Date: August 15, 2024 @ 7:30 - 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Cost: Suggested donation $10 US. While we provide an option to attend this event for free, as a nonprofit we depend on donations and your contribution is greatly appreciated!
Presenter: Bob Schlehuber
Organization: Peacebuilding Connections
The presentation will focus on the physical process of building peace and the importance of experiential learning for the field of peacebuilding. The presentation will feature Peacebuilding Connections and Roland Poska's "Declarations of Interdependence" project.
People are coming together faster than ever due to increased travel, trade, and technology. Challenges like limited resources, climate change, and public health crises are adding great complexity and pressure to our ever converging world. If communities work together and rely on each other, this great convergence will be manageable and harmonious. If communities center around selfishness, segregation, and individualism, they will fail to address the challenges of today and tomorrow. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
Unfortunately, we live in a period where individualism and selfishness take center stage, leading to human suffering and environmental destruction. Advertisements, movies, music, and popular art sell people ideal images of themselves, not ideal images of their community or environment. For us to reverse course we must make a joint effort to recognize our collective interdependence and act in ways that show our commitment to that ideal.
One way that Peacebuilding Connections achieves this is through the art work by Roland Poska (1938-2017), who produced fifteen unique lithographic prints called Declarations of Interdependence between 1986-1992 in Rockford, Illinois. Each Declaration is a unique visual expression that evokes the interconnectedness between race, culture, and nature. Over the past 10 years, the Declarations of Interdependence have been presented for signings in over 70 cities in 13 countries on 5 continents - capturing thousands of signatures, sparking critical conversations and connecting people around the world.
Peacebuilding Connections works to bring together broad and diverse individuals and organizations around nonviolent goals and objectives. The act of individuals and institutions working together within a community strengthens that community and makes it more resilient against future risks and conflict. Peacebuilding Connections’ projects celebrate and uplift communities. Peacebuilding Connections was founded by peacebuilder Bob Schlehuber in 2013.
About the Presenter
Bob Schlehuber is the founder of Peacebuilding Connections, an organization that has produced numerous events aimed at fostering social change, including concerts, parades, marches, and theater productions. With a background as an artist, producer, and organizer, he brings a passion for building diverse community-based coalitions through artistic and peaceful means.
