How often do you get to hear a Nobel Peace Prize winner speak? This week, Leymah Gbowee will be the keynote speaker for the annual Mayday! peace conference. She will be speaking in the Chapel at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 2. There will be a screening of a documentary about her work, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, in Alumni Hall at 1:15 followed by a panel of faculty discussing her work and impact.
For those who have purchased tickets, there will be a Gustavus Library Associates lunch at 11:30 with Mikka McCracken (’09) who is director of planning and engagement with ELCA World Hunger as a speaker.
About Leymah Gbowee: a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker, and women’s rights advocate, Gbowee’s leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace – a nonviolent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003 – was recognized when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.
Her work with the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the award-winning documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.
The book and film are both available in the library, as well as other books about peace building, the role of women in leadership, and women in West African political movements.
Thanks to Diane Christensen for loaning us some beautiful African fabric for our library display!