2015 UN International Day of Peace Boston
Sunday 20th September 2015 at 2 pm
Boston Common
Park Street MBTA Station @ Brewer Fountain
Music, Dance, Art & Peace Education
Program
Welcome
Rev. Rodney E. Dailey
Invocation
Rodney L. Petersen
Participatory Dances
Patti Muldoon
International Peacemaking
Joseph Gerson, AFSC
Albioni’s Adagio in G Minor
Perry Neubauer
Poetry Reading
Eric Wasileski
Folk Songs for Peace
Jeff Gordon and Bob Gaudette
National Peacemaking
Greg Williams, Rail of Justice
Peace Sing-alongs
Raging Grannies
Remembering Victims of Violence
Local Peacemaking
Ruth Rollins, Operation LIPSTICK
Singing for Peace
Likeminded Friends – Rachel Ravina, Alicen Roberts, Chris Nauman, Alyssa Baumgarten
Walk to Garden of Peace
About the Participants
Rev. Rodney E. Dailey is co-chair and emcee of the International Day of Peace Boston. He is the founder of two successful youth development and violence prevention organizations, Gang Peace and Street Peace. Rev. Dailey has worked for over twenty years to end violence in Boston’s communities.
Joseph Gerson is Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace & Economic Security Program and Director of Programs for AFSC’s Northeast Region. In 2010 and 2015 he was the lead organizer of popular mobilizations on the eve of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty Review Conferences. In 2013 he addressed the U.N. High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.
Jeff Gordon and Bob Gaudette - Jeff Gordon has been playing guitar since 2000. He plays weekly with fellow Cantabrigians for the comraderie and healing effects of music. His group has played regularly for History Classes at Bentley College to expose students to songs of the sixties. Jeff has been a featured player at Celia Slattery's Open Mikes in Somerville. He is accompanied by Bob Gaudette on bass.
Likeminded Friends - Rachel Ravina, an aspiring scholar, and Alicen Roberts, with Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, have been friends since they encountered the Agape Community, an international community linking efforts in peace, justice, sustainability, and arts. There they befriended Chris Nauman, a singer/songwriter and peace promoter from Arlington, MA. Alyssa Baumgarten, a Boston Public Schools teacher, will also join the group.
Patti Muldoon has participated in and taught various forms of sacred dance. She led movement worship at 2 churches nearby - at St. Paul's Cathedral and The Paulist Center. For the last ten+ years she has been a certified teacher of Kundalini Yoga. Patti is a Quaker active in climate, peace, youth and justice issues.
Perry Neubauer began his musical studies at an early age, concentrating on keyboard instruments. He came to the cello in his 30’s when his son picked up the violin. They still play duets and attend summer music workshops together. Perry plays regularly in amateur chamber groups in the Boston area.
Rev. Rodney L. Petersen, Ph.D. is Executive Director of The Lord’s Day Alliance in the U.S., Executive Director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, and a Research Associate at Boston University School of Theology. He is co-founder of the Religion and Conflict Transformation program now centered at Boston University and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
Raging Grannies, a singing group of older women, was formed in the 1980's. Since then they have been protesting against militarism, poverty, racism, pollution, corporate greed and other social issues and injustices. They write new lyrics to familiar tunes with a touch of humor.
Ruth Rollins, a lifelong Boston resident, has been a community organizer, activist and advocate for vicitims of domestic violence and substance abuse for nearly 20 years. Following the loss of her son, Warren Daniel Hairston, to senseless gun violence in 2007, Ruth joined the Operation LIPSTICK (Ladies Involved in Putting a Stop to Inner City Killing) Campaign in 2011. Operation LIPSTICK, an educational prevention program focusing on women’s role in illegal gun trafficking, explores the link between domestic violence and gun violence.
Eric Wasileski (M.Div) is a Persian Gulf Veteran of Operation Desert Fox. He is a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans and of Veterans for Peace. He is also active with Warrior Writers and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He will be reading from his newly released poetry book Live Free or Die, Human Error publishing.
Greg Williams has been a nonviolent activist since the late 60's. He was a CO during the Vietnam War. Greg is an Underground Conductor in his Quaker Ministry "Rail of Justice." He has journeyed to Ferguson, MO.
2015 International Day of Peace
Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The United Nations General Assembly has declared that this day be devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.
We celebrate the International Day of Peace on the Boston Common because we believe that peace is still alive; it is love and it conquers all. We do this because there is too much violence in the world. We are here because there is too much war on the earth and we should love our brothers and sisters as ourselves.
Our hope is that this event will put peace on many minds for many days to come. We hope to spread peace through sharing, by example, and by performing random acts of kindness.
--International Day of Peace Boston Organizing Committee
An Invitation to All
Please join the Organizing Committee for a viewing of the video of this celebration at our potluck dinner on Sunday, October 18th at 6:30 pm at Friends Meeting at Cambridge (5 Longfellow Park). We will gather together as a peace community to become better acquainted and learn from each other’s peace-work experiences. ALL are welcome; a dish is welcome, but not required.
InternationalDayofPeaceBoston@gmail.com for RSVP or information.
Thank you to the Event Sponsors
American Friends Service Committee – afsc.org
Be Our Guest – beourguestpartyrental.com
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries – coopmet.org
First Church in Cambridge – firstchurchcambridge.org
Friends Meeting at Cambridge – fmcquaker.org
Operation LIPSTICK – operationlipstick.org
Mass Peace Action – masspeaceaction.org
Rail of Justice
St Paul AME Church – st-paul-ame.org
Values over Violence – coopmet.wix.com\valuesoverviolence
Veterans for Peace – Smedleyvfp.com
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – wilpf.org