Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Marc L. Greenberg, 2020Biographical NoteMarc Greenberg is the executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing (IAHH), a New York City-based group that organizes members of faith communities to advocate for public policies to end homelessness. Greenberg grew up in Queens. He attended the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, which was a formative experience in considering the possibilities of community and action. In the early 1980s, he attended an event called Earth Community at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The event focused on ecology, spirituality, and community. He learned of it from people he met through his interest in playing the flute. His suggestion to continue the event's conversations drew him into this faith-based activist community and connected him with the cathedral's dean, Jim Morton. In 1982, he helped organize the Thanksgiving Food Forum, which held a panel and provided over 1,100 Thanksgiving meals. Shortly thereafter, he began working with Bob Hayes (founder of the Coalition for the Homeless) to lobby city leaders. He helped found the IAHH in 1986. That year saw the start of an annual tradition of holding a vigil in City Hall Park before the city's annual budget meeting. He helped start the IAHH's Education Outreach Program and the Speaker's Bureau, which provided a space for people to build community and educate the public about homelessness. Initially, he viewed sharing stories as a way to inform policy work, but over time, he saw its utility in healing trauma
Scope and ContentsMarc Greenberg begins the interview with recollections of his family, the influence of Jewish faith traditions, and some formative childhood memories around unfairness in the world. He recalls his experiences at the Woodstock music festival in 1969 and the possibilities that it suggested to him about community and action. He describes the Earth Community event at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and the ways that it led him to subsequent activism. He describes the Thanksgiving Food Forum event in 1982, and the early activities of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing (IAHH), such as the City Hall vigils. He details the founding of Life Skills program (initially Education Outreach Program) at St. Augustine's Church on Lower East Side and the formation of its Speakers Bureau. He describes personalities such as Larry Locke, Sister Agnes O'Grady, and James Parks Morton. He muses on aspects of healing self-anger and throughout the interview considers the relationship between spirituality and community
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by Marc Greenberg. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities
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