Rev. Monroe at the Chautauqua Institution
Sun., August 12 at 10:45am
Mon., August 13 – Fri., August 17 at 9:15am

The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister and motivational speaker who speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible. She does a weekly Monday segment, now a podcast called “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR). She is also a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN), and is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, the Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists.

A Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist, Rev. Monroe’s columns appear in 23 cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, and Canada. She also writes a weekly column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. She states that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer, and religious studies,” while also focusing on sexism, classism, and anti-Semitism.  She has spoken on these issues at the United Nations International School.

Rev. Monroe, a founder and now member emeritus of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), is also a founder of Equal Partners of Faith, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry (RCFM), and Christian Lesbians Out (CLOUT). Chosen in October 2009 by MSNBC as one of “10 Black Women You Should Know,” Monroe has been profiled in O, the Oprah Magazine, and also in the Gay Pride Episode of “In the Life TV,” a segment nominated for an educational Emmy.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Monroe graduated from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American church in New Jersey before coming to Harvard Divinity School to do her doctorate. She received the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching several times while being the head teaching fellow of the Rev. Peter Gomes, the Harvard Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.

Featured in the film, “For the Bible Tells Me So,” an exploration of the intersection between religion and homosexuality in the U.S., her coming out story is profiled in “CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing up Gay in America,” as well as in “Youth in Crisis.”  Profiled twice in the Boston Globe for her LGBT activism, in 1997 Boston Magazine cited her as one of Boston’s 50 Most Intriguing Women, and in 1998 Monroe was the first African American lesbian to be bestowed the honor of being Grand Marshall in the Boston Pride Celebration. For her activism, she has received numerous awards, and her papers are in the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America.

About the Chautauqua Institution

The Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of over 100,000 attend scheduled public events.

CHQ is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts.