RD Moore
Bio
CV
As an ethnically diverse Southerner who identifies both as African American and LGBTQ, as a person who grew up both in poverty and in a household deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement, and as an author, artist, social theorist and folk historian, Rod brings a unique perspective to the conversation we're having about the kind of people we're becoming and the kind of society we want to live in. His work explores that fertile space where diversity, humanity and collective thriving all intersect.
As a lifelong activist, little Rodney was 12 when he petitioned the City of Birmingham to launch a summer boxed lunch program in places where kids would receive free lunch during the school year, and at 13, he was speaking in historically white churches in support of Richard Arrington’s bid to become Birmingham’s first African American mayor. His message was simple: he believed they could be a "Birmingham for all Birminghamians", and he challenged them to select the next mayor, not by the color of their skin but by their commitment to this vision -- a Birmingham for all Birminghamians. Nearly 30 years later, he'd take his "for all" strategy national, engaging with thousands of fellow ministers, both conservatives and progressives, on behalf of a presidential candidate he believed could help make us an America for all Americans -- Barack Obama.
In addition to MMI, he is co-founder of Level UP, an anti-poverty tech initiative and HomeWorks Homes, a social justice real estate company led by Crystal Crawford, MMI board member and Rodney's youngest and only remaining sister. HomeWorks enables the working poor to clear the many hurdles that both prevent them from becoming homeowners and lock them into a lifetime of renting. He's an executive producer and co-creator at LAKE Productions, a film production company known for its groundbreaking work on LGBTQ+ affirming storytelling, and was founding chair for Defy Ventures, a nationally renowned felon-to-founder entrepreneurship program.
The most pivotal period of his life was when he and three other young seminarians, in 1988, began providing spiritual care and case support for San Francisco’s rapidly growing AIDS patients At the time, they had no idea the crisis that would unfold over the coming years. Trained in what was, by then, known as the “San Francisco Model of Care”, a revolutionary approach that focused on far more than medical care, including everything from helping secure resources for basic needs to providing support as they contended with unprecedented stigmatization and social hysteria, from supporting patients’ efforts to prevent parents who’d disowned them from wresting control of their care to helping them live vitally for as long as they could, though he was never paid, this was his “day job” for nearly a decade, until 1998.
The first protease inhibitor was released in 1995, at a time when AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans, between the ages of 25 – 44, both male and female, and by 1997, HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) had become standard of care, and AIDS-related deaths declined by 47%. But not for African Americans. Not only would AIDS remain the number one cause of death for African American men and women in the 25 – 44 age group, but by 1998, African Americans would constitute 49% of all AIDS-related deaths in the United States; a great example of intersectionality. It was this period, working with people who had been discarded by society, that made him want to do more than support them, but help us become a society that no longer discarded people.
His work at the intersection of race, religion, poverty, sexuality and politics spanned from speaking at San Francisco churches to garner support Prop K, which called for the reinstatement of the 1990 domestic partnership registry on behalf of AIDS patients to spearheading outreach to historically white, conservative congregations during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, from co-chairing Clergy Against Prop 8, and rallying support among people of faith for the passage of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
His culture justice efforts include Dark Dolls (which raises consciousness about the link between using “dark” as a pejorative and the results of the “Doll Studies”) and What Does A Suspicious Person Look Like? (which challenges communities to change neighborhood watch signs from “We Report Suspicious Persons” to “We Report Suspicious Activities”).
His credits include LGBTQ+ affirming The Falls trilogy, LUZ, and Room to Grow, a documentary about six ethnically and sexually diverse LGBTQ+ youth and their efforts to find themselves, as well as The Patient, a documentary about people committed to living vital lives even as they contend with cancer. He is Narrative Advisor for Tipping Point: What the Portland Protests Tell Us About the State of America and organizer of the Wall of Clergy, an interfaith coalition of ministers who placed their bodies between federal troops and protestors.
He is author of Me & Mary: An African American Grandma, the Grandson She Raised, and the Lessons She Taught Him, and This Land Is Your Land: How the Greatest Sociological Shift in United States History is Changing Everything. And What that Change Requires of Us, as well as numerous articles on NowSociety, MMI's flagship publication and on his personal blog, Letters From A Birmingham Boy.
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CV
As an ethnically diverse Southerner who identifies both as African American and LGBTQ, as a person who grew up both in poverty and in a household deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement, and as an author, artist, social theorist and folk historian, Rod brings a unique perspective to the conversation we're having about the kind of people we're becoming and the kind of society we want to live in. His work explores that fertile space where diversity, humanity and collective thriving all intersect.
As a lifelong activist, little Rodney was 12 when he petitioned the City of Birmingham to launch a summer boxed lunch program in places where kids would receive free lunch during the school year, and at 13, he was speaking in historically white churches in support of Richard Arrington’s bid to become Birmingham’s first African American mayor. His message was simple: he believed they could be a "Birmingham for all Birminghamians", and he challenged them to select the next mayor, not by the color of their skin but by their commitment to this vision -- a Birmingham for all Birminghamians. Nearly 30 years later, he'd take his "for all" strategy national, engaging with thousands of fellow ministers, both conservatives and progressives, on behalf of a presidential candidate he believed could help make us an America for all Americans -- Barack Obama.
In addition to MMI, he is co-founder of Level UP, an anti-poverty tech initiative and HomeWorks Homes, a social justice real estate company led by Crystal Crawford, MMI board member and Rodney's youngest and only remaining sister. HomeWorks enables the working poor to clear the many hurdles that both prevent them from becoming homeowners and lock them into a lifetime of renting. He's an executive producer and co-creator at LAKE Productions, a film production company known for its groundbreaking work on LGBTQ+ affirming storytelling, and was founding chair for Defy Ventures, a nationally renowned felon-to-founder entrepreneurship program.
The most pivotal period of his life was when he and three other young seminarians, in 1988, began providing spiritual care and case support for San Francisco’s rapidly growing AIDS patients At the time, they had no idea the crisis that would unfold over the coming years. Trained in what was, by then, known as the “San Francisco Model of Care”, a revolutionary approach that focused on far more than medical care, including everything from helping secure resources for basic needs to providing support as they contended with unprecedented stigmatization and social hysteria, from supporting patients’ efforts to prevent parents who’d disowned them from wresting control of their care to helping them live vitally for as long as they could, though he was never paid, this was his “day job” for nearly a decade, until 1998.
The first protease inhibitor was released in 1995, at a time when AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans, between the ages of 25 – 44, both male and female, and by 1997, HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) had become standard of care, and AIDS-related deaths declined by 47%. But not for African Americans. Not only would AIDS remain the number one cause of death for African American men and women in the 25 – 44 age group, but by 1998, African Americans would constitute 49% of all AIDS-related deaths in the United States; a great example of intersectionality. It was this period, working with people who had been discarded by society, that made him want to do more than support them, but help us become a society that no longer discarded people.
His work at the intersection of race, religion, poverty, sexuality and politics spanned from speaking at San Francisco churches to garner support Prop K, which called for the reinstatement of the 1990 domestic partnership registry on behalf of AIDS patients to spearheading outreach to historically white, conservative congregations during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, from co-chairing Clergy Against Prop 8, and rallying support among people of faith for the passage of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
His culture justice efforts include Dark Dolls (which raises consciousness about the link between using “dark” as a pejorative and the results of the “Doll Studies”) and What Does A Suspicious Person Look Like? (which challenges communities to change neighborhood watch signs from “We Report Suspicious Persons” to “We Report Suspicious Activities”).
His credits include LGBTQ+ affirming The Falls trilogy, LUZ, and Room to Grow, a documentary about six ethnically and sexually diverse LGBTQ+ youth and their efforts to find themselves, as well as The Patient, a documentary about people committed to living vital lives even as they contend with cancer. He is Narrative Advisor for Tipping Point: What the Portland Protests Tell Us About the State of America and organizer of the Wall of Clergy, an interfaith coalition of ministers who placed their bodies between federal troops and protestors.
He is author of Me & Mary: An African American Grandma, the Grandson She Raised, and the Lessons She Taught Him, and This Land Is Your Land: How the Greatest Sociological Shift in United States History is Changing Everything. And What that Change Requires of Us, as well as numerous articles on NowSociety, MMI's flagship publication and on his personal blog, Letters From A Birmingham Boy.
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