Celebrate Earth Day!

Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd!

It is a day to celebrate the planet we live on as remember to take good care of it. Looking for a way to celebrate? Kick off Earth Day weekend with us, Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA), and the UCI eARTh Studio!

On Saturday, April 20th from 11am-12pm, eARTh Studio will present an interactive lecture for all ages! Learn about the important relationship between art and sustainability. Participants will receive 2 free tickets to the Human Security Award ceremony recognizing the work of artist Chris Jordan.

Plus in the afternoon from 12pm-3:30pm, stop by for a drop-in art workshop!

We are looking forward to a great Earth Day weekend! How are you planning to celebrate Earth Day?

Good Happens.

Pay it Forward!

Live Peace with One Billion Rising

This Thursday, February 14th marks One Billion Rising, a movement to combat violence against women and girls. Created in honor of the 15th anniversary of V-Day, the day encourages organizations and individuals to dance, rise, and raise awareness of the issues facing women worldwide.

One Billion Rising logo in English, Bengali, Spanish, and German (clockwise from top left). It is a global movement!

Locally, join the UC Irvine cast and crew of the Vagina Monologues at Irvine Rising in Aldrich Park on the UCI campus. Or, find your own way to RISE!

See organizations that are rising and find an event near you!

Good Happens.

Pay it Forward!

Living Peace Series: A Day with Dr. Jane Goodall

This past Tuesday, October 2nd, we had the honor of hosting Dr. Jane Goodall of the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots and Shoots! We are thrilled that over 1,000 guests were able to hear Dr. Goodall’s wisdom at the speaking event in the UC Irvine Pacific Ballrooms. We wanted to share photos from the speaking event and the following VIP reception.

The live broadcast of this event will be available on our website for a limited time! Stay tuned for more details.

Chancellor Drake welcoming Dr. Goodall to the stage.

Dr. Goodall enthralling the crowd.

Dr. Goodall speaking to the audience of over 1,000 guests!

One of the giant peace doves from the Living Peace Projects flying at the front of the room.

Dr. Goodall greeting guests at the VIP reception following the speaking event.

Center for Living Peace staff members with Dr. Goodall.

Guests at the VIP reception.

Dr. Goodall and our founder Kelly Thornton Smith at the VIP reception.

Celebrating UCI Vice Chancellor Parham’s birthday!

Big thanks and gratitude to our lovely photographers: Alex Abercrombie and Jason Niedle. We also wanted to thank UCI, all the students, staff and faculty that came out to hear Dr. Goodall, Apples & Oranges for filming the speaking event and Orange County Films for streaming the event for us! And of course, a big thank you to all of the guests who joined us. We are so grateful to have such an amazing community helping us make peace real!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Live Peace with CUSA

The Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA), started in 2003, is a department at UC Irvine that takes a look at modern issues and challenges for  human and environmental security through “innovative research and education programs that integrate experts from the public and private sector.”

CUSA focuses on two core areas in it’s programming and research, Environment Conflict and Peace Building and Global Change and Human Security. It’s interdisciplinary approach seeks to cultivate a new generation of leaders and researchers with education programs involving experts from the public and private sector. CUSA researchers and students have conducted research fieldwork in more than twenty-five countries and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

Here’s a TEDxOrangeCoast talk with Richard Matthew, Ph.D., the founding director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs.

Professor Matthew spends much of his time in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, studying how environmental stress contributes to violent conflict and other types of crisis. For several years he has worked closely with the United Nations to integrate natural resource management and climate change adaptation into peace-building efforts, participating in various field assessments and directing one in Sierra Leone. He teaches courses on sustainability and social enterprise.

The Environment Art and Human Security (eARTh) Studio, founded by Pamela Donohoo, aerialist, cirque-style acrobat, dancer/ choreographer, gymnast, approaches the issues of environment, sustainability and human security issues through art. Pamela Donohoo performed an improvisational dance while simultaneously creating a 9′x9′ painting that captured movements informed and inspired by the experience of women in conflict zones as part of our Women, War, and Peace Lecture.

