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Cold winds of war at peace camp for Israeli and Palestinian teens
Ha’aretz

Aug 21, 2014 / No Comments

The get-together between Israeli and Palestinian young people that is currently wrapping up in the American state of Maine hasn’t been easy. The winds of war from Gaza naturally had their impact on the discussions. The discussions in this program sponsored by the Seeds for Peace organization between the young Israeli and Palestinian and other Arab participants have never been easy, but this time the friction was greater.

The weather along the lake had never been better. After the sun came up, comfortable temperatures and reasonable humidity served as a backdrop to a gathering of more than 300 young people, including Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians as well as Indians and Pakistanis, Afghanis and others.

Seeds for Peace, which has been around for 22 years, has never attracted such keen media attention. With the Middle East ablaze, it was as if this summer camp in Maine was the only place where any sort of hope of dialogue, if not peace, could be transmitted. Various American media representatives came in large numbers to see the camp in action. NBC, for example, devoted a major report to the gathering on its evening news broadcast and its morning show the following day, as well as an additional program on its sister network, MSNBC.

In truth, however, none of the media representatives got access to the young people’s actual discussion groups – and for a good reason. The goal of Seeds for Peace was to provide the maximum level of openness in the discussions, beyond the limelight and without the presence of cameras, microphones and pens. In the groups, the Palestinian participants spoke of Israeli cruelty toward their people. The Israeli young people spoke of their moments of fear during the war and leveled their own similar allegations against the Palestinians.

Frequently, sparks flew. At one point, the Palestinians wore black shirts in protest over Palestinian victims of the hostilities and the fact that most of the participants from Gaza did not manage to attend the Maine conclave. The Israelis on hand didn’t like this, and it ran contrary to what was accepted conduct in the program: All the participants were to wear the green shirts that they received as soon as they arrived for the program. The Israelis thought about responding in kind but in the end decided to restrain themselves.

At another point, one Israeli recounted that a Palestinian participant told him that one day the Palestinian would kill him. In in the end, tempers cooled.

The Israeli group of 60 participants was chosen by the Education Ministry and represented the diversity of Israel’s population. About 20 percent of the Israeli group was Arab and both left- and right-wing views were representation in the delegation. Seeds for Peace was involved in selecting the Palestinian participants. Initially 32 Palestinians were due to participate in the camp, but only two of the seven Gaza Palestinians managed to make it to Maine. As a result, the director of the program increased the number of Palestinians from the West Bank, which ultimately resulted in 38 Palestinians.

By the way, some of the Palestinians come from households where they were seen as traitors for being willing to spend part of the summer with Israeli young people. Usually the participants in the program, which lasts almost a month, begin the discussions set in their views but gradually become more open to listen to the other side. Sometimes they also change their views, but this year it appeared to be more difficult. At least during the course of my visit, a considerable number of the young people remained adamant in their positions. At the same time, however, I did see Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians and Jordanians having a laugh together, hugging each other and promising to keep in touch.

As a group, they beat another summer camp in soccer 12:0. Their team included Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Americans and others, coming together to beat the opposing American side. Within the Seeds for Peace camp itself, a sense of camaraderie was developed by organizing sports competitions in which participants of various backgrounds were intermingled.

One of the heads of the Israeli delegation, a teacher by profession, said a camp like this has a profound effect on young people. One day, perhaps when an Israeli participant is a soldier at a West Bank roadblock, he will view the Palestinian standing before him in a different, more humane light. And the same can also be said when it comes to the Palestinians. Even if they don’t become lovers of Israel, they will at least be able to see that those on the other side are human beings like them. And in turbulent times like the current period, that’s no small accomplishment.

The summer camp is not the end of the process. Graduates of the program can participate in programs designed for them in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah. And a considerable number of them will also get together on their own. The organizers’ hope is that at some point, the participants will become leaders in their own countries. And if until then today’s adults don’t sign a peace treaty, perhaps these graduates of Seeds for Peace will be the signatories of tomorrow.

Read Haim Handwerker’s article at Ha’aretz ››

VIDEO: Marcus Smart learns from campers
Boston Herald

Aug 9, 2014 / No Comments

Celtics rookie Marcus Smart has spent the last few days helping to bridge the gap between teens on opposite ends of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Smart, along with ex-Celtic Brian Scalabrine and Philadelphia 76ers rookies Joel Embiid and Jerami Grant, were special guests at the Seeds of Peace camp in Otisfield, Maine. The goal of the camp is to bring together kids from conflict zones through open dialogue and games. Smart hosted a basketball clinic yesterday, as rocket fire resumed in Gaza following a cease fire. But he said you’d never know it by looking at the kids in Maine.

