50th Annual Event: Black Voices for Peace – Gaza to Connecticut

Excitement is growing as this year marks the 50^th annual People's World Black History Month celebration which is headlined “Black Voices for Peace – Gaza to Connecticut.”

The occasion includes an arts and writing competition for students in grades 8 to 12, and a family program on Sunday, February 25 at 4 pm at the New Haven Peoples Center 37 Howe Street, and live streamed.

Guest speaker Joe Sims, lifelong civil rights and peace activist, who co-chairs the Communist Party USA, helped lead a national peace conference last fall.

The conference held in November highlighted the demand for a ceasefire as key to both achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and to redirecting funds from the military budget to meet the needs of Black and Brown and working class communities at home.

Quoting W.E.B. DuBois, “Peace is not an end to be achieved, but the gateway to a new civilization,” Sims said, “We are walking, marching, dancing toward that gate. And the gate is working-class power.”

A panel at the event will include members of 1199 health care workers union who recently went on strike for living wages and benefits and the 4C's community college teachers union in a battle for state funding of public higher education. Both unions have called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

A drumming circle by Brian Jarawa Gray and friends will also highlight the program.

Students will present their winning submissions to the high school arts and writing competition. All entries will be recognized. Submissions can be artwork, essay, poetry, rap or song and must be received by February 16. For more information contact ct-pww@pobox.com.

The competition announcement quotes Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death," and notes that the speech, 'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.' “has great meaning today, as civil rights groups speak out for a permanent ceasefire to end the destruction of Gaza, humanitarian aid and release of hostages.” In the speech King spoke out against hate and called for “a radical revolution of values” to overcome “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”

Donations to the People's World 100^th Anniversary fund drive will be accepted.