park Avenue Christian Church
Auburn
Auburn (Program), STLC’s Cauldron Squad, progressive humanists, and mystics
The Table: United Church of Christ of La Mesa
C.W.E.E.R.S. Nonviolent Empowerment Groups
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Faith Voices/Berkeley Food & Housing Project
Toward Justice & Service 2 Justice
Insibah Media
Linden Hills United Church of Christ
Break Free Together
Auburn Seminary
FreedomRoad.us
United Theological Seminary/Waves Ahead
OneLife Institute — a POC-centered Oakland organization serving at the intersection of spirituality and social action. // And concentric circles of multi-generational loved ones locally, nationally, internationally.
Relational Uprising
womanists, progressive Christians, African-centered folx.
First Date Films
Auburn Board
Founder, Media Justice; widower
Income equity. People being compassionate and kind towards Black women.
Collabyrinth
Tapestry Ministries/First Christian Church of Oakland/ Oakland Peace Center
Global Faith & Justice Project
Glide / Jewish
Equality Arizona – LGBTQ (especially trans and queer) people and people of color
Faith Matters Network; Rev. Jen Bailey; Black people
Auburn Seminary
Beth-El The House of YHWH/BronxConnect
Multitude Films
Work at Auburn PT :), birth workers, queers!
Greater St. Paul, Taylor Memorial
Living Hope Wheelchair Association / Highlander Center
Church World Service, Auburn Seminary, Ecology of Awakening
United Church of Christ; Salus Center; QPOC
Freexone4us amd The Concord Baptist Church of Christ
The Kitchen SF / GLIDE / Rise Up
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Wilderness Torah, Renewal Jewish Community
Qalbu’Maryam Women’s Mosque
Center for Sustainable Justice
Organization-Illustrated Ministry, progressive christian faith
I serve as one of the rabbis of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, CA.
Jewish
Auburn Seminary
Tapestry Ministries/First Christian Church of Oakland/ Oakland Peace Center
Auburn
Documentarians and artists
Work at the California Immigrant Policy Center; belong to the Muslim community
Auburn Seminary Programming Community
Greenhouse Pictures
Children’s Defense Fund
City of Refuge UCC, Oakland
Auburn
Auburn
Disciples of Christ
Kaleo Center for Faith, Justice and Social Transformation
CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Muslim community, women of color
Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus
Faith in Action
Vanderbilt Divinity School
Drew Theological School
Black Queer and Trans Folks
Spirit rock -Buddhism- Eselen institute
Active Voice Lab
Free Black Dirt, my wife. Queer people, Black people, Caribbean people. Black Diaspora people. Artists, creators, healers. lovers. People who love good food!
Walter and Elise Haas Fund
Episcopal Church, coming with my partner who is an ED at the Highlander Center