“When those kids are laughing and playing on the basketball court, they’re not thinking about war. They’re thinking about having fun,” Smart said. “It’s just a good feeling to see those kids smile.”

Of the 182 campers, more than half are Israeli and Palestinian. The camp encourages teens to hash out their issues with each other, but Smart said he’s not there to talk politics.

“Seeing it from the outside and seeing it from the inside is two different point of views,” he said. “You definitely have to be careful about the subjects that come up.”

He said he felt lucky to have any influence over the kids and that seeing the campers interact gives him hope for a resolution to the Middle Eastern conflict, “because these are future leaders of their respective countries and if they’re here and they’re getting along with people from other countries, it’s just a glimpse of the future—what’s to come and what it could possibly be.”

Read Prisca Pointdujour’s story at the Boston Herald ››

Peace Camp in US Unites Israeli, Palestinian Teens
Associated Press

Jul 29, 2014 / 3 Comments

BY MATT SEDENSKY | It’s no surprise Noa Epstein worries about the safety of her husband, a reservist in the Israeli army called to duty as war smolders in the Gaza Strip. But, still carrying memories of a transformative summer camp experience nearly two decades ago, she knows there is another side to the conflict, and she is filled with concern for the Palestinians too.

As rockets fly, troops battle and casualties mount in Gaza, teens from both sides of the border are heading to Otisfield, Maine, for Seeds of Peace, a camp now in its 22nd year of fostering dialogue among its participants. Even years later, campers like Epstein say they feel the impact of their experience gently nudging them to consider their words, to have compassion and always, always to aim for peace.

“I learned to empathize with the other side,” said Epstein, 32, of Jerusalem. “I have friends who live in these places, in the West Bank and Gaza, that I care about, just as I care about Israeli soldiers.”

Though Mideast peace may seem even farther from reality than when Seeds of Peace began in 1993, its ardent supporters argue its impact is still great. The lakeside camp was built on the notion that person-to-person contact would cement relationships, which would in turn slowly lead to broader societal change. Peace has been elusive, but former campers have taken on a bevy of projects aimed at making it a reality.

Epstein made friends with Palestinians for the first time at the camp. Palestinians and Israelis came together to celebrate her birthdays. She crossed the border to do presentations in schools and even slept over at a friend’s house in Nablus, in the West Bank. She became fluent in Arabic and runs an organization that aims to bring Israeli and Palestinian students together.

“Beyond the cliche of finding the human face in the enemy, I really made friends who I trust,” she said.

Siwar Mansour, a 19-year-old Palestinian living in Tira, Israel, who attended Seeds of Peace five years ago, said it taught her to truly listen to others, to consider why they’ve taken a position, and to think before she responds. She witnesses the hatred constantly. “They should all die,” she once heard someone say of Palestinians. “Who cares about them?” she heard another time. She bites her tongue at the office, on the bus and in the mall, just as she does when the vitriol is unleashed on Facebook, taking a deep breath and mustering something surprising: hope.

“You find yourself believing that peace could actually happen,” she said of the camp.

After her camp experience, Mansour enrolled in a high school where she was the only Arab, got involved with two musical groups that aim for reconciliation, and, determined to make the fight for peace a career, is applying to university programs in international relations.

Eldad Levy, 31, of Haifa, Israel, arrived at camp in 1998 filled with anger over bombings on buses and elsewhere, and having never had a Palestinian friend. At first, he huddled mostly with other Israeli Jews and even questioned the motives of Palestinians who fouled him in basketball.

Slowly, the perspectives driven by nationalism, ethnicity and religion faded, Levy said, as people of all backgrounds became friends. When it was over, he remembers the heartbreak of saying goodbye. Not long after, when the outbreak of violence known as the Second Intifada came, he received a call from a girl he’d befriended from Gaza.

“I’m so sorry about this,” he remembered her saying. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”

Her compassion was startling to him. He stayed involved in Seeds of Peace and, for a time, worked for the program. Today, about half of his social network stems from it. Palestinians and Israelis alike came to his wedding and have come to love his daughter.

Levy continues to have the difficult discussions that began 16 years ago, sometimes angering those he’s close to when he questions Israeli leadership or expresses sorrow for Palestinian hardships.

