Leymah Gbowee, the women's rights advocate and co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, speaks at UC Irvine tonight about the power of education and her dream that brutal African warlord Charles Taylor will be overthrown.
The Liberian “will also share her insights about the vital role that ordinary citizens can play in transforming violence to peace,” according to a statement from the university, which is co-sponsoring Gbowee's appearance with Orange County's Center for Living Peace. She is the eighth speaker in a Living Peace Series that has previously brought the Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Charlize Theron and Jane Goodall to UCI.
After Gbowee's talk, UCI's Center for Citizen Peacebuilding will present her with its Citizen Peacebuilding Award. One hopes she has a long mantle; in addition to the Nobel, she's previously received the Oxfam America Right the Wrong Award, the New York Women's Foundation Century Award, and the Barnard College Medal of Distinction.
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Of course, she needs a second mantle for her Villanova University Peace Award, Living Legends Award for Service to Humanity, John Jay Medal for Justice from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Joli Humanitarian Award from Riverdale Country School, the Gruber Prize for Women's Rights, John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, Women's eNews Leaders for the 21st Century Award and the Blue Ribbon for Peace from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Tonight's event begins at 7 in the Pacific Ballroom at UCI's Student Center. Tickets are free for UCI faculty, students and staff and $8 for everyone else.
Learn more about the Gbowee Peace Foundation USA at gboweepeaceusa.org.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.