Chris is the North American Spokesperson for New Humanism, also known as Universal Humanism. He has been active in the Humanist Movement, the concrete and organized expression of New Humanism, for the past 18 years. Like all New Humanists, Chris is a volunteer.
Chris was an Editor of The Chelsea Journal from 1992 to 1994, and helped organize a campaign to fight lead poisoning among local children during this time, among other grass-roots initiatives. From 1994 to 1997, he was publisher of The West Side Story, an all-volunteer humanist neighborhood newspaper for the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in New York City. He also founded a humanist community center for the neighborhood, which hosted projects in the arts, community gatherings and other initiatives. During this time, he launched a campaign to develop a new neighborhood middle school, and supported the campaigns of two Humanist candidates for the school board.
Over the course of his humanist work, Chris has helped organize local, city-wide, and regional humanist forums, including the North American New Humanist Forum in November, 2007 (http://www.newhumanistforum.org/). He participated actively in projects aiming to humanize health care and education. He has also organized demonstrations calling for worldwide nuclear disarmament, and helped lead human support campaigns for humanist projects in Bangladesh and Mozambique.
Chris has represented U.S. New Humanists at humanist conferences and gatherings in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil. He has played an active role in North American projects of support for grass-roots international movements such as the Zapatistas in the Chiapas region of Mexico and the inspiring process of non-violent revolution that is unfolding now in Bolivia. In November, 2007, Chris traveled to La Paz to take part in the 2nd Latin American Humanist Forum. During this trip, he was honored to participate in a ceremony at Tiawanaku, the sacred site of the pre-Incan civilization, and in the opening of the Forum, addressed by Evo Morales and by Tomas Hirsch, the Latin American Spokesperson for New Humanism.
Chris proudly marched with other New Humanists against the invasion of Iraq before it was launched, and in March 2007 & 2008 helped to organize Living Signs of Peace and Non-violence in New York City, protesting the occupation. His other recent activities include several radio interviews, and various actions against a planned US radar base in the Czech Republic (part of the so-called missile defense shield). In April, 2008, Chris joined Jan Tamas, Chair of the Czech Humanist Party and leader of a strong movement against the base, in meetings with Noam Chomsky and Dennis Kucinich.
Last year, Chris was invited to address the 1st International Symposium of the World Center of Humanist Studies, held in Punta de Vacas, Argentina. He presented a talk entitled “A Brief Summary of The Statement of the Humanist Movement” to a distinguished audience including Rodrigo Carazo, former president of Costa Rica and founder of the University for Peace, and Bolivian Senator Gaston Cornejo. During that same weekend, he joined in the launching of the 1st ever World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which he will be actively promoting between now and its conclusion in January, 2010.
Chris is an actor by profession and lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
