Wikipedia

Frida Berrigan

Frida Berrigan (born 1974) is an American peace activist and author. She published the 2015 book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood, about her life in a family of prominent activists and her own philosophies of parenting.[1] Raised in the Plowshares movement, she has been featured in documentaries and studies of the movement, including award-winning director Susan Hagedorn's 2021 The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous.[2][3] Frida Berrigan has documented and interpreted the movement's history and meaning from her first-hand perspective for a global audience.

Frida Berrigan
With her uncle Daniel Berrigan SJ at a Witness Against Torture event, 2008
Personal
Born (1974-04-01) April 1, 1974 (age 50)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
ReligionRoman Catholic, Unitarian
NationalityAmerican

Early life and education edit

Frida Berrigan, named for her paternal grandmother,[4] was born on April 1, 1974, in Baltimore, Maryland to Elizabeth McAlister and Philip Berrigan, a former nun and priest turned radical Catholic peace activists.[5][6] They lived in the Jonah House community, which they co-founded.[7]

Her mother is most recently a member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, and her father co-established both the Catonsville Nine and the Plowshares movement. Frida is the older sister of Jerry and Kate Berrigan, and the niece of Jesuit peace activist Daniel Berrigan.[8] In 1971, both Philip and Daniel made the cover of Time magazine as "rebel priests" while Philip was still in the Josephite order.[9][10] Frida Berrigan has estimated that her parents spent 11 of their 29 years of marriage incarcerated for antiwar activities, which affected family life.[4] In her memoir she recalls both parents accidentally being arrested at the same time when she was three and her brother just one; community members cared for the children.[1] She was first arrested at age 8, during a protest at the US Capitol.[4]

She attended the selective, majority-Black magnet Baltimore City High School.[11] She attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts after receiving a scholarship that covered the majority of the costs; she covered the remaining $800 per semester herself by working at a food co-op.[4] She graduated in 1997, while her father was in jail in Maine for the "Prince of Peace" Plowshares action at Bath Iron Works.[12][13][14] In college she studied with Pakistani political scientist Eqbal Ahmed, and she worked for Frances Crowe at the American Friends Service Committee.[15]

Peace activism and political party edit

 
At an anti-war rally in Newark, New Jersey, 2007

Her first job after college was spending two years working for a Central America solidarity organization in Baltimore.[12] She left to intern at The Nation in New York City, and write about military policy, nuclear weapons, and the arms trade for a think tank, the Arms and Security Initiative, a position she held until early 2010.[16] She joined the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center, led by William D. Hartung.[12][17] In another Hartung endeavor, she was a senior program associate at the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative, also at the World Policy Institute, prior to February 2010.[16] She is on the board of the War Resisters League, a secular pacifist organization that marked its centennial in 2023, and serves as a member of its national committee.[18]

In 2005 she cofounded Witness Against Torture with Matthew Daloisio and others, to work for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention center and end the US-backed use of torture.[19] Berrigan is currently a columnist for Waging Nonviolence,[20] and she has written columns and op-eds for The Day.[21]

She has been a mayoral candidate for the city of New London, Connecticut, running for the Green Party.[22] Her platform focused on affordable home ownership, in conjunction with her role as a convener of the New London chapter of the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust.[23] She is also a member of the Connecticut Committee for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[24] She teaches a first-year seminar at Connecticut College, focusing on disarmament.[25] In 2016, Berrigan estimated she had been arrested around 20 times for activism-related reasons.[4]

Personal life edit

Prior to 2010, Berrigan lived in Redhook, Brooklyn, New York City.[16] In 2010 she moved to the Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York,[4] where she lived until her marriage.[26] Around the same time, she reconnected with Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer, also a member of the War Resisters League. The two began dating and married in June 2011 at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation in New London,[4][16] in order to meet Sheehan-Gaumer, an atheist, halfway on faith.[27]

