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Survival Revival in Springfield, IL | Photo by Zach Adams of 1221 Photography ([link removed])
Dear friend,
On Saturday, August 1st, 2026, thousands will gather in Chicago for The Fierce Urgency of Now: A National March into Marquette Park, a historic multi-faith mobilization for voting rights, freedom from mass criminalization, economic justice, and a future rooted in dignity for all.
Sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago Freedom Movement marched into Marquette Park to confront segregation, redlining, and organized racial violence. Today, we are called to continue that unfinished work as communities across the country face renewed attacks on voting rights, expanding systems of criminalization and detention, and deepening economic inequality.
We invite you to join us on Saturday, August 1st in Chicago. We will gather at 63rd & Kedzie, march toward Marquette Park, and continue with post-march activations from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. Bring your family, your congregation, your organization, and your community. You won’t want to miss this moment of moral public witness and movement-building.
As part of this effort, the Kairos Center, in collaboration with IMAN, is helping organize eight Freedom Trail bus caravans from across the country, bringing faith leaders, civic leaders, organizers, military veterans, artists, and young people together on a shared journey to Chicago. Rooted in diverse faith traditions and a common commitment to justice, the caravans will serve as both pilgrimage and public witness. Along the way, participants will stop for a multi-faith vigil at a detention center in Indiana, standing in solidarity with immigrants held there and calling for freedom, dignity, and justice for all.
Busses will be leaving from Atlanta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; Jackson, MS; New York City, NY; Summit, NJ; Charlotte, NC; Minneapolis, MN; Madison, WI; Detroit, MI; Springfield, IL; and Champaign-Urbana, IL.
**NOTE: Please select “UNAFFILIATED" as your faith stream in the registration form. This is the stream for those joining via the Kairos Center.**
REGISTER FOR THE MARCH ([link removed])
GET ON THE BUS ([link removed])
In This Letter:
* Upcoming Events: AL Survival Revival
* Announcements: Springfield Survival Revival, Delaney Hall Witness, Hall-Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, Good Trouble Lives On.
In heart and struggle,
The Kairos Team
** Survival Revivals
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This summer, the Kairos Center is joining with community and faith partners across five regions to launch a Season of Survival Revivals. These gatherings will bring together neighbors, organizers, artists, faith leaders, and movement partners to: meet immediate material needs through mutual aid and community support; create spaces for grounding, healing, culture, and spiritual connection; and build collective power and take action for cultural and economic transformation
Birmingham, AL July 24th-25th
Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Kairos Center are bringing together organizers, faith leaders, artists, and community members in Titusville, AL to train, study, and strategize in an effort to bring all our people into community around a shared commitment to community care, collective action, democracy, and human dignity.
Join us in community organizing for housing, food, water, immigrant rights, peace, and belonging.
LEARN MORE + RSVP ([link removed])
** Springfield Survival Revival
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On Saturday, hundreds of people came out to Comer Cox Park for Springfield’s Survival Revival: Survival Springfield, Reviving Resistance, Rebuilding Power.
There was free food, live entertainment, including two local dance crews, and dozens of community tents from 40 organizations across Springfield. There were kids playing basketball and in the splash pad. There were feminine products, narcan, native plants and produce, t-shirts, tambourines, face paint, bubbles and more - all for free, for all to enjoy.
Over the course of the day, community members built a ribbon memorial honoring loved ones who have passed on and the legacies we carry forward. Leaders from Black Lives Matter SPI and the Sonya Massey Commission taught us about qualified immunity and holding our government accountable. Together, we claimed that democracy is a matter of survival.
** Delaney Hall
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Butterflies and ribbons outside Delaney Hall | Photo by Nicole Bruno
Local New Jersey faith leaders who have been at the gates of Delaney Hall every week invited all people of faith to join them for three days of witness, ritual, and song for their beloved detained community members held at Delaney Hall. The Kairos Center was proudly there bearing witness, leading song, and calling for an end to detention and family separation.
From marching to Delaney Hall to bearing witness at sites where community members have been abducted by ICE, we moved together in prayer, remembrance, and resolve. Together, we committed to fight for freedom, dignity, and our communities’ well-being over cages and separation.
READ RELIGIONS NEW SERVICE’S COVERAGE ([link removed])
** Kairos at the Children’s Defense Fund
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This month, leaders from the Kairos Center participated in the Hall-Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry conference at Alex Haley Farm, which showcased how transformational cultural work can be! During the workshop, “We Pray Freedom: Building Beloved Community Through Story, Song, & Ritual”, Steff Reed, Sarah Jones and Martin Urbach shared stories of the ways they use songs to ground actions around ICE detention centers all over the country. On Wednesday evening our Director, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, preached that “Children are not in the way; they are the way!” weaving what the Bible says about the work of ending poverty, violence and inequality together with a call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly in the “Great Preacher” series.”
Photo by Sarah Jones
** Good Trouble Lives On
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Photo by Danielle Fram
Honoring the life and legacy of civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis, Kairos joined the Workers Circle, Hands Off NYC Coalition, and so many others in marching the streets to demand justice for our democracy. We gathered on the anniversary of Eric Garner’s killing and were reminded by his mother, Gwen Carr, of the interconnectedness of our struggles. Any form of racial injustice that threatens the status of our voting rights, the well-being of our immigrant communities, and the progression of civil rights is a full-force attack on humanity. The presence of the SKOR team grounded the crowd in remembering the reason for our collective fight. Singing, “Up over head…I see justice in the air,” echoed that we have a lot of work to do, but our goal is a just future and we will build that together.
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Kairos Center is fiscally sponsored by Global Impact, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your gift may be tax-deductible pursuant to §170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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