Joe Jencks

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Highlands, NC

Climate Justice Retreat

3872 Dillard Road, Highlands, NC 28741

phone: (828) 526-5838

website: themountainrlc.org


We are bringing together several panelists from around the U.S. who are each uniquely qualified to speak to different aspects of the problems and the work ahead of us. And each are also uniquely qualified to speak to the genuine hope that lays in working together for sustainability. In forms big and small, there is reason to hope that we can fashion solutions with our peers that will have a positive effect.

Brad Warren is a genuine Climate Science expert and gifted journalist with long and deep ties to the fishing industry. He has become a leading advocate in the Pacific Northwest and beyond for issues ranging from Ocean Acidification to sustainable fisheries. And he has been involved in dialogue with many Indigenous communities who are working to fashion their own creative solutions to climate change. Brad will bring us many ideas about why there is hope for the future, and how personal action as well as Public Policy has an impact.

Ricardo Levins Morales is an extraordinary Artist and community organizer from Minneapolis. Many of you know his work form seeing some of my album covers. Some of you know him from his outstanding career at a visual artist whose work has become ubiquitous in the Labor Movement, Civil Rights Movement, and many other Social Justice and Climate Justice communities. He brings to us a  stunningly well-rounded perspective on grass roots organizing, the power of Art in activism, and pragmatic, hopeful possibilities.

Leslie Boyd is an organizer and leader with the North Carolinas Poor People’s Campaign. She has been active for many years in this work. Leslie will invite us to talk about climate justice work and climate change solutions, and how they can sometimes be tragically out of step with the needs of the people most immediately affected by climate change. The Poor People’s Campaign refers to itself as an Organism not an Organization. Come learn about why.

Joe Jencks is a 25-year veteran of the international Folk circuit, an award-winning songwriter, and celebrated vocalist based in Chicago. Known for his music of social consciousness, he has penned several #1 Folksongs including the ever-relevant Lady of The Harbor. He is also a dual US-Irish citizen and has served as a Cultural Ambassador with the U.S. State Department. With considerable experience and perspective on how to effectively use music as a tool for change, Jencks will weave his music into the retreat and invite us to create new art for the movement.

Beverly Cree is a life-long educator and advocate for social justice and climate change awareness. She has made it her personal mission to further the cause. And she has been spearheading the effort to resurrect this Climate Justice Summit at The Mountain. After successful retreats in 2018, and 2019, the pandemic put this program at The Mountain on hold. Beverly has been working hard to bring it back!

This will be a remarkable week of dialogue, learning, sharing, brain-storming, and pragmatic strategizing. As well as deconstructing the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual challenges we face as we work for concrete and practical growth in the movement for Climate Justice and sustainable practices.

Please come lend your time, curiosity, lived experience, hopes, and knowledge to this vital and dynamic conversation.

You can sign up for the retreat here: https://www.themountainrlc.org/2024-climate-justice-summit

The deadline for signing up is April 21. But it would be tremendously helpful to The Mountain if folks who are planning to attend would sign up by the beginning of April. That will help us all plan better for the logistics and do our best to accommodate any special needs, dietary or otherwise.

Regardless of your current knowledge, if you are passionate about moving these issues forward  and being a part of creating a more hopeful future, this event is for you! Expertise is not required, only a commitment to work for change, in community, with other good people!

What’s more, The Mountain is BEAUTIFUL. I would spend time there for almost any reason. And this is a great one!

In Hope and Song,

~ Joe Jencks

map this location

ics export export this event to my calendar