Mahmoud Jabari, 23, arrived at camp in 2007, telling of the sight of tanks in the street and the sound of neighborhoods being shelled at night; of his childhood game of running from Israeli soldiers; of worrying his parents wouldn’t arrive home safely each day. He had no interest in hearing of Israel’s right to exist; he claimed all of Palestine.

For him, Israelis fell into two categories, soldiers and settlers. But sharing a cabin with them, having them listen to his story, changed him.

“I was sitting in front of someone who cared,” said Jabari, who later enrolled at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. “And that was astonishing.”

The hardest part, Jabari said, was leaving the idyllic camp setting, where open-mindedness and respect reigned and anything seemed possible.

“You go back to a different reality,” he said. “Checkpoints, separation walls, military, settlements, restrictions of movement — and you become stuck between too many questions that sometimes you’re unable to answer.”

Tomer Perry, 31, of Jerusalem, said the deteriorating political climate has made dialogue far more difficult for campers today than when he attended in 1996 .

“The friendship you create in camp is really strained by the realities faced at home,” he said. “And then they start to think of this whole thing as an illusion.”

When a wave of violence like the Gaza war hits, it is particularly difficult, but not unfamiliar to the Seeds alumni. In the tragedy most closely linked with the organization, former camper Asel Asleh, a 17-year-old Israeli Arab, was shot to death by Israeli police while observing stone-throwing clashes in his village in 2000. He was buried in a forest green T-shirt printed with the Seeds of Peace logo — three children and an olive branch.

Amer Kamal slept in the cabin next to Asleh’s at in 1997. He’s still haunted by his friend’s death. Today, Kamal is 31 and living in Minneapolis. Watching the news of Gaza, he gets angry and sad.

“Sometimes you fall into that trap. That’s when you have to remind yourself what you believe,” he said. “Having friends from the other side helps in remembering.”

How to build peace, one teenager at a time
Christian Science Monitor

Jun 17, 2014 / 1 Comment

BOSTON — It is not uncommon for people to roll their eyes when I tell them I work in the field of peacebuilding. Given that my work focuses on the Middle East and South Asia, people often joke that I am terrible at my job.

I understand this reaction: It’s hard to look at the state of affairs in these regions and feel optimistic. Each day brings a fresh wave of injustice, violence, and political cowardice. And yet, I am hopeful.

For the past 14 years, I have been part of Seeds of Peace, an international organization that brings together young leaders from conflict regions to inspire and equip them with the relationships, understanding, and skills to advance peace. We were founded on the belief that peace is personal: Diplomatic processes must be paired with transformational interactions between people in order for peace on paper to translate into peace on the ground.

We began in 1993 as an experiment. What if exceptional teenagers from conflict regions had the chance to meet face to face on neutral ground, engage in open and honest dialogue, and deepen their understanding of each other’s perspectives on the issues that divide them?

What if they received continued support and leadership training when they returned home, so that their transformational experiences could continue and take root in the places where brave leadership is critical? What if they gained influence in their societies and could help bring about the political, social, and economic conditions needed for sustainable peace?

There is no silver bullet for ending conflict; meaningful change requires people working at all levels to disrupt the status quo. People-to-people peacebuilding is slow, hard, and messy, but, more important, it is also necessary.

What personal transformation looks like

During my first Seeds of Peace program, an Israeli teenager in my cabin told me she didn’t think Palestinians “deserved” a state. She decided it was too hard to pronounce her Palestinian bunkmate’s name, and called her “girl,” and later, Kelly. She had never encountered Palestinians her own age; she believed they all wished her dead or gone.

Yet as the program progressed, she quickly developed relationships with her Palestinian peers, including a boy whose cousin had been wounded by an Israeli soldier several months earlier. His cousin died nearly a week into the program. When she heard the news, she came to me, crying hysterically. “You don’t understand,” she sobbed. “This isn’t ‘another Palestinian reported dead in the West Bank.’ This is my friend’s cousin. This is his family.”

She went on to work for an Israeli organization monitoring human rights in the Palestinian territories and completed graduate degrees in conflict transformation. She recently wrote to tell me that she and Kelly were having coffee in Jerusalem and overheard a young girl telling a friend that she was about to attend a program called Seeds of Peace. “I told her it was the most incredible summer of my life, and that I was there with my friend of 13 years,” she wrote.

Emerging as leaders

Case studies of conflict areas, including Northern Ireland and South Africa, have shown that progress toward peace does not typically result from one action or initiative; rather it is many activities on many levels that ultimately bring about change. In each case, strong leaders working across sectors have helped take incremental steps toward change even during the most difficult times. Our 5,061 graduates are positioned to play just that role.

