NEW YORK | Over 300 people attended VOICES 2015 on December 1 at Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts Theatre to hear stories about the ways that Seeds and other changemakers are having an impact in communities divided by conflict.
The event, organized by the Seeds of Peace Young Leadership Committee, raised nearly $50,000 in support of Seeds of Peace’s mission. It featured a blend of alumni speakers and stand-up comedians, who provided the entertainment during the second half of the evening.
“The goal was two-fold: one to have a more substantive program of what Seeds of Peace is and does, and then to have a good time and feel good about the event overall,” said Seeds of Peace Programs and Events Associate Clarke Reeves. “We wanted to celebrate and show what Seeds of Peace has done this year and look at what some of our former graduates are doing at the operational level.”
During the first part of the evening’s program, Seeds Liat Berry and Christina Hawatmeh spoke about their projects in representation of the first class of GATHER Fellow. The Fellowship helps Seeds and other emerging leaders advance their social change projects.
“We’re seeing the impact that Seeds of Peace experiences had on people who are now in their 20s or 30s,” said Seeds of Peace Counselor Naomi Hornstein. “There’s now more of a focus on graduate programming and further developing the leaders that we started working with when they were 15 years old.”
“They’re now in positions where they can start being people of influence in their communities more than they were when they were teenagers,” said Reeves. “If they’re still connected to Seeds of Peace at that time, that’s the ideal situation if you have cohorts in any delegation and they are now in their prime area to exert their influence.”
The second part of the program featured a celebrity comedian marathon, hosted by Negin Farsad. Dean Obeidallah (Comedy Central, The View, CNN, MSNBC) kicked off the comedy and was then followed by Rachel Feinstein (Last Comic Standing), Hasan Minhaj (The Daily Show) and Myq Kaplan (Comedy Central, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman).
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