Support CUSA’s efforts towards a more peaceful world and read more about it’s upcoming events and projects at their website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Live Peace with Roots and Shoots

Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light, they can break open brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds of thousands of roots & shoots, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls. We CAN change the world.

- Dr. Jane Goodall

We are very excited to welcome Jane Goodall this October for our Living Peace Series!

Jane Goodall’s world renowned work with Chimpanzees has led to receive titles such as, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, United Nations peace messenger, and the president of Advocates for Animals. However, her work with the Jane Goodall Institute and it’s youth component Roots & Shoots, deals with more than just the wellbeing of animals, but the interconnectivity of the wellbeing of humans, animals, and the environment.

Roots & Shoots was founded by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students in 1991 in order to motivate young people to make positive change. It has grown over the years, with chapters in more than 120 countries, to include a variety of projects and campaigns that have a global reach. The program is built on campaigns that are designed to unite a “global network” with common initiatives.

Get involved with Roots & Shoots at our International Day of Peace celebration on September 23rd where Shawn Sweeney, Roots & Shoots Youth Outreach and Engagement Manager, will speak on careers in peace! Youth involved will build and fly giant peace doves and receive premiere seating at Jane Goodall’s speaking event on October 2nd. You can sign up for the youth event on our website.

You can also become a Roots & Shoots member, find a group to join in your area,  sign up for their newsletter, and visit their website for more information.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

TEDxOrangeCoast 2012

This Fall on October 10th, TEDxOrangeCoast will be hosting a new event, TEDxOrangeCoast 2012 Redefining Relevance, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts! This will be an exciting conference with a mission to help turn inspiring ideas into action. UCI’s Center for Unconventional Affairs’s founder, Professor Richard Matthews, will be featured in his second TEDxOrangeCoast talk. His talk in 2011 was on Natural Resources for Peacebuilding and can be viewed on the TEDxOrange Coast website along with their other past talks.

This year’s conference will revolve around the questions, how do you make sense of a world that is constantly changing and how do you solve problems that haven’t been defined?

Apply and register to attend the conference, volunteer, and read more about upcoming TEDxOrangeCoast events on their website.

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out!

Living Peace Series Speaking Event with Queen Noor

What a whirlwind couple of weeks it’s been here at Center for Living Peace! We were so lucky to have Her Majesty come and spend time with us– we had so much fun! The weeks just flew by. We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing photos from the VIP fundraiser and the Living Peace Projects service day. We wanted to share some photos with you from the speaking event on May 2nd, 2012.

Here is a behind-the-scenes photo from the green room at UCI! UCI’s Chancellor Michael Drake, Her Majesty Queen Noor, CLP’s Kelly Thornton Smith and UCI’s 2011-2012 XIV Dalai Lama Scholar Armaan Ahmed Rowther gathered together before the speaking event for a few quick photos.

Isn’t the Queen stunning?! And check out her bracelet! It’s from our very own Live Peace store!

The speaking event was moderated by Armaan Ahmed Rowther. He is the current Dalai Lama scholar at UCI.The Queen spoke about how she feels education is fundamental to the process of interfaith, and how she believes reaching out to one another is an incredibly grand gesture of peace, that is sometimes over looked. She explained that instead of branding people of other faiths with the idea of “other,” we need to make them a part of us. So inspiring!

Before leaving the stage, Her Majesty gave Kelly a hug…

Such a great image. What an amazing event it was! If you missed the speaking event, you can watch it in it’s entirety here. An edited, and better quality version of the video will also be on our site in the next few days!

 

A giant, special shout out to our lovely photographers: Alex Abercrombie, Ashely Strong Photography and Jason Niedle. We also wanted to thank UCI, all the students, staff and faculty that came out to the speaking event, helped set eveerything up to make the event possible, Apples & Oranges for filming the speaking event and Orange County Films for streaming the event for us! We are so grateful to have such an amazing team of individuals helping us make peace real!

