Peace Week 2026 was celebrated from January 20–23, and the theme, Grounded in Spirit, Growing in Peace, invited us to draw strength from our inner Light as we nurture peace within ourselves and extend it to others. We were delighted to welcome Willie Perdomo ’85 as our 2026 Peace Week speaker. Perdomo presented his address to the Friends Seminary community on Thursday, January 22 in the Meetinghouse.
Friends Seminary was honored to welcome acclaimed poet, educator, and alumnus Willie Perdomo ’85 as the keynote speaker for Peace Week 2026. During an inspiring two days on campus, Willie engaged students across all three divisions through assemblies, conversations, and poetry workshops, culminating in a special session with Grades 3 and 4 students who wrote and performed original poems under his guidance. His visit also included an evening keynote in the Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse, where he reflected on the formative role Friends Seminary played in his life and shared powerful insights on poetry, peace, community, and the practice of listening. Through his words, performances, and dialogue with students, Willie helped bring this year’s Peace Week theme, Growing in Peace, Grounded in Spirit, vividly to life.
Peace Week 2027 will take place January 11-15.
2025
Growing Together through Silence and Dialogue
Meredith Evans '90, speaker
2024
The Threads of Our Community
Joy Harjo, speaker
2023
Gender Equity: Empowerment and Solidarity in the Struggle for Justice
Masih Alinejad, speaker
2022
Let Your Life Speak: Reflecting on the Testimonies and Our Mission
Community Meeting for Worship
2021
Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture & Identity
Winona Guo and Priya Gulchi, speakers
2020
Our Climate Our Future
David Wallace-Wells, speaker
2019
Justice and Mercy: Transforming Conflict into Connection
Bryan Stevenson, speaker
2018
Seeking Refuge: the Ethics and Politics of Migration and Immigration
Sonia Nazzario, speaker
2017
The New America: Listening Across the Divides
George Packer, speaker
2016
Let Your Life Speak
Chelsea Clinton, speaker
Photo Gallery
Speech
2015
A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunities
Nicholas Kristof and Maro Chermayeff, speakers
2014
Legacies of Peace: Choosing to Use the Gift of our Lives to Make the World a Better Place
Maggie Doyne, Neil Blumenthal ‘98 and Dr. Oliver Rothschild ‘98, speakers
2013
Building Bridges: Peace Through Understanding
Teri McLuhan, speaker
2012
Peace Like a River: Water as Matter and Metaphor
Michael Arad, speaker
2011
Educating for Peace: Friends Seminary and 225 Years of Quaker Education
Steve Emerson Irene McHenry Bruce Stewart, speakers
2010
Beyond the Numbers: The Economics of Peace
Jeffrey Sachs, speaker
2009
In the Presence of Justice: The Politics of Peace
Mary Robinson, speaker
2008
War Letters: Both Said and Sung
Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Palmedo and Crystal Sikora, speakers
2007
Environmental Stewardship – A Pathway to Peace
James Turrell, speaker
2006
Nonviolence in the Age of Terrorism
Arun Gandhi, speaker
2005
The Diplomat, the Activist and the Academic
Pierre Schori, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Tuchman Mathews, speakers