Peace Day - September 21, 2008 - (Page 54)

JAzz FOR (From an interview with Nate Haney and Saphir Lewis, May 29, 2008) “With Jazz, I had the opportunity to travel all over the world and share my music. I found that people all over the world were every bit as humane as the people I knew, in many instances more so; and that music was a way of breaking down boundaries that societies had put on us, that kept us back from creating a thread of common ground. As problems escalated in the world, I ended up saying things at dinner parties that would kind of surprise people. One thing I once said at a dinner party was that Palestinians, Israelis and Americans are often together in my apartment playing Jazz just for the fun of it, and sometimes on stage. People would say to me “That’s so strange because we’re under the impression that even the leaders of these countries can’t get in the same room together.” So I decided I wanted to start something called “Jazz for Peace” that went to areas of conflict and showed what I had been seeing anyway: how we can cross cultural barriers and get together not only in a positive way, but in a profoundly positive way. It’s such a positive result that comes through musical communication between people of different languages, different cultures, different religions. Once you have that common ground, you now have so much of a better chance at coming to an understanding, even if it’s an agreement to disagree. Of course, nobody was really interested. Basically, people listened and thought it was a great idea and that was about it. PEACE PianiSt riCk dEllaratta SharES hiS Story Photo bY anita YaPP Shortly after 9-11, I started to get calls from all over the world. I didn’t realize how many people I had told the story to. People were saying, “I remember this day in (whether it was Tokyo or Hong Kong or Saul Paulo, Brazil or La Paz, Bolivia) . . . where you told me this story.” Most people had thought it was just a fun conversation, but they remembered what I said, and when I got all these calls, I realized this needed to be done, period. In other words, it was time for me, even though there wasn’t funding, even though there wasn’t support, even though there wasn’t anything, it was time for me to put achievement before profit. 54 Peace Day 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Peace Day - September 21, 2008

Peace Day - September 21, 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor The United Nations International Day of Peace Avon Mattison, IDP Visionary Surprise Announcement What You Can Do EarthDance International Earthdance International Events 11 Days of Global Unity Peace Day Central Event Pages Ari Lesser Peace One Day Peace Day Ceasefires IDP Vigils World Peace Starts From Within The Peace Film Festival Events Jazz for Peace Jazz for Peace Concerts Peace Partnership International Be Part of A Global Mastermind Mr. Peace VZones.com The US Peace Alliance A Pyramid of Light Comedy for Peace Comedy for Peace Club Events The Peace Dome World Peace Prayer Society Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Jane Goodall’s Children’s Events Sydney’s Triple Event Peace Day Chicago Other Global Peace Days

Peace Day - September 21, 2008

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