She lives in New London, Connecticut with her husband, a social worker who grew up in the same peace circles, and their three children.[4][16] She categorizes herself as an urban farmer, and also a community activist. She does not consider herself a lapsed Catholic, but rather "a Catholic in waiting, waiting for my church to remember the Gospels, to be a justice and peace-seeking community, to be fully inclusive of women and to be welcoming to people who are not hetero-normative. Pope Francis is a step in the right direction, but there is a long way to go".[27]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Berrigan, Frida (2015). It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-939293-66-4.
  2. ^ Cosacchi, Daniel (2021). "The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous dir. by Susan Hagedorn". American Catholic Studies. 132 (4): 53–57. doi:10.1353/acs.2021.0062. ISSN 2161-8534. S2CID 246648957.
  3. ^ "Dr. Susan Hagedorn '77". www.umassalumni.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "'The Peace Kids' grow up: Daughter of activist recalls extraordinary upbringing". www.theday.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  5. ^ "Elizabeth McAlister and Philip Berrigan papers, Special Collections, DePaul University Libraries". archives.depaul.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  6. ^ Lewis, Daniel (2002-12-08). "Philip Berrigan, Former Priest and Peace Advocate in the Vietnam War Era, Dies at 79". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  7. ^ "Frida Berrigan accepting award for Philip Berrigan". jonahhouse.org. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  8. ^ Anderson, George M. (2011-02-21). "Growing Up Berrigan: Portrait of a Family of Peacemakers". America Magazine. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  9. ^ "TIME Magazine Cover: Philip and Daniel Berrigan". TIME.com. 1971-01-25. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  10. ^ Berrigan, Frida (2016-05-13). "What the obituaries missed about my uncle, Dan Berrigan". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  11. ^ Berrigan, Frida (2012-06-16). "The Coolest War Resister in School". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  12. ^ a b c Berrigan, Frida (2013-05-25). "Pomp and Circumspect". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  13. ^ Abrecht, Marian (1998-01-01). "Plowshares Update". Sojourners. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  14. ^ "Philip Berrigan describes plowshares action aboard the USS Sullivans: Prince of Peace Plowshares at Bath Iron works". jonahhouse.org. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  15. ^ Riegle, Rosalie G. (2013-01-07). Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community. Vanderbilt University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv16758kn.7. ISBN 978-0-8265-1873-6. JSTOR j.ctv16758kn.
  16. ^ a b c d e Brady, Lois Smith (2011-07-15). "Frida Berrigan and Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  17. ^ "Frida Berrigan: World Policy Institute, 2001 | Special Collections". DePaul University Libraries. Retrieved 2024-02-17.
  18. ^ "Frida Berrigan". War Resisters League. 2015-04-17. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  19. ^ Riegle, Rosalie (2012). "Let's Do It Again!': The Berrigans and Jonah House". Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 49–69. doi:10.2307/j.ctv16758kn.7. ISBN 978-0-8265-1872-9. JSTOR j.ctv16758kn.
  20. ^ "Frida Berrigan, Author at Waging Nonviolence". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  21. ^ Berrigan, Frida (2009-04-01). "Made in the U.S.A.: American Military Aid to Israel". Journal of Palestine Studies. 38 (3): 6–21. doi:10.1525/jps.2009.XXXVIII.3.6. ISSN 0377-919X.
  22. ^ Collins, David. "Frida Berrigan will crack open New London's mayoral race". www.theday.com. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  23. ^ "Presenters". Connecticut Land Conservation Council. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  24. ^ Centore, Michael. "Golden Rule Boat Sets Sail for 'A Nuclear-free World'". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  25. ^ Berrigan, Frida. "How my Gen Z Students Learned to Start Worrying and Dismantle the Bomb". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  26. ^ Berrigan, Frida (2013-05-04). "Opinion | A Place Where It's Easier To Be Good". Common Dreams. Retrieved 2024-02-29.
  27. ^ a b Berrigan, Frida (2013-10-11). "What Should Church Look Like?". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
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