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Peace Week 2015 Theme and Speakers Announced
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof and renowned filmmaker Maro Chermayeff will kick-off Peace Week 2015. The week's theme is Power & Persuasion: Art as Social Commentary.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof and renowned filmmaker Maro Chermayeff will kick-off Friends Seminary’s annual Peace Week with a public lecture in the Meetinghouse on Monday, February 9.
Peace Week is an annual exploration of the fundamental Quaker testimony of peace. Each year, a theme is chosen to guide the community in planning lessons, activities or events. Peace Week 2015 centers on the theme of Power & Persuasion: Art as Social Commentary. Our community will examine the role the arts play in social transformation — connecting with artists who use various mediums to help bring about the change they wish to see in the world.
In support of this powerful theme, Kristof and Chermayeff will present A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunities — a lecture and discussion about their newly-released book and film series of the same title on February 9 at 7 p.m. with a reception beforehand at 6:30. (To attend, please fill out this form.) The lecture on February 9 coincides with the premiere of the film’s third installment on PBS. The first and second installments will premiere on January 26 and February 2, respectively. To pre-order the book, please follow this link.
Throughout the rest of the week, students and teachers will explore the arts as cultural tools that help to humanize and actualize the emotions, grievances, and fears of those who may not have another place to voice concerns. The Friends community will examine how the arts in their diverse iterations can serve as a catalyst that enables and even accelerates social change.
The 2014-2015 Faith & Practice Committee poses these queries to the community as we consider the power that rests within each of us as creators, artists, and community members:
- How can art and design open dialogue about a community’s history, culture, and needs, both social and environmental?
- How might I through art connect more deeply with my community and other communities?
- How have I been transformed as a viewer and/or participant in the artistic act? What will or should my response be?
- How might I use my own creative spirit to deepen my spiritual life and transform the world around me?
Past Peace Week Themes and Guest Speakers:
Peace Week 2005
The Diplomat, the Activist and the Academic
Pierre Schori, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Tuchman Mathews
Peace Week 2006
Nonviolence in the Age of Terrorism
Arun Gandhi
Peace Week 2007
Environmental Stewardship: A Pathway to Peace
James Turrell
Peace Week 2008
War Letters: Both Said and Sung
Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Palmedo and Crystal Sikora
Peace Week 2009
In the Presence of Justice: The Politics of Peace
Mary Robinson and Linda Biehl
Peace Week 2010
Beyond the Numbers: The Economics of Peace
Jeffrey Sachs
Peace Week 2011
Quaker Education: Past, Present and Future
Steve Emerson, Bruce Stewart and Irene McHenry
Peace Week 2012
Peace Like a River: Water as Metaphor and Matter
Michael Arad
Peace Week 2013
Building Bridges: Peace through Understanding
Teri McLuhan and Patricia McCormick
Peace Week 2013
Building Bridges: Peace through Understanding
Teri McLuhan and Patricia McCormick
Peace Week 2014
Legacies of Peace: Choosing to Use the Gift of Our Lives to Make the World a Better Place
Maggie Doyne, Neil Blumenthal and Oliver Rothschild
Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
