Penn Museum promotes peace with Sonia Sanchez

Poetic voices will soon harmonize in hopes of inspiring a more unified and tranquil society at “Footprints of Peace,” a featured program celebrating International Peace Day.

The event, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21 throughout the Penn Museum’s international galleries and gardens, is presented in collaboration with renowned peace advocate and Philadelphia poet laureate emeritus Sonia Sanchez and City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell.

“The need for peace becomes more and more apparent each day as we look and see what’s happening around the world,” says Sanchez, who held her first reading at the Penn Museum upon moving to Philadelphia. “The Penn Museum is an international museum, with items from so many different countries on exhibit. If we can celebrate peace at an international museum, it allows us to bring peace forward to the city and to the world.”

The day’s events will be peppered with performances from some of the city’s most beloved artists and vocal advocates for peace, including Sanchez.

Additional performers scheduled to appear include singer/actor T.C. Carson, who co-starred on the 1990s sitcom “Living Single”; poet and hip-hop artist Black Ice; composer/performer Karma Mayet Johnson; poet and abstract painter Danny Simmons, Jr.; and vocalist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist Imani Uzuri. Harrisburg poet laureate Rick Kearns and Philadelphia’s new youth poet laureate, Soledad Alfaro-Allah, will also join in the festivities.

The event will feature the art and poetry of hundreds of Philadelphia-area children, such as participants from the Artistic and Cultural Enrichment Camp and Afterschool Programs, and the United Block Captains Association Hospital Summer Fun Program. Guests of all ages will be able to create poetry through newspaper headlines during an afternoon workshop hosted by Arts Holding Hands and Hearts, Inc.

The day will culminate with the presentation of a Peace Warriors certificate and the unveiling of a new Mural Arts Program Peace Bench for a community location.

Tickets to Footprints of Peace are $10 general admission, $2 Access Card holders, and free for STAMP cardholders.

Admission is free for Museum members, PennCard holders, and children 5 and under.

For more information about Footprints of Peace, visit the Penn Museum website.

Sonia Sanchez