Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Interview by Jim Vrettos for The Radical Imagination
April 30, 2017
Category: Interviews
Eerdmans Author Interviews: Liz Theoharis
Eerdword: the Eerdmans blog
April 24, 2017
Matthew 26:11 is a verse Liz Theoharis hears often. In her work to end poverty, “the poor you will always have with you” is almost daily quoted at Theoharis as an argument that her work is futile.
Learn more about the context of this verse and Theoharis’s new book on the topic Always with Us? What Jesus Really Said about the Poor in our interview below
Faith leaders urge Trump to reject extremism
AM JOY, MSNBC
Interview by Jonathan Capehart
December 31, 2016
On New Year’s Eve, a century old tradition in the black church will take place in Washington, D.C. Two of the leaders of the “Watch Night,” Reverend Dr. William Barber and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis join Jonathan Capehart to discuss this as well as their fight for social justice.
Interview with the Poor People’s Campaign: “Half of the US Population is Poor”
The Dawn News
Interview by María Torrellas
September 30, 2016
In the framework of the International Seminar of the Crisis of Capitalism in Sao Paulo, Brazil, The Dawn News interviewed Liz Theoharis and Willie Baptist from the Poor People’s Campaign, which is an effort of the poor in the United States. This movement is based on the campaign with the same name that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced on December 4, 1967.
Ending Poverty with Liz Theoharis
Vineyard Justice Network
Interviewed by Sydney Wilson
August 6, 2016
In today’s spotlight interview, VJN interviewed Liz Theoharis from the Kairos Center in New York. In this video she gives us her take on how to address the issue of poverty and homelessness and how church leaders can create environments where people of affluence and people experiencing poverty can live together in christian community.
Imagining A New Poor People’s Campaign that Ends Poverty
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Interview by Jim Vrettos for The Radical Imagination
January 24, 2016
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. started the Poor People’s Campaign as a social movement to end poverty. Today nearly 35 million Americans are still living in poverty, despite the country’s collective wealth.
On this episode of “The Radical Imagination;” host Jim Vrettos, a sociology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice sits down with the Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis and Willie Baptist, of the Kairos Center, to discuss strategies for building a new Poor People’s Campaign and eliminating poverty.
Finding the End of Poverty
Caring Magazine
Interviewed by Chadwick Phillips
January 24, 2015
To eradicate the issue, The Poverty Initiative focuses on the who and why.
Roughly 48.8 million people—or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population—lived below the poverty level in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.
To eliminate poverty, Liz Theoharis knew she needed to first understand who it impacts and why, rather than simply acknowledging its existence. So, she went straight to the source: those living below the poverty line.
Fighting Poverty IS Ministry: Liz Theoharis ’93 and the Founding of the Poverty Initiative
Emory University Youth Theological Initiative
March 21, 2013
Liz Theoharis ’93 knew that her call to anti-poverty activism was a religious one. It took the Church a while to catch up.
In December, Theoharis was ordained by the New York City Presbytery as Coordinator of the Poverty Initiative, a program affiliated with Union Theological Seminary. In many ways, her ordination simply formalized a role Liz had taken on in 2003, when she co-founded the Poverty Initiative, whose mission is “to raise up generations of religious and community leaders dedicated to building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor.”
Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Freedom Church of the Poor,” the Poverty Initiative seeks to empower poor leaders and their organizations by offering training programs, building a grassroots anti-poverty network, and sponsoring educational events, “truth commissions,” and a host of other programs that help congregations and activists act strategically and think theologically about poverty.