As an award-winning media producer, JP Keenan has worked on a variety of projects, most recently as the Multimedia Director at Sojourners. Through animation, podcasting, documentary, or design he loves being able to tell stories through any format. He's traveled and shot various documentaries around the country and is most passionate about using film to inspire folks to get involved in social justice. He's also always open to tossing a frisbee around or grabbing chips & queso if you're in D.C.
Posts By This Author
Photos from #NationalWalkoutDay
On March 14, one month since a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. left 17 dead, thousands of students around the country staged a walkout from their schools. These are photos from the Washington, D.C., walkout that ended outside the White House.
7 #CalvinistPickupLines You Wish You Knew in High School
Image via VGstockstudio/Shutterstock.com
In the last 24 hours, a steady stream of #CalvinistPickUpLines have leaned heavily on the five points of Calvinism — lines that surely would have made Lyman Beecher blush.
Hillary Makes History: 12 Memorable Photos From the DNC
Hillary Clinton walks in stage to accept the nomination. Image by JP Keenan/Sojourners
The Democratic National Convention concluded Thursday, and Hillary Clinton made history as she formally accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan takes us behind the scenes and through the crowds as delegates across the country witness history.
PHOTOS: POTUS Speaks and Other Moments from the DNC
Two delegates watch on as President Obama’s introduction video plays above in the Wells Fargo Arena.
The Democratic National Convention kicked off Monday, and Hillary Clinton made history by officially being named the Democratic nominee for president. Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan takes us behind the scenes and through the crowds as delegates across the country witness history.
PHOTOS: On the Day Hillary Clinton Is Nominated, a Look Inside the DNC
“We might have varying opinions on stuff but that eventually we’re going to come together.” Rachel Stein, a delegate for Bernie Sanders, on her hopes for America.
The Democratic National Convention kicked off Monday, and on Tuesday Hillary Clinton made history by officially being named the Democratic nominee for president. Who attends conventions, and what are their priorities for the party in the 2016 elections and beyond? Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan takes us behind the scenes and through the crowds as delegates across the country witness history.
After the Credits: A Parting Look at the RNC
The Republican National Convention wrapped up late Thursday night in Cleveland, Ohio. Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan captures the mood on the last day of the convention.
Scenes from Day 4 at the RNC: 'It's Been a Carnival'
The Republican National Convention kicked off its final event Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio. Who attends conventions, and what are their priorities for the party in the 2016 elections and beyond? Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan takes us behind the scenes and through the crowds on the last day of the convention.
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From the Ground: Republican National Convention Kicks Off With Protests, Cowboy Hats
The U.S.' two major political party conventions kick off this week with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 18-21. Who attends conventions, and what are their priorities for the party in the 2016 elections and beyond? Sojourners Web and Multimedia Associate JP Keenan takes us behind the scenes and through the crowds on the first day of the convention.
WATCH: 7 Reasons Men Should Not Be Pastors
"Can women really lead in the church?" We still hear this question in our churches, often coupled with silly, irrational, or demeaning thinking. Would we put up with the same excuses for excluding men from leadership?
A Carnival of Creation
Image via Carnival De Resistance
First started in 2013, the Carnival de Resistance is a traveling arts carnival using dance, music, participatory theater, and fire performance to recover the ecological themes in the gospels and the Hebrew scriptures. During the carnival, midway games, costumed characters, and theater performance under the big top "enchant people of all ages with a holy wildness that questions faith in progress and technology."
California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Assisted Suicide Bill
Image via mayakova // Shutterstock
In a controversial decision, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on Monday that allows physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. As a former Jesuit seminary student, Gov. Brown said the decision was difficult but that he wanted to give terminally ill patients all the options to consider.
WATCH: A March for Immigration Reform — 100 Women, 100 Miles
Photo via JP Keenan / Sojourners
This short documentary profiles 100 women who marched 100 miles to Washington, D.C., to call for comprehensive immigration reform. Inspired by the message of Pope Francis, these women believe immigration is a women's issue.
Sustained by Hope
Members of the #100Women100 Miles Pilgrimage at the Basilica in Washington, DC. Photo by JP Keenan / Sojourners
To have a group of mostly Hispanic immigrant women at the Basilica, holding aloft quotes about immigration from history’s first South American pope who would deliver a Mass entirely in Spanish the very next day—who would have ever envisioned this scene just a few years ago? It would have seemed absurd or a delusional fantasy at best. Yet here they were. And their stories and their witness are a ray of hope to sustain those fighting to fix our deeply broken immigration system.
WATCH: Writing Poetry From Prison
This short documentary profiles Rafael, a member of the Free Minds Book Club, as he explains what writing poetry from prison means to him.
Ninth-Grader Arrested After Homemade Clock Suspected of Being a Bomb
Image via Youtube / Dallas Morning News
Ahmed Mohamed, 14, loves to invent gadgets in his free time. He brought a homemade digital clock to school on Sept. 14, but his teachers weren’t impressed.
Ahmed’s teacher confiscated the clock when he presented his invention. The principal and a police officer later led him to a room with multiple other officers and questioned him about the device.
Black Man Pulled Over for Making 'Direct Eye Contact' with Officer
Image from Shutterstock / Kozorez Vladislav
Less than two months since Sandra Bland was pulled over for failing to signal, John Felton was pulled over for failing to signal more than 100 feet from the location of the turn. In a moment of candor, the police officer admits he actually followed and pulled Felton over because he “made direct eye contact” with the officer.
New Orleans, 10 Years Later
Image via YurkaImmortal/Shutterstock
President Obama is visting New Orleans today, the site of catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to honor 10 years of rebuilding and growth since the storm.
The President is expected to comment on the pain, trauma, and destruction still evident, even while offering words of hope and admiration for the regrowth evident in the city over the last decade.
According to the prepared remarks, reports The Times-Picayune, Obama will comment on the failure of government to "look out for its own citizens."
Below are some of the challenges facing New Orleans today, as well as points of rebuilding and hope in the city ten years after Hurricane Katrina.
WATCH: D.C. Protesters at Planned Parenthood Answer, 'What Are You Praying For?'
Image via JP Keenan/Sojourners
On Aug. 22, thousands of activists protested at Planned Parenthoods around the county, calling for an end to funding for clinics.
The protests came on the heels of last month's viral videos, released from little-known group Center for Medical Progress, which claimed to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing illegally harvesting and selling aborted fetal organs. Planned Parenthood has argued the videos are misleadling, deceptively edited from a conversation about legal fetal tissue use for research.
Though no Planned Parenthood clinic exists in Washington, D.C., protestors gathered a "public witness prayer event" at a construction site of what organizers said was a Planned Parenthood building in process.
Sojourners went to the rally to ask attendees, many self-described people of faith, what they were praying for.
WATCH: 1 Year Later, We Asked Protesters What #BlackLivesMatter Means to Them
Sunday marked the 1-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Both in Ferguson, and across the country, the memorials and marches were held to remember those lost to police violence. Here in Washington, D.C., we attended one such demonstration and asked protesters what the #BlackLivesMatter movement has meant to them over the past year.
Indian Rapper Uses Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' To Highlight Worker Rights In India
Screengrab from jhatkaa/Youtube video
Nicki Minaj usually isn’t associated with Indian workers' rights. But that’s not stopping 27-year-old Chinnai-born rapper Sofia Ashraf from rapping against Unilever, a corporation accused of dumping waste in an Indian town. According to a local environmental group, high levels of mercury can still be traced in vegetation and soil around the former factory.