On September 24th, the Yes Salon hosted Poems for Peace ~ LA, a collaborative, interactive celebration of the UN’s International Day of Peace.
“Poems live in our music, our holy books and in our hearts’ says Lael Belove, founder of YES Salon and director of SICA’s Poems for Peace project in Los Angeles. “Poems for Peace allows diverse communities to explore and celebrate what peace means to each of us—to open our hearts through the arts.”
This follows in the footsteps of SICA’s launch of Poems for Peace® in Austin, which became a global initiative and inspired a city-wide celebration of Peace Day reaching over a million people. The launch in LA has also inspired growing and committed partnerships for peace dedicated to getting the city of Los Angeles to formally adopt this initiative to spark citywide engagement in Peace Day.
Festivities included:
- Interactive improvisational theatre games led by Ed Greenberg, (Chicago’s the Second City and Laughter for a Change), with members of the musical improv group Robot Teammate and the Accidental Party
- Poetic penlight performances by Susan Sims Hillbrand, Artist In Residence for USC IGM Art Gallery,
- Didgeridoo “Call to Peace” by David Sonnenschein, Amity Foundation poets and artists,
- Acclaimed voiceover actress Martitia Powell-Palmer, poet/founder of The Reacher’s Club
- Ronisha Hayden, a poet from The Art of Autism
- Robin Borakove in her very Fairie Queen of Peace persona
- JD Payza sharing the Hip Hop Declaration of Peace
- A screening of Poets for Global Justice founder Dr. Drew Dellinger reading his poem “Hieroglyphic Stairway”.
The International Day of Peace, a.k.a. “Peace Day,” was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. In 2001, the UN fixed the date of Peace Day as the 21st of September each year. Since then, communities around the world, particularly in the US, have expanded the celebration which begins on 9/11 and continues through the week of September 21. The UN International Day of Peace calls on the people of the world to reaffirm their commitment to living in harmony as members of a single human family.
About Yes Salon International
YES is an acronym for Your Essential Self. YES collaborates with many groups in hosting a wide range of live interactive community cultural events, each focusing on a response to the question, “What are you saying YES to?” YES Salon believes that we change the world for the better one YES at a time. The theme for this year’s September event is Say YES to Peace.
About Subud International Cultural Association (SICA)
The Subud International Cultural Association (SICA) is a nonprofit organization providing programs and services to individuals and organizations working in the fields of art, culture, and creativity for the development of human values across all fields of human endeavor. SICA believes the development of individual talent is critical to building love and respect among people everywhere. SICA, which has a constituency in almost 90 countries, is an active member of the International Coalition of NGOs for Peace jointly led by Peace One Day and Interpeace, a partner organization of the Charter for Compassion, and Americans for the Arts. Poems for Peace® website: http://www.poems-for-peace.org/