Thanks to our good friend Jamie Kemmerer, Bay Ridge local and owner at GeekPAK, for the link to this democratic policing event, the ‘Shine a Light Festival’, billed as a “concert to promote a rational discussion among people of faith about law enforcement, race, gun violence and social inequality.” See the event page at Facebook for all the information.

Sign up on Facebook to join on Saturday from 2:00pm – 9:00pm. Below are some of the basics thanks to posts from one of the event organizers, Carmelo DiBartolo:

WHERE:

Union Church of Bay Ridge
7915 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, New York 11209

Shine a Light Festival Tentative Program as of 1/8:

• 2:00 Opening remarks: (Elders Carmelo DiBartolo and Michelle Gibbens, Rev. Moira Ahearne, Union Church of Bay Ridge)

• 2:15-2:45 Opening Performance: PM Edition (alternative)

• 2:45-3:15 Brien McVernon (singer song writer/Rockabilly)

• 3:15-3:30 Speaker: Elder Will Spisak (North Church, Queens)

• 3:30-4:00 Metapocalypse (ska/rocksteady/reggae)

• 4:00-4:15 Speaker: Inquirer Louis D. Rodriguez (Church of Gethsemane)

• 4:15-4:45 Black Rose Rebels

• 4:45- 5:15 Dubistry (reggae,punk,soul)

• Break 5:15-5:45 (Pizza and breakout sessions)

• Rev. Moira Ahearne & speakers

• 5:45- 6:10 The Cuts (punk Rock)

• 6:10-6:25 Speaker: Rev. Forrest Todd Parkinson

• 6:30-7:15 13 Towers (Ska)

• 7:15 Speaker: Elder Ronald Fields (Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church)

• 7:30-8:15 Beat Brigade (ska/reggae/Punk)

• 8:15-8:30 Speaker: Rev. Henry Fury (United Presbyterian Church of Ridgewood, Queens)

• 8:30-9:30 Rudie Crew (ska/dub)

• 9:30 Closing Remarks

• 10:00 GO HOME

Shine a Light Festival schedule for speakers and leaders as of 1/8:

• Pastor Moira Ahearne, M.Div., MSSW, is the Interim Pastor of Union Church of Bay Ridge, and Co-Pastor at the Community Church of Little Neck, Queens. She is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has worked in Colombia, South America, as well as in various churches in the New York City area, in congregational ministry, pastoral counseling, and development and oversight of community programs serving the poor and homeless.

• Ronald Fields is a Ruling Elder at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and Chair of the Committee of Witness to Society and the World of the Presbytery of New York City. Elder Fields was educated in France and the United States, receiving his Masters from Hunter College. A retired teacher, he was chapter leader and delegate to the United Federation of Teachers. Active in anti-Vietnam war activities, Elder Fields was twice a Grand Juror, including inn the Michael J. Steward murder in 1984.

• Rev. Henry Fury. As pastor of United Presbyterian Church of Ridgewood (Queens) for 13 years I have conducted a prison outreach program on Rikers Island for 5 of those years. This program has been informed by my prior experience as an inmate myself for over five years in the State and Federal Prison systems. This in turn has been informed by my prior professional experience as lawyer and town justice in upstate New York. I have seen the judicial and prison system form the ‘inside out’ and it is badly broken!!

• Michelle Gibbens is a Ruling Elder and Clerk of Church Council of the Union Church of Bay Ridge. She teaches Spanish and coordinates the Peer Mediation Center at Midwood High School in Brooklyn. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, kids, and dogs and cats.

• The Rev. Forrest Todd Parkinson speaks for himself on this occasion. Mr. Parkinson is a senior minister in the International Council of Community Churches, Co-pastor of the Community Church of Little Neck and serves on the Long Island Counsel of Churches Board of Governors and the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum. A clergyman, social worker and certified psychoanalyst, Forrest is a graduate of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, SUNY Stony Brook School of Social Welfare, the Blanton-Peale Institute and has trained at the CG Jung Institute of New York. As an adjunct to his congregational pastorate, he privately practices a pastoral counseling.

• Louis D. Rodriguez has been incarcerated for 26 years in New York State. He took advantage of educational opportunities afforded him while incarcerated, culminating in a Master of Professional Studies degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling. Louis has been involved in ministry for over twenty years and is currently under care of the New York City Presbytery and the Church of Gethsemane as an Inquirer for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. He is also a corporate paralegal and corporate senior manager for Jefferson & Sons, LLC, a real estate management company.

• Will Spisak is a Ruling Elder and Treasurer at North Church Queens in Flushing. He is a native New Yorker and the son of an NYPD officer. He is a research analyst for a non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship and economic opportunity for the formally incarcerated. Will holds a Masters of Arts in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University.