After more than 20 years of planting “seeds,” our first generation of alumni, now in their mid-30s, are increasingly gaining influence and emerging as leaders of their societies and leveraging their positions to transform conflict.

In the Middle East, our graduates are leading local peacebuilding and educational nonprofits, starting regional renewable energy companies, and training youth in social entrepreneurship. They are advising on constitutional and legislative reform issues in Egypt, shaping the news in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and developing programs for the economic empowerment of youth and women in Jordan.

Our graduates in South Asia are working to improve the status of women at both the policy and grass-roots levels in Afghanistan, organizing youth camps to encourage critical thinking in Pakistan, and leading public campaigns to counter gender inequality in India.

Alumni in the United States are developing technological platforms to connect college students in the US and Muslim countries, running for office, leading initiatives to encourage empathy in children, and working for the rights of immigrants and refugees.

Seeds that sprouted

A team of our graduates in Pakistan and India has set out to change the way that people living in conflict learn history. During their Seeds of Peace dialogue encounters, they realized that they were being taught wildly different versions of the same shared historical events. This inspired them to create a textbook that, for the first time, juxtaposes their countries’ competing historical narratives. They have since led workshops for more than 600 Indian and Pakistani students, and their online curriculum has received more than 1 million views.

Young leaders like these directly link what they do in their personal and professional lives to their experiences with Seeds of Peace: engaging with the “Other,” recognizing their leadership potential, and gaining a commitment to peace at a young age. Now, as adults, they show us what is possible.

It is because of them that I remain hopeful.

Eva Armour is Seeds of Peace’s director of Global Programs. She joined the organization in 2000 as a counselor at its summer program in Maine for youth from conflict regions, and has since worked for the organization in Israel, the Palestinian territories, and New York.

Read Eva Armour’s op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor ››

Pakistani educators hold workshop on reflective learning environments

Feb 1, 2014 / No Comments

LAHORE | Sixteen educators representing six schools in Lahore came together on February 1 to discuss how to construct reflective learning environments in the classroom. The ideal reflective environment is a space where students feel comfortable, secure, open and ready to learn.

Tahmina, a Seeds of Peace Educator, led a workshop for the group. Twelve of the educators were new to Seeds of Peace, while four had completed the Seeds of Peace Delegation Leaders Program or Educators Course.

The activities were designed to help teachers understand their students and to respect the different experiences and needs of individuals in order to become more effective educators. One workshop covered methods of teaching history objectively. Participants reflected on how the workshop will help them appreciate the different points of view among their students.

Each school functions in its own context and has its own needs, and much of the discussion focused on the specific experiences of individual schools. Through this specificity, the educators explored the social issues that impact them most as teachers and the many ways they can use this connection to empower students to be reflective, active and productive citizens.
 
LAHORE EDUCATORS’ WORKSHOP

Maine Seeds celebrate diversity of holiday festivities in Portland

Dec 8, 2013 / No Comments

PORTLAND, MAINE | The holiday season in Maine took on a special feel this year. Maine Seeds organized Holiday of Holidays, a community event bringing different religious groups together in celebration of their holidays.

The event, held December 7, celebrated the diversity of Portland’s multi-cultural community with family-friendly activities and educational festivities at the Portland Public Library.

Over 70 Maine Seeds, Educators, families, and friends representing the wide range of communities in the Portland area—including native-born, and refugee and immigrants from Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, China, Thailand, Ethiopia, Congo—joined together for a day of celebration, learning, and sharing.

Ten Seeds took on leadership roles at the event, leading the group in interactive activities and presentations. A particularly meaningful moment was the open circle presentation, during which each participant explained how they celebrate their respective Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist holidays.

By taking on roles in facilitation, public speaking, organization, coordination, and public outreach, Holiday of Holidays was an opportunity for Seeds to practice their leadership skills, a core component of Seeds of Peace’s mission. The power of this positive and diverse peer leadership on the children present could be felt throughout the day, as Seeds emerged as a unified group of inspirational youth community leaders.
 
2013 HOLIDAY OF HOLIDAYS MAINE PHOTOS

Seeds of Peace Camp to kick off summer with flagraising ceremony on June 26

Jun 14, 2013 / No Comments

OTISFIELD, MAINE | Seeds of Peace will graduate its 5,000th young peacebuilder this summer from its International Camp in Otisfield.

