30 Facts About Kathy Kelly

Kathy Kelly was born on 1952 and is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and, until the campaign closed in 2020, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Kathy Kelly has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of US military bombardment and inmates of US prisons.

Kathy Kelly attended St Paul-Kennedy "shared-time" high school, which split her days between a Catholic institution where she was given the writings of Daniel Berrigan and Martin Luther King Jr.

Kathy Kelly obtained her BA from Loyola University Chicago working a succession of night jobs to help cover tuition, including a stint on a meat-packing factory line which inspired her to become a lifelong vegetarian.

Kathy Kelly helped organize and participated in several nonviolent direct action teams in war zones outside Iraq: Bosnia in December 1992 and August 1993, and Haiti in the summer of 1994.

In 1993, after her return from Bosnia, Kathy Kelly became a full-time caregiver to her father, assisted by a network of former Iraq peace team members now living in and around her and her father's shared Uptown apartment.

In March 2003, Kathy Kelly returned to Baghdad shortly before the start of the Iraq War, witnessing the Shock and Awe bombardment, and remaining for two months.

Kathy Kelly narrated her experiences of bombardment for Westerners via antiwar and religious witness websites.

In November of that same year Kathy Kelly joined 43 other activists crossing illegally into the Fort Benning US Army base as part of the annual School of the Americas Watch vigil, and incurred a three-month prison sentence which she carried out in Illinois' Pekin Prison in 2004, to which she was seen off by longtime friend Studs Terkel.

In 2005, Kathy Kelly announced that Voices in the Wilderness disbanded, and the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence was formed to continue challenging US military and economic warfare against Iraq and other countries.

In January 2009, Kathy Kelly had helped organize "Camp Hope: Countdown to Change," a 19-day winter vigil two blocks from the Chicago home of then-President-Elect Barack Obama, but she spent most of the length of the vigil in Egypt and in the Gaza Strip, witnessing Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead assault on the region, living with a Gazan family in a neighborhood skirting the area under heaviest bombardment.

In May and June 2009, Kathy Kelly traveled to Pakistan with a small VCNV delegation, including activist Gene Stoltzfus, that met with organizations and families in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Shah Mansour, Tarbella, and Lahore, reporting back with essays.

In May 2010 Kathy Kelly made another Pakistan trip alongside activists Simon Harak and Josh Brollier.

Kathy Kelly made two other visits to Afghanistan in 2010, working closely with Bamiyan province's Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Kathy Kelly's delegation helped them post internet transcripts of most of these events on their website.

Kathy Kelly returned with Voices to Afghanistan in March and early April 2011.

Kathy Kelly stayed a week in solidarity with the arrested Greek captain until bail could be arranged, then attempted to reach Gaza by plane in the "Flytilla", but was denied entry to Israel and returned to Greece.

Kathy Kelly returned unexpectedly to Kabul for one week in February 2012 after having been denied a visa to enter Bahrain with the February 14th delegation of Witness Bahrain activists seeking to support demonstrations on the one-year anniversary of that country's suppressed Arab Spring uprising.

Kathy Kelly arranged travel to Gaza in hurried response to Israel's November 2012 "Pillar of Defense" bombardment, arriving one day after a ceasefire and spending the following two weeks visiting bombing sites and interviewing survivors.

In 2012 Kathy Kelly helped initiate the Afghan Peace Volunteers' "Duvet Project", using foreign donations to produce duvet comforters for free distribution to Afghans in the winter months.

In visits over these years, Kathy Kelly helped form the APV's women's community.

In May 2014 Kathy Kelly travelled to Jeju Island in South Korea to join in local protests against a naval base being built on the island for use by the United States.

Kathy Kelly stood trial for trespassing in December 2014 and in late February 2015 began serving a three-month sentence at the "FMC Lexington" federal prison in Kentucky, her fourth stay in a US federal prison.

In June 2016, Kathy Kelly traveled to five cities in the Russian Federation seeking to build activist connections opposing a revitalized cold war, and to report Russian perspectives on increasing NATO military buildup along the country's borders.

In January 2017 Kathy Kelly was convicted of trespass for having obstructed transit at an April 2016 Black Lives Matter demonstration protesting the Minnesota police's shooting of Jamar Clark.

The 2019 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw Kathy Kelly interrupting regular journeys to Kabul.

From 2012 through 2018 Kathy Kelly accompanied Voices on peace walks, in 2012 from Madison, Wisconsin, to a NATO summit in Chicago, in 2013 from Rock Island to Des Moines Air National Guard base, in 2014 from Chicago to the Air National Guard base at Battle Creek, Michigan, and in 2018 from Savannah, Georgia to Georgia's Kings Bay Naval Base in support of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7.

Kathy Kelly has reported on her time on peace teams and in prison in numerous articles for peace and religious journals, and for websites such as CounterPunch and CommonDreams.

Kathy Kelly is co-author of "Prisoners on Purpose: a Peacemakers Guide to Jails and Prison".

Kathy Kelly spends much of her time touring the country on speaking engagements for schools, churches, festivals, and activist groups from whom she accepts but does not require a stipend.