Sunday, September
21, 2008
International Day of Peace
Our Journey
Home: Finding Peace through Creativity
How
is peace a creative act?
How can one individual make a difference?
The Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Writer’s Group presented its second Art of Peace Festival on September 21, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We and the event’s participants were thrilled to be one of many such events happening across the globe at the same time, celebrating the day of ceasefire established by the UN in 2001. It was a very rich day full of presentations, workshops, readings and performances, an art show, and a Labyrinth participants could walk on throughout the day.
Our Peace Art Gallery held works by both American and Iraqi artists, which included work by Jane Evershed and Tacoumba Aikin. We hung 25 paintings from Iraq, work that the Iraqi artists are not able to show in their own country. The art was placed so that paintings by Americans and Iraqis were side by side, representing comity and a shared hope for reconciliation and healing. See our gallery page for images from the art show.
The day began with presentations by Loft instructor Carol Pearce Bjorlie, who spoke on the artist’s response to the times, and a presentation from Sami Rasouli, who gave a moving update on what life is like right now on the ground in Iraq. Sami is instrumental in creating the Muslim Peacemaker Teams and related projects, including efforts to connect Americans and Iraqis as well as establish a sister city relationship between Minneapolis and his home city of Najaf.
The festival continued with workshops where Carol introduced students to “the lyric voice”, Sami spoke one on one with participants to answer more questions about Iraq and his work, an introduction to Nonviolence Peaceforce (an international organization that sends nonpartisan teams of unarmed civilian peacemakers into war zones around the world), an artmaking/peacemaking workshop, and a workshop on Labyrinths.
Following our workshops, the Taste of India (St. Louis Park) provided everyone a delicious meal that was much appreciated.
We then convened for performances and readings which included readings by Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Clem Nagel, Michael Kiesow Moore, and Todd Boss. Voices for Peace began and ended the show, and Pangea World Theater presented a work called Gaia that they created just for this event, which included an interactive element.
All in all, this year’s Art of Peace festival was a success. Many participants spoke enthusiastically about our rich programming and said our gallery art show was “stunning”. Most importantly, we got people thinking and talking about peace, envisioning peace as something that can be had individually and on a global scale, and that art and creativity are important paths to such visions.
Our success could not have been possible without the 25 volunteers who helped all weekend. It was an honor to work with so many incredible people who yearn for a more peaceful world, here at home and abroad.
Pangea World Theater
Voices for Peace
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Peace and Social Justice Writers Group
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