On June 26, over 200 Afghan, American, Egyptian, Indian, Israeli, Jordanian, Pakistani, and Palestinian youth ages 14-17 will raise the Seeds of Peace flag to open the organization’s 39th session of Camp.

The flagraising ceremony will inaugurate a summer of dialogue and leadership development as campers engage across lines of conflict with people they once considered bitter enemies.

Among the campers are 32 Peer Supports—a select group of “Seeds” returning to Camp to engage in their own dialogue sessions that focus on individual growth and leadership skills.

During the second session of Camp, over 100 teenagers from across Maine as well as from Syracuse, New York, will come together to tackle intercommunal tensions in their states. The session will also bring together adult educators from the Middle East, South Asia, and the US to examine the role that the teaching of history plays in conflict settings.

Later this summer, 15 Israeli, Palestinian, and American Seeds will take to the high seas off the coast of Maine as part of Seas of Peace. The sailing and leadership dialogue program will take place in Otisfield and later aboard the 112-ft. traditional schooner, The Roseway, run by The World Ocean School.

Media interested in covering the June 26 flagraising ceremony in Otisfield should contact Tim Wilson at tim@seedsofpeace.org. Any other Seeds of Peace-related press inquires may be directed to Eric Kapenga at eric@seedsofpeace.org.

Textbooks: Rethinking history
The News on Sunday (Pakistan)

May 12, 2013 / 1 Comment

In a unique project, a group of young people place side-by-side the two versions of history taught in textbooks in India and Pakistan—in order to introduce an alternative, neutral narrative to the students

BY ALEFIA T. HUSSAIN | LAHORE Is it time to re-write Pakistan and India’s shared history? To correct the past record?

Even a cursory look at the History Project, a compilation of excerpts from three Indian and nine Pakistani textbooks about 16 historical events that took place between 1857 and 1947, suggests so.

Students on this side of the border know of the causes that led to the partition of Bengal 1905, reasons that made the formation of the All Indian Muslim League a necessity, that Minto-Morley reforms was perhaps the first step towards the creation of Pakistan, about the Pakistan Resolution … and accession of Kashmir, and that Jinnah is their Quaid-e-Azam.

Across the border, these incidents in history incite a different kind of an interest. Take for instance the issue of Kashmir at the time of independence in 1947. The Indian textbooks say that after Hari Singh, then ruler of the state, decided to remain independent, Pakistan began to put pressure on him, and armed intruders from Pakistan attacked Kashmir in 1947. Hari Singh signed an agreement to join India, after which the Indian army went to defend Kashmir.

Pakistani textbooks say the Maharaja (Hari Singh) deliberately delayed acceding to Pakistan or India, and started a brutal campaign to oust the Muslims from his princely state. Over 200,000 people, who were supported by the tribesmen of NWFP, revolted, fled to Kashmir and were successful in liberating a large area from Indian control. “The Maharaja was forced to turn to India for help and the Indians agreed to help only if the Maharaja acceded to India,” to quote from the last chapter of the History Project on ‘Princely States’.

The book, launched on April 20, 2013, in Mumbai, places side-by-side the two versions of history taught in textbooks in India and Pakistan; it does not attempt to correct the overall narrative on both sides of the border. “The sole purpose of this project is to introduce the students to an alternative, neutral narrative on their shared history,” says Qasim Aslam, the co-founder of the project, adding, “We thought the differences would become self-evident when the two sides of the story were placed next to each other in a book form.”

Aslam and his co-founder, Ayyaz Ahmed, launched the book at four Mumbai schools last month. Next, they plan to tour schools in Pakistan to introduce the project.

Aslam beams as he hints at the response the project has generated so far: “We recorded 6000 facebook hits four days after the launch”.

The History Project is a culmination of months and months of exhaustive dialogue between Indian and Pakistani teenagers meeting as Seeds of Peace, an international camp for teenagers from countries in conflict held annually in Maine, USA, where other than discussing sports, common culture and traditions, they would stumble on the subject of common, shared past. They discovered a plethora of sentiments, sometimes hatred for each other and were able to trace the roots back to the history textbooks.

“I don’t think that there has been one person on the team of the History Project that hasn’t been astonished by the discrepancies in our different history texts,” says Alefyah Potia, a Mumbai-based team member of the project.

“Working on this project has not only changed my perspective on the apparently common history that our countries have undergone but also on stories and past events in general,” she adds, while remembering moments when she was in Lahore recently while working on this project, and “we were reduced to silence because of the vast differences, for example an extremely important event from the Indian side [Civil Disobedience Movement] is omitted from the Pakistani book”.

