Lina Marcela Sarmiento Tellez 

Karilyn Crockett

2024 UN International Day of Peace Boston

Cultivating a Culture of Peace


Sunday, September 22, 2024 at 2-4pm ET

The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul (138 Tremont Street, Boston) 

Park Street MBTA Station

Sara Ting

Dawn Duncan

Rev. Vernon K Walker

A program of Music, Arts, & Peace Education led by emcee Dawn Duncan, including brief presentations by peacemakers such as Sara Ting, Joanna Don, Karilyn Crockett, Zakiya Alake, Ron Bell, Leigh Meunier and Rev. Vernon Walker regarding their work, with artistic performances by Cellist Miranda Henne, Singer Lina Marcela Sarmiento Tellez, and Spoken Word Poet Zenaida Peterson. It will conclude with a tribute to longtime organizer, Ian Harrington, from our friend, John Bach, and a reading of the list of recent local victims of violence. We will then walk to the nearby Garden of Peace to pray for peace among stones engraved with the names of local victims of violence.

2024 UN International Day of Peace Program (order subject to change)

Opening                                       Dawn Duncan, Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness (MCNAA)

Land Acknowledgement              Dawn Duncan

Sara Ting CEO, World Unity, Inc.

Rev. Vernon Walker                     Clean Water Action

Leigh Meunier                       Climate CREW/Better Future Project

Miranda Henne (cellist)                         Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor

Karilyn Crockett                  Assistant Professor of Urban History, Public Policy & Planning, Hacking the Archive (MIT)

Zakiya Alake                        Fair Housing and Equity, Boston

Lina Marcela Sarmiento Tellez           Singing

Joanna Don                          Emerson Prison Initiative

Ron Bell               Dunk the Vote

Zenaida Peterson (poet)                       Spoken Word

In Honor of Ian Harrington      John Bach, Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) representative at Harvard

In Honor of Victims of Violence   Dawn Duncan, Don Gianniny, and Kim West

Walk to Garden of Peace

We also have a few tables set up for information about these organizations and others, including Alda Witherspoon of The Witherspoon Institute and the Department of Public Health.

Miranda Henne

Leigh Meunier

Zakiya Alake

We have planned and organized the Boston area celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace each year since 2010. This year's theme is "Cultivating a Culture of Peace." "In a world with rising geopolitical tensions and protracted conflicts, there has never been a better time to remember how the UN General Assembly came together in 1999 to lay out the values needed for a culture of peace. These include: respect for life, human rights and fundamental freedoms; the promotion of non-violence through education, dialogue and cooperation; commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts; and adherence to freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, cultural diversity, dialogue and understanding at all levels of society and among nations." – UN site

Zenaida Peterson

Ron Bell

Ian Harrington

Our Thanks

This event was made possible by great contributions from the speakers and musicians on the program and the contributions of many others, including the following: