theatre, steet art, things to do, happenings

*****

From Mike Burnside & Kathleen Godwin

The Arts SEEN Gallery, a collaboration between The Cultural Council of Luzerne County and Arts YOUniverse, will be open tonight for a preview – a whole new gallery for the Third Friday Art Walk.  Artists have been bringing in an incredibly eclectic collection of art over the last week; passers by have been peering curiously through the windows (right next to Blue Wireless on the Square) and we’re all ready to open the doors!  If you get this in time, listen to WVIA FM for Erika Funke’s Arts Scene today at 11 for the whole story!  There’s also a new show opening reception at Marquis Upstairs Gallery, and the weather is supposed to be fine, so this is a great night to get back into the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Third Friday habit!
On Saturday at 2:45 (just before the big parade), Mayor Tom Leighton will officially open the gallery by cutting the obligatory ribbon, assuming we can find one.  It’s the place to be!

*****

“AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE”

By Henrik Ibsen, Adapted by Arthur Miller
November 18, 19, 20, 21 at 7:30 p.m.

KING’S COLLEGE THEATRE

FREE ADMISSION for
King’s Students, Faculty, Staff & Administration

Box Office RESERVATIONS

Call Ext. 5825 or boxoff@kings.edu

Thanks for your continued interest in Theatre at King’s.

Bro. Jim, c.s.c.

*****

The Gaslight Theatre Company Announces Auditions for Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa   November 7th and 8th.
 
    The Gaslight Theatre company will be holding auditions Saturday November 7th and Sunday November 8th for its January production of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. 
 
     Available roles include:
 
       5 Women ranging in age from 25-45
 
       2 Men early 30’s
 
       1 Man  late 40’s-mid 50’s
 
    Actors will be asked to read from selections of the script  in an Irish Dialect.
 
  Audition Time and Place:
 
    The auditions will be held in the Burke Auditorium in the McGowan School of Business on the King’s College Campus. Located on the corner of River and Union streets in Wilkes-Barre.  The auditions will run from 7:00PM-9:00PM.
 
 Dialect Coaching Sessions
 
    Prior to auditions there will be two dialect coaching sessions offered to anyone interested in auditioning. These sessions will be held on Wed November 4th and Thursday November 5th from 6:00PM-8:00PM at Paper Kite Press in Edwardsville.
Dialect coaching will also be offered an hour before each audition time at the audition sight.
 
Production Dates
 
 The production dates for Dancing at Lughnasa are Tuesday Jan 5th – Sunday Jan 10th 2010. The production will be held at King’s College.
 
Questions/Directions
 
   For any questions regarding this production or for directions to the audition sight or the coaching session sight please call Sean McKeown at (570)762-1033
 
Thank You
 
The Gaslight Theatre Company, Inc,

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narrowlarry in Oklahoma

Link up above for the superb world of narrowlarry.

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Hi Rod,

Subject: Moreau Lecture: November 4 at 3:30 & 7:30

Dear Colleagues,

In a few weeks, I will make a formal announcement about this year’s Moreau Lecture.  However, I thought it might be helpful, if you are still pulling your syllabi together, to let you know something about this year’s lecturer, in case it might nicely overlap with your course.

The 2009-2010 Moreau Lecturer is the Margaret Flatley O’Brien Professor of Catholic Theology at Boston College, Roberto Goizueta.  We are privileged to have Professor Goizueta, who has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America as well as the Academic Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States.

The date is Wednesday, November 4, at 3:30 & 7:30pm in the Burke Auditorium.  Professor Goizueta will address theological and ecclesial matters of immigration.  His lectures will complement a few events in the coming semester related to this very topic.

As is the tradition with the Moreau Lecture, Professor Goizueta will deliver two lectures.  They are as follows:
        3:30pm “Christ on the Border: Retrieving a Dangerous Memory”
       
        7:30pm “Life Comes for the Archbishop: The Immigrant as Evangelizer”

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Dan

Rev. Daniel J. Issing, C.S.C.
Assistant Professor of Theology
King’s College
Wilkes-Barre PA 18711
570-208-5900 ext. 5491

*****

Featured Poet Esteban Charpentier
from Buenos Aires, Argentina

esteban

Esteban Charpentier’s work includes several anthologies of poetry and 
many of his poems have been translated into English, French, Italian, 
German and Chinese. His collections include “memoirs Workshop” (1986), 
“Another Moon” (1991),”The rider gallops your laughter” (1997), “Dear 
Poets’ Tribute to the poets of Spain” (1998), “Final Poetic “(1999), 
“I was asking the heart” (2001), “Me Alejo Charpentier (2003), 
“Marinero Bengalí” (2008), and “I may not be a husband but I drive my 
own car” (2009). He participates in numerous poetry and literary 
activities, and is host of the radio
program “DENSERIO” RADIO 97.9 FM.

Paper Kite Press
443 Main Street
Kingston, PA 18704
570-328-8658   
http://www.wordpainting.com

 __________________________________
(From our friends at Stage whispers:

http://www.stagewhispers.net/

Listed by theatres in alphabetical order – season dates vary, so be sure to check them out!)

 Actors Circle

Chenango River Theatre

Cortland Repertory Theatre

Electric Theatre Company

Glimmerglass Opera

Gretna Theatre

Hangar Theatre

Know Theatre

Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre

Little Victory Players

Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop

Ti-Ahwaga Community Players

building community spirit

Finis Beauty Salon

100 West Broad Street Suite #116

Hazleton, Pa 18201

 570-501-1301

finisbeautysalon@yahoo.com
WE invite you to come and celebrate with us our

grand opening on

Friday June 05,2009 from 4-7pm
Se le envita a que venga y celebre  con nosotros  nuestra gran

inauguración el dia viernes

Junio 05,2009  de  4 -7pm

Owner : Alma Josefina Arias

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Hello, all:Organizing for America (the successor to Obama for America) is launching state-wide activities to advocate for health care reform.  As you recall, health care is among the top policy concerns of local Obama activists, and the time has come to think through what our advocacy will look like on the local level.  Mike Shapiro, the volunteer coordinator for OFA in PA, summarizes upcoming activities below.  In Wilkes-Barre, there will be a planning meeting to get started on a local strategy to advocate for health care legislation: Saturday, June 6th at noon, for approximately 90 minutes.  A location in downtown Wilkes-Barre will be announced soon.  Among other items, we will plan a Day of Service activity related to children’s health and nutrition to support Kid’s Café, on Saturday, June 27th at the Diversity Picnic at Kirby Park.Sound interesting?  If so, to join us for this planning session, please reply to this email or follow this link: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/healthcareorganizingkickoff/gpcyds.  

Several Obama-ites campaigned hard to achieve notable victories in this past week’s primary, including the Home Rule ballot question, the Home Rule Government Study Commission and the nomination of Tina Polachek Gartley for Judge. Congratulations on these renewed demonstrations of the value of grassroots campaigning here in Luzerne County.

Thanks and enjoy the holiday weekend.  Rita

PS. If you’d like to be removed from this email list, just reply and let me know. Or, if you’d like to take over the administration of the list, let me know, too.

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Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:26 PM
Hello PA LeadersI hope this email finds you all well and that everyone has a relaxing Memorial Day weekend planned, especially if you just finished a campaign. Congratulations to those of you that worked hard for any election that took place on Tuesday. Progressive candidates influenced by the methods of President Obamas campaign thrived all over the state including the Harrisburg Mayors race and Pittsburgh City Council.

Alot of exciting stuff is going on with OFA here in Pennsylvania. We have a really great state director who is starting on Monday. Im sure she will send an email introducing herself relatively shortly after she starts so I will leave that to her. A listening tour around the state will certainly follow. We now have more than 60 post-campaign organizations in more than 40 counties. Also, 4 of our brethren are participating in a service project today at the White House with the Super Bowl Champion Steelers. I also want to let you know that we are working on a communication tool that will foster cooperation between all of the groups around the state and that should be unveiled shortly.

OFAs work over the next few months is going to focus on healthcare reform. As I am sure you all now, President Obama considers this the most important item on his agenda. The next six months represents the best chance for comprehensive healthcare reform legislation. The successful passing of legislation is imperative for the future of our country and the grassroots will continue to play a key role. Obviously, many of you have been working on healthcare issues before this. Prior work.

We are asking post-campaign groups nationwide to host Healthcare Organizing Kickoff Meetings on June 6. At these meetings, you will work on developing a strategy for lobbying efforts in your area. The first step we are asking each group to take is to plan an event for the National Healthcare Day of Service on June 27. These meetings will be a great opportunity for your groups to gain notoriety and expand your membership. I am happy to use whatever resources are at my disposal to insure maximum exposure for your groups. I look forward to working together to make your groups even more successful. You can sign up to host a meeting at http://my.barackobama.com/HCkickoffhost.

Also, OFA is still looking for stories which exhibit why healthcare reform is so necessary (no coverage, ridiculous costs, etc.). I know you guys have tons of tragic examples which demonstrate the importance of this legislation. These stories are so important because they put a human face on an issue which can be confusing. Please submit your stories to http://my.barackobama.com/HCstory. Please forward that link far and wide to the members of your teams. We also still want names of healthcare professionals who volunteered during the campaign and are willing to speak to the media.

As always, you can call me anytime at 215-380-9558 or email me at mshapiro3@gmail.com with any questions or concerns

These are the important things to keep in mind

1. Let me know if/when you have scheduled a Healthcare Organizing Kickoff Meeting on or around 6/6

2. Let me know if you have planned an event for the National Healthcare Day of Service on 6/27

I will create a master list of meetings and service events and make it available to everyone

3. Healthcare stories to the link above or to me as well as names of healthcare pros

4. I want to compile stories from around the state about campaigns which were influenced by lessons from our campaign last year. News stories or your own personal anecdotes are great. I will put them all together and send it to DC where they may share it with the First Lady or other notables. So email me some great stuff that happened on Tuesday, win or lose. Forward this on as well

5. If your group has a website, please send me the web address and I will get a list of all the PA websites so you can have links to other teams in the state if you so desire. Ill send out a list of all the sites I have or get in the next few weeks.

Please forward this to members of your team and let them know they should feel free to reach out to me.

I may send out a googleform to accumulate some information about your groups so keep your eyes out. It will be simple to fill out.

Thanks for everything you do. Talk to you soon

Mike

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FYI All:
Links to the news coverage regarding Wal-Mart:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Exeter_planners_recommend_zone_change_for_Wal-Mart_03-26-2009.html
http://citizensvoice.com/articles/2009/03/26/news/wb_voice.20090326.t.pg6.cv26cdwalmart_s1.2400071_top8.txt
http://www.wnep.com/   Click on “Walmart Worries” link for the video

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Dear PICC members and Friends,
 

Practice peace and justice in Spanish! Every Thursday night, at 6:30 PM, join us for conversational Spanish. Please join us regardless of your level of Spanish proficiency — from beginner to advanced, all are welcome.  We meet every Thursday night at 6:30 PM at the Peace and Justice office in Wilkes-Barre.  Our office is located on the second floor: 63 N FRANLIN AVE, WILKES-BARRE, PA.  ~ Poetry In Transit seeks a few good writers ~ Poetry In Transit, an award-winning community program, invites your participation. Patterned after London’s Poems on the Underground program, Poetry In Transit displays poetry in advertising space on all Luzerne County Transportation Authority (LCTA) buses.  The poems stay up for one year, with a monthly rotation so that riders can see all poems over time.  This year, the project expands its scope with a call for work in both Spanish and English.  Please click here for full details.   To:     community spirit efforts Please extend a warm welcome and offer any assistance to: Greig Campbell, a PhD student from The University of Liverpool, England. I encourage all of us to reach out to Greig and offer any and all assistance possible. His research looks at public attitudes towards immigration in the U.S.  He is most interested in community conflicts arriving from changing immigration patterns like Hazleton, and he is in Hazleton willing to talk to as many of you as possible — currently investigating the recent developments in our region. FIRST WE MUST FIND HIM A PLACE TO STAY He needs to find a place to stay ASAP — please help. Contact Greig at greigcmp@hotmail.com or (201) 456-6533

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woman’s voice

From:           Kathy Cloninger, National CEO

Subject:        White House Council on Women and Girls

Date:           March 12, 2009

 

Yesterday, President Obama signed an Executive Order to create the White House Council on Women and Girls to establish a coordinated federal response to issues that particularly impact the lives of women and girls. The Council will ensure that federal programs and policies address the distinctive concerns of women and girls, and reach out to nonprofit organizations and other agencies and officials that can assist with the Council’s development..

At the signing, President Obama said: “So now it’s up to us … to ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements — and that they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers never dreamed of.  That’s the purpose of this Council.”  

Girl Scouts is very excited about the Council and was pleased to be present at the President’s announcement yesterday; in fact, we are a founding mother. While the proposal to the White House for a council on women came from a group of 40 women’s organizations, Girl Scouts of the USA proposed a commission on girls. The Council is a combination of both ideas. It is our expectation to work closely with key players in the Council and the White House. In that spirit, tomorrow we are having a conference call with Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the Council, and the Council’s Executive Director. 

I have attached the Executive Order the President signed as well as the remarks he made, which are pasted below. If you have any thoughts about this Council, please contact Laurie A. Westley, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, Advocacy and the Research Institute at LWestley@girlscouts.org.

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release                                                          March 11, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT SIGNING OF EXECUTIVE ORDER

CREATING THE WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON WOMEN AND GIRLS

East Room

1:31 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  Well, today, as we continue our celebration of International Women’s History Month, I’m proud to sign this executive order establishing the women’s — the White House Council on Women and Girls.  It’s a Council with a mission that dates back to our founding:  to fulfill the promise of our democracy for all our people. 

I sign this order not just as a President, but as a son, a grandson, a husband, and a father, because growing up, I saw my mother put herself through school and follow her passion for helping others.  But I also saw how she struggled to raise me and my sister on her own, worrying about how she’d pay the bills and educate herself and provide for us.

I saw my grandmother work her way up to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state of Hawaii, but I also saw how she hit a glass ceiling — how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her.

I’ve seen Michelle, the rock of the Obama family — (laughter) — juggling work and parenting with more skill and grace than anybody that I know.  But I also saw how it tore at her at times, how sometimes when she was with the girls she was worrying about work, and when she was at work she was worrying about the girls.  It’s a feeling that I share every day.

In so many ways, the stories of the women in my life reflect the broader story of women in this country — a story of both unyielding progress and also untapped potential.

Today, women make up a growing share of our workforce and the majority of students in our colleges and our law schools.  Women are breaking barriers in every field, from science and business to athletics and the Armed Forces.  Women are serving at the highest levels of my administration.  And we have Madam Speaker presiding over our House of Representatives.  (Applause.)  I had the privilege of participating in a historic campaign with a historic candidate, who we now have the privilege of calling Madam Secretary. 

But at the same time, when women still earn just 78 cents for every dollar men make; when one in four women still experiences domestic violence in their lifetimes; when women are more than half of our population, but just 17 percent of our Congress; when women are 49 percent of the workforce, but only 3 percent of our Fortune 500 CEOs — when these inequalities stubbornly persist in this country, in this century, then I think we need to ask ourselves some hard questions.  I think we need to take a hard look at where we’re falling short, and who we’re leaving out, and what that means for the prosperity and the vitality of our nation.

And I want to be very clear:  These issues are not just women’s issues.  When women make less than men for the same work, it hurts families who find themselves with less income, and have to work harder just to get by.  When a job doesn’t offer family leave, that also hurts men who want to help care for a new baby or an ailing parent.  When there’s no affordable child care, that hurts children who wind up in second-rate care, or spending afternoons alone in front of the television set.

And when any of our citizens cannot fulfill their potential because of factors that have nothing to do with their talent, their character, their work ethic, that says something about the state of our democracy.  It says something about whether we’re honoring those words put on paper more than two centuries ago — whether we’re doing our part, like generations before us, to breathe new life into them in our time. 

That, above all, is the true purpose of our government.  Not to guarantee our success, but to ensure that in America, all things are still possible for all people.  Not to solve all our problems, but to ensure that we all have the chance to pursue our own version of happiness.  To give our daughters the chance to achieve as greatly as the women who join us today.  That’s the impact our government can have.

It’s the impact of a Health and Human Services Department that funds research by women like Dr. Nina Fedoroff, a biotechnology and life science pioneer — (applause) — who won the National Medal of Science in 2006.  It’s the impact of a Defense Department that works to recruit and promote women — women, so that women like Sergeant Major Michele Jones, who was the Army’s highest ranking enlisted woman before she retired, can strengthen our military with their leadership.  (Applause.) 

It’s the impact of a Department of Education that enforces Title IX, so athletes like — (applause) — so athletes like Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes and Lisa Leslie — (applause) — have a level playing field to compete and to win.  It’s the impact of a White House and a Congress that fight for legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, so that all women can get paid what they deserve.  (Applause.)  I’m very proud this was the very first bill that I signed into law. 

And that’s why I’m establishing this Council — not just to continue efforts like these, but to enhance them.  The Council will be composed of the heads of every Cabinet and Cabinet-level agency, and will meet on a regular basis.  We have many of those Cabinet members here.  Some of the men showed up — we put them in the second row.  (Laughter.)  But they’re going to be fighting — (applause) — they’re going to be part of this Council, and it’s going to meet on a regular basis. 

Its purpose is very simple:  to ensure that each of the agencies in which they’re charged takes into account the needs of women and girls in the policies they draft, the programs they create, the legislation they support.  It’s not enough to only have individual women’s offices at individual agencies, or only have one office in the White House.  Rather, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said, in our government, “¼responsibility for the advancement of women is not the job of any one agency, it’s the job of all of them.”  (Applause.)  And she should know — she helped lead an interagency women’s initiative during the Clinton administration. 

At the same time, given the critical importance of its work, this Council must have strong leadership from the White House, and direct accountability to me.  And that’s why I’m appointing Valerie Jarrett, one of my closest advisors and most senior members of my administration, to lead it.  Tina Tchen, another senior member of my White House staff, will serve as the Council’s Executive Director.

In the end, while many of the challenges women and girls face are new, the work of this Council is not — it’s been with us for generations.  Frances Perkins, who was President Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, and the first woman to serve in the Cabinet — a great hero of the New Deal — described it well when she said, “¼I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the rights of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.”  To sit in the high seats.

That is why I’m standing here today, because of what my mother and grandmother did for me, because of their hard work and sacrifice and unflagging love.  That’s what Michelle is doing right now, thinking every day about making sure that Malia and Sasha have the same opportunities as anybody’s sons do.  That’s why so many of us are here today, because of the women who came before us, who were determined to see us sit in the high seats:  women who reached for the ballot, and raised families, and traveled long, lonely roads to be the first in the boardroom or in the courtroom or on the battlefield and in the factory floor; women who cracked and shattered those glass ceilings, so that my daughters — and all of our sons and daughters — could dream a little bigger and reach a little higher.

So now it’s up to us to carry that work forward, to ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements — and that they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers never dreamed of.  That’s the purpose of this Council.  Those are the priorities of my presidency.   And I look forward to working with all of you to fulfill them in the months and years to come.

All right, so I’m going to go sign this thing.  Thank you very much..

  <<EO Women and Girls.pdf>> eowomenandgirls

building peace

Last year on May 12, 2008, Immigrants Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 389 people at Agriprocessors, the local kosher meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. At the time, this was the largest raid in the history of the United States, changing the lives of many in the town and around the nation.

 

This year on May 12, 2009 local congregations, immigrant advocates and community leaders across the country will participate in a Day of Remembrance and Action to mark the first anniversary of the immigration raid in Postville.  People of faith across the nation will ring church bells, hold prayer vigils and wear red ribbons to bear witness to the devastating impacts of raids and join the Postville community in calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

 

There are two key ways that you can participate in these efforts on and around May 12 and amplify the voices of people across the nation commemorating the anniversary of the raid.

1. Invite local media to a May 12 commemoration event happening in your church or community.  There are resources at http://www.networklobby.org/ to help you plan your own community event.  To find out if an event is already planned in your area or for more guidance on planning or media outreach, contact Katrine Herrick at kherrick@networklobby.org.
2. Write a letter-to-the-editor to raise awareness about the tragedy of the raid and about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.  Read below for suggested talking points and tips on writing letters-to-the-editor. 

(After writing your letter and sending it to your local newspaper, please remember to e-mail a copy to Katrine Herrick at kherrick@networklobby.org so we can use your words as we lobby Congress!)

 

The anniversary of the May 12 immigration raid in Postville, Iowa serves as a reminder of how broken our immigration system is.

• Seventy-five percent of the plant’s employees were undocumented workers who lacked protections.  These workers were exploited, underpaid and, in some cases, sexually abused.
• The process for trying detained workers was hasty and unfair.  Translators did not inform workers of their full charges and lawyers had only a few hours to try to help the workers, who were tried in groups at the local cattle fairground.

The raid hurt the Postville community. 

• The plant could not replace all the detained workers and shut down, leaving even more unemployed.
• One-third of the Postville community fled overnight, leaving houses and businesses vacant and fifty empty desks at the local school.
• People still live in fear.  For a week following the raid, traumatized families slept in St. Bridget’s Church, afraid to return to their homes-and that fear has never left.
• While the destruction of the community was government-funded, there is no federal funding to aid in the humanitarian response.  Several workers still await trial, costing the town of Postville nearly $80,000 a month to support them. 

Comprehensive immigration reform is needed to bring workers out of the shadows, keep families together and eliminate the fear and destruction caused by raids. 

• We cannot continue tearing families and towns apart and leaving them to clean up the mess created by our broken immigration system.  
• Comprehensive immigration reform would have kept families and the Postville community together by providing a path for workers to remain employed (and keep paying taxes) and giving them protection to report labor abuses.

Tips for Letters to the Editor

• Be Clear and Concise – Limit your letter to one topic and check your grammar. Most publications prefer 250 words or less. Check for submission requirements.
• Be Current – Responding to a recent article in the newspaper or to an upcoming or very recent event greatly increases your odds of being published.
• Be Compelling – Make sure your lead sentence draws attention. Consider using a personal story or attention-grabbing facts. Always refrain from personal attacks.
• Contact – Include your name, organization address and telephone number. Newspapers will often only publish a letter if they are able to contact the signer to make sure s/he is the author.
• Send a copy to NETWORK!

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Liberia Stresses Need for Female Peacemakers

Run Date: 03/15/09

By Anna S. Sussman WeNews correspondent

Officials and activists from around the world gathered in Monrovia, Liberia, last weekend to push for more female peace negotiators. Women may not start wars, but, participants said, they were often uniquely qualified to help end them.

