2016 UN International Day of Peace Boston
Sunday 18th September 2016 at 2 pm
Cambridge Common
at the Civil War Memorial
near the Garden Street/ Mass Ave entrance
Music, Dance, Song, Poetry,
Artwork, & Peace Education
View highlights of the 2016 celebration
United Nations Theme for 2016 International Day of Peace:
"The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace"
Program for 2016
Welcome Rev. Rodney Dailey
Opening Prayers Rev. Kate Layzer, Daryush Mehta
Cambridge Peace Commission Brian Corr
Resist the Pipeline Alex Place
Liturgical Dancers National Liturgical Dance Network - MA Chapter
Proclamations Rev. Rodney Dailey
Veteran Poet Eric Wasileski
Participatory Dance Kaeza Fearn
Japan Constitution David Rothauser
Albioni’s Adagio in G Minor Miranda Henne
LIPGLOSS Susan Flint
Friday Forum
Restorative Justice Janet Connors
Louis D Brown Peace Institute Tina Chery
St Paul AME Church Men’s Choir Ministry God is Good and Lean on Me
Values Over Violence Robert Lewis, Rev. Rodney Petersen
WS Monroe & Rebecca Leuchak Give Light and People Will Find a Way;
River of Song; and Peace, Salaam, Shalom
Closing Ceremony Rev. Rodney Dailey, Ian Harrington
Walk to First Church in Cambridge
About the 2016 Participants
Chaplain Clementina Chéry is the founder, President, and CEO of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a center of healing, teaching, and learning for families and communities impacted by murder, grief, trauma, and loss. She and her family founded the Peace Institute in 1994 after her fifteen-year old son Louis D. Brown was murdered in the crossfire of a shootout. With over two decades of experience as a survivor serving families impacted by murder, she has developed the best practices in the field of homicide response. Her ultimate goal is to transform society’s response to homicide so that all families are treated with dignity and compassion, regardless of the circumstances. She is recognized nationally as an expert in effective and equitable homicide response protocols. She and the Peace Institute were selected as 2016 Social Innovators by the Social Innovation Forum in recognition of the Institute’s groundbreaking solutions to social problems. She is using her platform as a Social Innovator to launch the Peace Institute’s Training and Technical Assistance Center which provides tools, training, evaluation, and consulting services to stakeholders across the country in the survivor-centered, trauma-informed methodology that she developed. She has extensive experience training public health professionals to better serve families impacted by murder and interrupt cycles of retaliatory violence. She has trained doctors, social workers, psychologists, street workers, and other providers at city and state agencies, hospitals, community-based organizations, and religious leaders. She also founded the Serving Survivors of Homicide Victims Providers Network to share the Peace Institute’s expertise with fellow providers, foster collaboration between providers across Massachusetts, and improve service delivery to families impacted by murder. She has created fundamental tools for families of murder victims and the providers who serve them, including “Always in My Heart: A Workbook for Grieving Children” (2011) and the Survivors Burial and Resource Guide (2013). She is also coauthor of an article entitled “Homicide Survivors: Research and Practice Implications” published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2005. She has received countless awards in recognition of her courageous leadership and tireless peacemaking work. Most recently, Chéry was named one of Boston’s 100 most influential leaders of color in 2016 by Collette Phillips Communications, Inc. She was also given the 2016 Impact Award by Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard University. In 2014, Salem State University Awarded her the Champion of Peace Award. She was named Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers in 2011.
Janet Connors is a long time community and social justice activist in Boston neighborhoods most affected by violence and social injustices. She brings over 45 years of experience working with youth and families in community-based organizations; including Dorchester CARES, the Louis D Brown Peace Institute, the Suffolk Center for Restorative Justice, Reflect & Strengthen, the Massachusetts Restorative Justice Collaborative, Mothers for Justice and Equality, “Legacy Lives On” Survivor Support Organization, the Visioning Bear Circle Inter-tribal Council, the Family Advisory Committee for the Department of Children and Families, the BIDMC Violence Prevention and Recovery Center, OUR RJ: Restorative Juvenile Court Diversion Program, and for the Federal Court sponsored RISE program. A survivor herself, Janet lost her son Joel to homicide and has been instrumental along with others in bringing survivors of violent crime together with those incarcerated for violent crimes in Restorative Retreats of Responsibility in a Massachusetts Prison.
Brian Corr has been the Executive Director of the Peace Commission for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts since April 2008. The Commission works with other municipal agencies, communities of faith, nonprofit organizations, and the community as a whole to: build connections and strengthen relationships; promote positive dialogue and foster understanding; and coordinate and support compassionate community responses to support recovery and healing in the wake of traumatic events and violence affecting Cambridge and its residents. Starting in September 2010, he has also served as Executive Secretary of the City’s Police Review & Advisory Board, the city’s civilian oversight agency. Mr. Corr has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) since 2012.
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.
Kaeza Fearn is committed to serving the world on a trajectory toward awakened, embodied care, honesty and interconnectedness. A sacred circle dancer for many years, she leads Global Circle Dance Meditation in Cambridge. A pianist-singer-composer, she teaches at music schools and is a music director at a Unitarian church. Kaeza is also Summits Coordinator at the change-mobilizing organization The Shift Network and has co-organized and coordinated festivals such as DevotionFest. She helps maintain and grow the website connecting the sacred circle dance network around the world (www.globalcircle.dance).
Susan Flint is the Program Director for LIPGLOSS.
Friday Forum is a group of passionate amateur musicians and kindred spirits that welcomes you to make music with us. Our name emerges from Friday evening living room gatherings at our co-op, where art happens and folk ballads are sung. We are thrilled to be a part of the International Day of Peace gathering for the second year, to celebrate life in the midst of violence and the beauty that exists in our community with mandolins, guitars, banjo, "Rise Up Singing" books, and possibly an electric washboard. Come and ring a tambourine with us!
