VISIONS & VOICES
“VISIONS OF HOPE, VOICES OF PEACE” FREE PEACE CONCERT
THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
Thursday, September 21, 2006, The International Day of Peace, established by a UN resolution in 1981, provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date. For the first time, The International Day of Peace will be brought to Pittsfield, MA, beginning with Mayor James Ruberto joining 622 mayors across the globe with the “Mayors For Peace” initiative requesting their respective municipalities to engage in a minute of silence. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki began this international campaign in the eighties to promote world peace on local community levels. This will happen at 12 noon at Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road, Pittsfield, MA., 413-445-4872 (MORE INFO ON PEACE DAY BELOW).
At 1pm, following a lunch at Knesset Israel, three short films produced and directed by Fidel Moreno, will be screened with a discussion to follow. The films are, “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For”, a short film produced for Bruce Springsteen with a strong anti-war message and a Hopi Prayer statement. “All My Relations-Sacred Mandela” and “This Land Is My Land, Blood, Bone and All” will be presented. “All My Relations” was a project produced for National Geographic on the connectedness of all life on planet Earth and “This Land is My Land” was commissioned by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and is a powerful musical narrative combined with early 1900 circa Edward Curtis Photographs and contemporary film footage of First Nations People and Aboriginal Cultures from North America, South and Central America, Africa and Asia.
Also at 12, noon, there will be a "PEACE SHUFFLE" (slippers optional) held in Great Barrington, MA led by musician extraordinaire and long time Berkshire resident Rick Tiven. The "PEACE SHUFFLE" will be slow, short, deliberate and heartfelt, and be comprised of one loop around Railroad Street to Maple Street to Main Street and back to the start of Railroad Street.
At 7pm on Thursday, September 21, the International Day of Peace, at the Methodist Church, 55 Fern Street in Pittsfield, Healing Winds is excited to present, “Visions of Hope, Voices of Peace” featuring well known Berkshire musicians performing a FREE, COMMUNITY, Peace & Prayer Concert focusing on World Peace & Harmony. The musicians are Mark Kelso, Day Mountain Children’s Choir, Carol Emanuel, Rick Tiven, Robby Baier, Adam Rothberg, Shirley Edgerton-Gospel Trio, RasMoon, Linda Worster, Juan Basilio Sanchez, Joanne Spies, Jeb Colwell, Sonya Sadoway, Kri Blowsie, and The Berkshire Highlanders. (BIOS below)
The concert will begin with a moment of silence, interfaith prayer and meditation music, followed by songs dedicated towards peace, harmony, love, hope and joy. Enjoy folk, jazz, rock, blues, reggae, flamenco, gospel, rap, classical, bluegrass, and Scottish Highland Bagpipes, all celebrating the spirit of world peace. UN Representative for Pathways to Peace, Michael Johnson, and award winning photojournalist and international peace activist Jane Feldman will host the event. ADMISSION IS FREE. From 6pm – 7pm there will be a Peace Networks and related organizations reception at the Methodist Church.
Interviews with musicians are available. For more information please call 413-553-0736 or email humanityinconcert@earthlink.net.
Peace Day
21 September, Annually
Culture of Peace Initiative
Peace Begins With Ourselves,
Living In Harmony With One Another
And With The Earth
What: The International Day of Peace (Peace Day) provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date. Peace Day serves annually to highlight the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, 2001 to 2010. Established by a United Nations resolution in 1981, the International Day of Peace was first celebrated September 1982. [Please see article below: “Background of the Annual International Day of Peace”]
When: Annually, 21 September — International Day of Peace (Peace Day)
Where: Wherever you are.
Who: You and all who care about building Cultures of Peace for the children of this and future generations.
Why: To mark our individual and collective progress toward building Cultures of Peace, and serve as a reminder of our permanent commitment to Peace, above all interests and differences of any kind.
Individuals and Nations, acting in concert, DO make a difference
in the quality of our lives, our institutions, our environment and our planetary future.
Through co-operation, we manifest the essential Spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.
How: Through various paths to personal and planetary Peace, such as:
© Build a Peace Wave throughout the world during one Minute of Silence of Peace the International Day of Peace, and at NOON every day, in our common commitment to Peace.
© Ring a bell, light a candle for Peace.
© Plan a local event--use schools, places of worship, libraries, parks, or municipal buildings to host events and to build inter-generational partnerships within your community.
© Incorporate silence, prayer, and meditation into your plans.
© Promote local media attention for the Day. Publish an editorial on Peace Day in a newspaper or magazine.
© Ask your government officials to proclaim each 21 September as the International Day of Peace (Peace Day) Holiday.
© Or… whatever inspires you as a PeaceBuilder!
Please let us know about your organisation’s Peace Day activity by contacting Pathways To Peace at mailto:info@pathwaystopeace.org
“A Silence That Is Heard Around The World”
—San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 19, 1984,
Noon, International Day of Peace
Background of the annual International Day of Peace (21 September)
The International Day of Peace, established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly, was first celebrated on the third Tuesday of September 1982. Beginning 2002, the UN General Assembly set 21 September as the now permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
In establishing the International Day of Peace, the United Nations General Assembly decided that it would be appropriate “to devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of mankind, to promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways… (The International Day of Peace) should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”
The Assembly’s resolution declared that the International Day of Peace “will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our Organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the Organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace. May this Peace Day indeed be a day of peace.”[Quotes excerpted from the United Nations General Assembly Resolution UN/A/RES/36/67]
[Quote from the UN Resolution UN/A/RES/55/282 which amends the date of the International Day of Peace to 21 September]:
“The Assembly, reaffirming the contribution that the observance and celebration of the International Day of Peace make in strengthening the ideals of peace and alleviating tensions and causes of conflict, (decided that) beginning with the fifty-seventh session, the Day should be observed on 21 September each year, with this date to be brought to the attention of all people for the celebration and observance of peace.”