MONROVIA, Liberia (WOMENSENEWS)–For three days and nights 28-year-old Comfort Wilson rode in the back of a pickup truck from her rural village in Liberia to the capital, Monrovia. She came with 30 women from her village sleeping in the truck bed, eating food they prepared at home.They came, along with women from Mozambique, Guatemala, Kosovo and 25 other countries, as a global show of support for the idea that more women must be involved in building and maintaining peace.”We are the ones. The women of Liberia are the ones who brought peace,” said Wilson, referring to a group of female protesters credited with helping to end the country’s 14-year civil war through aggressive sit-in style demonstrations, including at the country’s peace talks, held in Ghana. They threatened to lock in negotiators until a peace accord was signed and the warlords capitulated. “This meeting is the most important thing in my life.” The women attended the International Colloquium for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security hosted March 7-10 by Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president. Nearly a thousand women and many U.N. and government officials, including the presidents of Senegal and Rwanda, the prime minister of Mozambique and the vice presidents of Spain and the Gambia, gathered in a stadium outside Monrovia that at one point was used to shelter families from the war. They were there to discuss methods for women’s inclusion in peacemaking. At the conclusion of the colloquium participants hailed President Johnson Sirleaf’s national action plan for the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 as a model for countries working to include women in peace processes. The plan called for the bolstering of local women’s peace groups, establishing a certificate program for gender-sensitive conflict resolution training and for an early warning training for women to detect outbreaks of violence, and the creation of a national roster of competent female peace negotiators. Liberia Women Demanding Peace Mary Robinson, the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights and the former president of Ireland, attended the colloquium and lauded Liberia’s efforts. “What happens in the peace discussions all too often is it’s the baddies, those who’ve been fighting, those who’ve been raping and marauding through villages, they are the ones that get the bright lights and newspaper and media coverage,” said Robinson. “This is where things are changing. The women here are not saying ‘I would like,’ they are saying ‘I demand.’” “Women continue to be at the margins of the formal peace processes,” said Ines Alberdi, executive director of UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, at a workshop. “The U.N. has never appointed a woman to moderate a major peace process.” While women in war zones are rarely parties to the conflict, their experience during war positions them uniquely to wage peace. “We are the ones who are raped, we lose our children, our homes, our food. We are the ones who care for the wounded,” said Wilson, who escaped Liberia’s war on foot to neighboring Ivory Coast and now sells peanuts and fruit at her local market. “We are the ones who know war and we are never the ones who want to fight it.” As disproportionate victims of fighting, with little to no stake in political concessions or appointments, some participants said women bring a relatively objective yet passionate voice for peace to the negotiating table. Maintaining Peaceful State As one of the poorest countries in the world with 85 percent unemployment, Liberia remains at high risk for a resurgence of conflict. But many spoke of optimism for stability here because of the role women continue to play in maintaining the country’s peace, from holding positions in government to developing poverty mitigation programs, and as formal and informal conflict negotiators. So vested is Liberia in promoting women to positions of power in peace-building that Johnson Sirleaf sent back the first U.N. special representative of the secretary-general assigned to her and demanded that a woman be appointed to the position in his place. Eventually, Ellen Margrethe Loj, a Danish diplomat, was appointed to the position in 2007. “She was a president who could say that, but that’s what’s needed, political will,” said Robinson. Robinson urged other U.N. member states to follow the Liberia’s aggressive lead in demanding women’s involvement in peacekeeping processes. “It’s quite shocking at this stage that there are so few,” she said. “And it’s not because there aren’t qualified women around. It’s that there has not been the political will to make sure that they get the position.” Official Call for Female Involvement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325, passed in 2000, calls for the increased participation of women at all decision-making levels in the resolution of conflict. It grew out of a UNIFEM study on the impact of war on women conducted by Johnson Sirleaf and Finnish Minister of Defense Elisabeth Rhen. UNIFEM director Alberdi said the resolution would just be words on paper unless countries worked aggressively for its implementation. Participants shared grassroots strategies for engaging women in peace processes. “In Uganda, the men would show up for the peacekeeping meeting and the women would look after the children,” said Ugandan Global Peace Ambassador Betty Bigombe in a workshop. “And then one day a woman came up to me and said, ‘This is never going to work.’” Bigombe began going door to door training women in northern Uganda in conflict resolution techniques to act as peace mediators. Others spoke of female conflict mediation trainings in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Israel and elsewhere. As Comfort Wilson prepared for her long journey home to Maryland County, Liberia, she said she was prepared to do what she could in her village to help maintain Liberia’s fragile peace. “We have hope that there will be no more fighting. The U.N. peacekeepers are still here, we know there could still be danger, still be war. But Ellen (Johnson Sirleaf) helps us believe in the women of Liberia and the women want peace.” Anna S. Sussman has reported from conflict and post-conflict countries across Africa and Asia.