Ian Harrington, a lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), is co-chair of the International Day of Peace Boston. A retired transportation planner, he is part of the Friends Meeting at Cambridge community.
Cellist Miranda Henne has performed in venues ranging from Paris's esteemed Madeleine to the bustling streets of Cordoba, Argentina to a school auditorium in an underserved South African township. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Henne has performed with acclaimed artists Andres Diaz, David Halen, Robert McDuffie, Amy Schwartz-Moretti, Christopher Rex, Elizabeth Pridgen, Paul Murphy, Kurt Muroki and Renée Skerik. In 2010 and 2011 she was a featured concert artist at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. She has studied and performed at the Bowdoin, Rome and Innsbrook Chamber Music Festivals as well as The Castleman Quartet Programs and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. In 2014, Apple Hill Center awarded her string quartet the Young Artist Fellowship. As a soloist, Ms. Henne has performed with the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra and at Oxford University. Her interests in new music, improvisation and folk music have led to performances with Mike Mills from R.E.M., Abigail Washburn, Mike Block, Rushad Eggleston, Hanneke Cassel, Zach Brock, Joe Walsh, Clay Ross, Bruce Molsky, Kimber Ludiker, tabla player Gurpreet Chana, Dr. Greg Liszt and piri and saengwhang player Gamin. In 2012, Ms. Henne collaborated with Shen Wei, choreographer of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Ceremony, to create and premiere The New You (2012). Ms. Henne has also premiered works by composers Libby Larson and Joseph Gregorio. From 2014 to 2015, as a member in the New Music Ensemble at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, she worked closely with composers like Alexina Louie. From 2012-2014, she performed regularly with a rock band in Dallas, TX and from 2014-2015 she performed in a duo with Canadian fiddler Nathan Smith. Ms. Henne has taught cello to students of all ages (at one point maintaining a studio of 28 cello students), coached chamber ensembles, and taught music appreciation courses. In 2015 and 2016, Ms. Henne was a Resident Artist at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Dorchester, MA.
Rev. Kate Layzer is the Minister of Street Outreach at First Church in Cambridge and a minister of the Outdoor Church of Cambridge. She participated in Occupy Boston as a protest chaplain, and was a co-founder of Boston Warm, a daytime drop-in space for the Boston homeless community.
Daryush Mehta is the Zoroastrian Chaplain at Harvard and MIT, an active member of the Zoroastrian Association of the Greater Boston Area, and a research scientist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in the field of voice and speech disorders. Although not a minister by training, Daryush's maternal grandfather, Dasturji N. D. Minochehr-Homji, was a High Priest of the Zoroastrian community in Bombay and an eminent religious scholar. His grandfather’s teachings, kindness, and philosophy of dialog and inclusion are imbibed within Daryush.
WS Monroe and Rebecca Leuchak have been singing together for more than 40 years, performing both as a duo, and in other configurations. Their repertoire consists mostly of traditional music of North America and Great Britain, with a few original compositions and songs of other musicians who write mainly in the traditional style. They hail, originally, from southeastern Pennsylvania, but now make their home in Providence, RI, where they are founding members of the Quahog Quire, an a cappella group performing mostly traditional songs for group singing.
The National Liturgical Dance Network was founded by Reverend Eyesha Marable and was developed to provide organizational development and leadership training to Christians who participate in, lead, or have a vision to begin liturgical dance ministries at their respective churches. For the Massachusetts chapter, Pastor Vanessa Osgood and Pastor Terésa Carter serve as the Adult Division and Youth/Children Division Leaders of the Massachusetts Chapter.
Rodney L. Petersen is Executive Director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries and of The Lord's Day Alliance of the U.S. He is a Visiting Researcher at the Boston University School of Theology’s Center for Global Christianity and Mission. A Presbyterian minister, Rodney is author of a wide bibliography on Just Peacemaking.
Alex Place grew up in Milton, MA and started Colby College focusing on environmental policy. Upon realizing oil companies own the political process, he transferred to Babson College to study sustainability is business. Since graduation, Alex has worked in sustainable development (clean water and solar energy) in Guatemala, started a health company (SAHNA.org) focused on manufacturing workers in Mexico City, and founded a Boston non-profit (H2kn0.org) that funds healthy water programs in schools and communities.
David Rothauser, a filmmaker, teacher, actor, director, and writer has been a peace activist since before the Vietnam war. He was a recipient of the Sacco-Vanzetti Social Justice Award from the Community Church of Boston. His film, Hibakusha, Our Life to Live, was honored by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). His new film, Article 9 Comes to America, was shown at the 2015 NPT Conference.
A portion of the St. Paul AME Church Men’s Choir Ministry stands here today as free black men of God – caring for our families, church, and community. We represent one of 7,000 African Methodist Episcopal congregations including over 2.5 million (not only black) members worldwide, the largest black church in the world. The AME Church grew out of the Free African Society, which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and other free blacks established in Philadelphia in 1787. This organization worked alongside Quakers in Pennsylvania to help free black slaves not be recaptured into slavery. FAS taught free slaves men and women how to read and write to navigate society at that time. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones left St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church because of discrimination, a form of violence. When officials at St George’s church violently pulled blacks off their knees while praying, the FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. These members of St George made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Richard Allen then became the first AME bishop. The Black Methodist church in the United States was formally organized in 1816.
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 poetry book Live Free or Die, Human Error publishing.
Thanks to our 2016 Sponsors
(with links to their websites)
American Friends Service Committee
City of Cambridge Arts Council
City of Cambridge Peace Commission
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Foundation for a World Democratic Federation
Friends Meeting at Cambridge (Quakers)
Jewish Voice for Peace - Boston
LIPGLOSS