21st International Day of Peace - Sowing Hope Cultivating Peace
|
Sunday, September 22nd @ 3pm
Structures Brewing, 601 W. Holly Whatcom Peace and Justice Center is excited to announce the 2024 International Day of Peace, a community-focused day of celebration that offers space to support the work of the PJC in uplifting local organizers as well as connecting to global movements against violence and oppression. Please give a sliding scale donation to RSVP now and help us sustain our community hub and resource center! Whatcom Peace & Justice is celebrating its 21st annual International Day of Peace. Recognized by the United Nations since 1982 and the City of Bellingham since 2017, International Day of Peace is a day for all to envision what our world can look like without weapons, violence, and oppression. International Day of Peace is WPJC's main fundraising and educational event of the year, raising critical funds to support the ever more critical work of the Center in advocating for peace and against wars at home and abroad. With your help, this year, our goal is to raise $15,000. Funds make it possible for us to keep our doors open for new and old peace activists while supporting our volunteers and staff in their service. Please give as generously as you are able. Donations are tax-deductible. 
Learn to dance with Seattle Based Jafra Dabke Team!
Jafra Dabke Team is a group of young Arab-Americans set out to promote and preserve the Palestinian culture through the teaching, showcase, and performance of the traditional folk dance known as Dabke. Founded in 2011, this group was originally formed to perform for local cultural events. Shortly thereafter, the group's popularity had grown, and has performed throughout North America primarily along the West Coast for weddings, conventions, and everything in between. 
Mx is a local Drag Icon, who has been impacting the queer community in Bellingham and beyond for over 5 years now. Mx has become a staple through the many productions that they have put on ranging from drag competitions, to talk shows. Their work has been featured in places far away as Texas, and as close at the Whatcom County Museum.
DJ Yugwa’mala is a local Indigenous producer, artist, and DJ that comes from the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Coast Salish people and is an Alaskan/First Nation descendent. Yugwa’mala meaning Wind Across Your Face and is his traditional name in the Kwakʼwala language. Yugwa focuses on contemporary, queer, and electronic music while performing and creating music. Overall curating an immersive experience that is versatile in sound such as playing in clubs, renegade raves, house parties, in nature, and anywhere else.
Silent Auction (in person only!)This year, our auction will happen in person only during International Day of Peace celebration, September 22nd! Don’t miss your chance to get some art, goodies, special experiences, and gift cards to your favorite spots in Bellingham, all while supporting peace and justice in our community! See the list of items and starting prices here! Volunteer to help us make it happen! Once the art is ready, please download and share our poster with a blurb about International Day of Peace in your next newsletter, social media or on your stories. Even better share a photo or video explaining why you think the WPJC and this year's theme are relevant to YOU and share in your social media! You can also invite friends to the event on facebook and please sign up to volunteer here (we need greeters, clean up/set up crew and more!). Share the above event details and this webpage with your congregation, coworkers, neighbors, and friends. |
This year’s theme “Sowing Hope, Cultivating Peace” is rooted in dialogue with our local struggles against militarized settler colonialism and the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, whose work continuously encourages us to intentionally focus on growing hope in times of grief and despair.
In “A State of Siege” Darwish writes:
Here, where the hills slope before the sunset and the chasm of time Inviting us to sow hope as a way to cultivate peace we're excited to provide space to honor community members who have been working for peace, to create conversation about what peace would look like in our community, to learn about histories and movements for peace here and abroad, and to continue support the work of the PJC. 
Poetry Reading by Rena Priest
Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laurette (2021-2023) and was named 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Rosemary and Howard Harris Lifetime Peacemaker Award & Dotty Dale Youth Peacemaker AwardIn line with our intergenerational work, we are offering our traditional Lifetime Peacemaker Award, and the third Youth Peacemaker Award with funds offered by the Dale family and community.
Drink and Dine for Peace Sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors for making
|
About Alison Bremner (Tlingit) and her piece
“Bacchus I” featured in our poster
Alison O. Bremner is a Tlingit artist born and raised in Southeast Alaska. She is believed to be the first Tlingit woman to carve and raise a totem pole. She has studied under master artists David R. Boxley and David A. Boxley in Kingston, Washington. Working across media, including painting, woodcarving, regalia, and digital collage, Bremner’s artistic practice brings together traditional formline with contemporary imagery, surrealism with humor, and fine art with a new lens, in order to reorganize hierarchies and offer visual representations that challenge boring, flat narratives.
In addition to her visual art, which is included in permanent collections at the Burke Museum and Frye Museum in Seattle, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, the Château Musée Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, and the British Museum in London, she is also committed to the reclamation and revitalization of Tlingit language and cultural practice. She is inspired by ancient traditions and modern coffee.
Of the piece featured in this year’s poster for International Day of Peace, included here in a brand new color-way, Bremner says: “This piece is based on a painting called Bacchus by Caravaggio. Said to be the ‘most fainted in front of painting’—viewers get so overwhelmed that they faint—I thought that is something Raven the mythical trickster would deeply enjoy.”
You can follow her across the internet @CaffeinatedRaven and check out some of her work for sale at the Steinbrueck Gallery in Seattle, WA.
In addition to her visual art, which is included in permanent collections at the Burke Museum and Frye Museum in Seattle, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, the Château Musée Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, and the British Museum in London, she is also committed to the reclamation and revitalization of Tlingit language and cultural practice. She is inspired by ancient traditions and modern coffee.
Of the piece featured in this year’s poster for International Day of Peace, included here in a brand new color-way, Bremner says: “This piece is based on a painting called Bacchus by Caravaggio. Said to be the ‘most fainted in front of painting’—viewers get so overwhelmed that they faint—I thought that is something Raven the mythical trickster would deeply enjoy.”
You can follow her across the internet @CaffeinatedRaven and check out some of her work for sale at the Steinbrueck Gallery in Seattle, WA.
Want to become a Sponsor for Peace?
Contact WPJC at 360-734-0217 or [email protected] if your business or organization wants to sponsor International Day of Peace.
Remember how much fun we had last year with our peacemaker awardees, Navouny, Fiona and the amazingly talented musicians of Foleada?