A World without Empire - New York City

When:  April 22-25, 2010
Where:  New York City
Who:  Peace for Life  and World Student Christian Federation

A World without Empire

People’s Congress and Peace Festival on Spirit, Movements and the End of U.S. Domination

World without Empire: A People’s Congress and Peace Festival on Spirit, Movements and the End of U.S. Domination is an interfaith (primarily Christian-Muslim), intergenerational, feminist gathering of grassroots groups and intellectuals from the U.S. and Global South.  It will be convened on 23-24 April 2010 in New York City to promote a North-South engagement in counter-imperial struggle and the elaboration of domination-free spirituality. This conference is co-sponsored by Peace for Life (PfL), an international movement committed to inter-religious, South-South and North-South solidarity against empire. This event is another step in PfL’s responses to the current geopolitical reality of empire, with its expansionist militarization, neoliberal economics, hegemonic control of the world’s resources, and untrammeled ecological destruction. The WSCF-NA co-sponsors the event by coordinating the Peace Festival, a Symbolic Journey out of Empire. The Peace Festival will feature youth involved in staged political resistance and in the naming of oppression through the arts – dance, music, theatre, video, painting, drumming, spoken word poetry, etc. Artists will present their work, actively engage participants in the challenge to the cultural infrastructure supporting empire and express cultural forms of emancipation which promote a culture of peace and justice. This festival is an opportunity for young artists and other groups to connect and collaborate with grassroots activists and intellectuals from New York City and around the world. Learning about empire through the arts, young people from all walks of life and religious traditions will be engaged in social change and recognizing oppression from within empire.

Artistic expression will be the catalyst of the Peace festival for comprehending empire and for envisioning a new way of living without empire. The festival will consist of an itinerary of artistic stations which will represent the artistic interpretation of the journey out of empire. The events will culminate with an evening of dance and liberation!