 

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Living Peace Projects: Leap of Faith Day of Service

On Saturday, April 28th, Center for Living Peace hosted its fifth Living Peace Projects day! This time, we partnered with Leap of Faith at UCI, a student-led movement promoting interfaith engagement and community service based on a project from the 2011-2012 UCI Dalai Lama Scholar, Armaan Ahmed Rowther.

The day started off with CLP’s very own, Lauren Quijano, who was the Day of Service student chair welcoming the crowd.

Then UCI’s Vice Chancellor, Thomas Parham thanking the students for their commitment and passion to serve those in need.

Then Armaan said a quick hello and introduced the Queen!

Her Majesty took questions from the audience…

Then the students split up and took buses to Share Our Selves:

And the Islamic Center of Irvine for Uplift Charity…

Some students stayed at CLP to make sandwiches to be donated to the homeless through Vineyard Church in Anaheim.

As well as OC Catholic Worker, Isaiah House (no photography was allowed at this site due to the privacy of the individuals who live there).

All in all– it was a fantastic day!

You can also watch a video from the Living Peace Projects with Leap of Faith at UCI! Thank you to all who participated and made this event a huge success!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Living Peace Series Presents: Her Majesty Queen Noor

This past Wednesday, April 25th, we were proud to host a fundraising event with Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan to raise money for the King Hussein Foundation.

We were so lucky to have this amazing cellist, Philip Sheegog, a 16-year old prodigy play for us.

Her Majesty Queen Noor with Honarary Chair, Christy Walton…

We were so incredibly honored to have Dr. and Mrs. Deepak Chopra attend the event!

Her Majesty with the Dalai Lama Scholar, Armaan Rowther, (who will be moderating the speaking event on May 2nd!) with CLP’s Kelly and UCI’s Vice Chancellor Thomas Parham…

Her Majesty with CLP’s awesome board of directors!

Peace warriors…

The Center for Living Peace staff had a blast at the event too…

Thank you so much to the incredible, hard work of: Upon Request, Ashley Strong Photography, Starrshine Productions, Nikki Thornton, Tethos, Coast Magazine, Pascal, Neiman Marcus Fashion Island, Lindblad, XO Jet, Magic Johnson Foundation, Jessica Grant handbags, Evita on Broadway, Magic Bird on Broadway, Aureole Restaurant, The Chatwal Hotel, Lululemon Athletica, Om My Soul & Kelly Lam, Ritual Cleanse & Marra Okola, Christie Frazier, Shelby Coffman and The Hood Kitchen Space, The Mars Group, Sup ATX paddleboards & WIng Lam Still Mind & Body, Virgin Unite, Christian Dior South Coast Plaza, B. Toffee, AK Johnston, Jim Nye, Paul Fenner Floral Design, Details paper design, Montage Laguna Beach, Miner Family Winery, Morrison Hair, Philip Sheegog and Christy Walton.We couldn’t have pulled off this event with out your support!

More posts to come about the Living Peace Projects and the speaking event!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.

Win Tickets to the Living Peace Series with Her Majesty Queen Noor!

Her Majesty Queen Noor and His Holiness the Dalai Lama

We are so thrilled for our upcoming Living Peace Series event with Queen Noor! As an outspoken advocate of global exchange and understanding, Queen Noor will speak on the importance of overcoming separateness and the idea of “other.”

The event on Wednesday May 2, 2012 at 7pm is the latest installment of our Living Peace Series in partnership with the University of California, Irvine.

Tickets are SOLD OUT, but here is your chance to win a set of 2 tickets to the May 2^nd event!

Ready? To enter the contest, tag us in posts you make on Facebook & Twitter about the Living Peace Series event. Help us spread the word that the event can be watched live online on our website and Facebook page! Tell your friends to watch the event online live and be entered to win! Plus by following or liking us, you can keep up-to-date with upcoming events!

Of the posts we are tagged in, we will choose one lucky winner to receive 2 premier tickets to the speaking event on Wednesday, May 2nd. The deadline to make posts is 11:59pm on Thursday, April 26^th. The winner will be chosen and notified on Friday, April 27^th. Good luck!

Good Happens.

Peace Grl Out.