Notable guests include musician and folk singer Charlie King, who will perform and speak on Feb. 17-18, and Columbia University professor and international peace consultant Betty Reardon, who will present the keynote address on Feb. 23. The series, which links the arts and world peace issues, will include films, exhibits and performances on peace relations and will feature nationally known guests as well as local and campus speakers.
All events are free and open to the public.
The program will begin with three local speakers, physician John Reuwer, RU professor Jim Unnever, and RU professor Moira Baker. Reuwer is a physician at the Carilion Radford Community Hospital. He is involved with the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization of volunteers who place themselves between conflicting parties to encourage dialogue and create peace. Unnever explores the issues of massive poverty, homelessness, and underemployment in the United States and argues that the causes of poverty are not laziness or worthlessness on the part of the poor, but rather are built into our system itself. This hard-hitting and provoking film raises the issues of peace and its relation to justice and of truth and its relation to falsehood and deception.