Art & Peace

Thursday October 9th is Denver's ImaginePeace Paint-in. It takes place on John Lennon's Birthday and will benefit Yoko Ono Lennon's ImaginePeace.com organization. All levels of artists will be there including art classes from all grade levels. It will take place in the Civic Center Park and will feature various national and international peace groups, as well as vendors and musical artists that all have peace as their overall theme.

Paint in for Peace

Another interesting tid-bit of information to tie into this now is the film Who Does She Think She Is? This documentary, released October 17th, is about society today with women being expected to choose family over working. The film focuses on five mothers who refuse to choose and are determined to make themselves known as artists. This film focuses on how our world hasn't changed completely to accept women as equals, and although 70-80% of art school students are women, the majority of people have trouble naming five female artists.

This also just tied into my Peace & Justice class this morning, where many find themselves hard-pressed to find information on women leading nonviolent action movements. This is because the majority of the authors of the books published are men and focus on what is most familiar to them-- And with the main nonviolent leaders, such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King leading chauvinistic lives it isn't hard to see why information on female leaders isn't as well-known. 

However as society is beginning to change information on women is becoming more accessible. The women's group CODEPINK: Women for Peace is gaining ground, and their book Stop the Next War Now by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans gives great information on the women working for Peace today.