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Please join President Joseph E. Aoun for an event featuring Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and leader of the interfaith women’s peace movement that helped bring an end to the second Liberian Civil War.

In honor of United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week, Ms. Gbowee will deliver her keynote address:

"Fear into Fortitude: Interfaith Peacebuilding Lessons from Liberia”

Thursday, February 11, 7:00– 8:30 p.m. Blackman Auditorium, 342 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

Following her speech, Ms. Gbowee will sit down with President Aoun for a conversation.

 

About Leymah Gbowee

In 2008, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, featured a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia. Their demonstrations culminated in the exile of Charles Taylor and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state.

One particularly charismatic woman among them was Leymah Gbowee (who former New York Times columnist Bob Hebert has said “should be a lesson to all of us”). Gbowee helped organize then lead the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women, who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia’s ruthless president and rebel warlords. Gbowee emerged as an international leader who changed history, making the vanguard of a new wave of women taking control of their political destiny around the world.

 

More about the February 11 event

Ms. Gbowee will share stories and reflections from her experience as leader of the interfaith women’s peace movement that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. She will offer insights as to how students and our communities might develop skills of global citizenship and peacemaking as we confront cultures of violence in the US and around the world.

The event also serves as the Opening Ceremony of the first New England Interfaith Student Summit; as an offering of the University Scholars Program annual Scholars’ Seminars, the International Student and Scholar Institute’s annual Carnivale series, and the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute’s Black History Month observances.

The Thursday keynote is free and open to the public, but is ticketed. Tickets must be reserved at http://neu.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.aspx?id=1833&cid=155&p=1. Please note that seating in Blackman Auditorium is available on a first come, first serve basis. Additional seating will be available in the Curry Indoor Quad, where the event will be live streamed.

Thursday’s keynote also serves as the opening of the first New England Interfaith Student Summit (NEISS) on Friday, Feb. 12, designed for college, graduate and high students, and for chaplains and student life professional staff who serve them. Separate registration for NEISS can be found here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-england-interfaith-student-summit-tickets-20036725385. Register early, as spaces fill quickly!

Sponsored by the Northeastern University Center for Spirituality, Dialogue and Service; the Division of Student Affairs; the College of Social Sciences and Humanities; the Northeastern Humanities Center; the University Scholars Program; the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion; the International Student and Scholar Institute; the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; and the Social Justice Resource Center.

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