Working with Seeds from Pakistan since 2009, Potia thinks this project has been “an eye-opener and in many ways has got me more conscious of the way people interpret things and how easily we believe what is spoon-fed to us.”

Noorzadeh Raza, a Seed from Pakistan and an editor of the project, says, “Being a part of the project instilled in me the importance of bridging this gap [in India and Pakistan history] to construct a larger, more encompassing narrative that recognises the existence of alternative perspectives. We must understand that recognising the other side’s perspective does not in any way undermine our own—it liberates and challenges us, compelling us to delve deeper into ideas that we have long accepted as ‘fact’.”

Potia was one of the 28 volunteers who assisted the core team of Qasim Aslam, Ayyaz Ahmed and Zoya Siddiqui with the project. And Raja is one of five editors who helped the team give the book a complete shape.

Siddiqui jazzed up the book with illustrations of colourful but faceless figures. “She chose to use faceless figures to break the stereotypes of Jinnah and Gandhi,” says Ayyaz Ahmed.

The History Project has been funded by the British Council and Global Changemakers, an international youth network.

So, will the History Project develop as a permanent record of India and Pakistan’s shared history? Will it make way into textbooks? Aslam is not sure. “Not for the time being at least. We have to go a long way in changing the mindset of those at the helm on both side of the border.”

But young Potia has hope. “I think this project has a great future especially with the younger population as their minds are more open compared to adults who believe strongly in their views. I could see it when the Pakistanis working on the project were here in Mumbai and were making school presentations—how involved the students got, how stunned they were to see how the event they believed in so easily could have actually been another way altogether. They were so excited about interpreting the illustrations and talking to the Pakistanis that it was easy to picture this kind of double viewed curriculum taking place in India.”

Aamir Riaz, editor and researcher, says the History Project is worthy of praise yet without deconstructing our colonial and anti-colonial past we cannot address the core issues. “It is important to demystify resistance stories based on colonial knowledge. Ideally, history should be written from the perspective of ordinary people.”

August 5, 2012 | Community Concert (Maine)

Aug 5, 2012 / No Comments

Over 35 artists from nine countries in conflict will join with local performers including Emilia Dahlin and Shamou to present a unique community concert at Portland Stage Company. Acts will be multidisciplinary, featuring music, movement, and theater.

The artists are participants in “Expressive Arts; Educational Action,” a two-week Seeds of Peace course focusing on the critical role that the arts can play in peace education.

All ages invited. Donations welcome.

ADDRESS: 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME 04101
DATE: August 5, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m. (doors open 6:30 p.m.)
LOCATION: Portland, Maine
WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/CommunityConcert
CONTACT: camp@seedsofpeace.org

Mayor Brennan Meets with Seeds of Peace Participants
Rocky Coast News

Jul 26, 2012 / No Comments

Brennan meets with 35 artists from nine countries today at MECA

PORTLAND | Today, City of Portland Mayor Michael Brennan will meet with educators and artists participating in Expressive Arts; Educational Action, a unique course offered by Seeds of Peace. The course, which runs from July 23 through August 7 at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, aims to connect and cultivate local and international peace-builders who believe in the power of the arts and the critical role they play in creating a better, more peaceful future. Participants have traveled from across the country as well as from Afghanistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, India, Israel, Pakistan, and Palestine to participate in the program. Today’s event is an opportunity for participants to meet with Mayor Brennan, local artists and educators to discuss best practices and ways to develop action plans they can bring back to their homeland to educate and empower youth through the expressive arts.

“Art can have a transformative effect in the community,” stated Mayor Brennan. “It can connect us to the environment, to each other, to a sense of greater purpose and it can help tear down the invisible walls that separate us. Art can help us discover a totally new idea, our sense of humor, a bigger vision or help us reclaim a sense of possibility and I am proud to support the Seeds of Peace in their effort to spread the power of art around the globe.”

The course will conclude with a one-of-a-kind performance featuring more than thirty-five artists and educators from nine countries in conflict, August 5, 2012, at Portland Stage Company (25 Forest Ave. Portland, ME). Doors open at 6:30 PM, with music beginning at 7:00 p.m. People of all ages are invited to attend. Donations welcome.

When: Thursday, July 26, 2012, 5:00 PM
Where: Maine College of Art, 522 Congress Street, Portland

Read the article at Rocky Coast News »