Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee speaks April 17

Elizabethtown College welcomes Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee (lay-muh ba u̇-ee) April 17 at 7:30 p.m. as the keynote speaker for the 2013 Ware Lecture on Peacemaking. The lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center and is sponsored by the College's Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking. Attendees must reserve tickets by calling 717-361-4757.

Gbowee is the author of “Mighty Be Our Powers,”  (http://leymahgbowee.com/) a gripping account of her experiences during the Liberian civil war. The book details the Gbowee family’s many losses during the conflict—including loved-ones and childhood dreams—and the unique struggles which have brought her to where she is today. As a young mother trapped in a relationship plagued with domestic violence, Gbowee chose to use her bitterness to create change, rather than live in hatred and sorrow. She realized that during times of unrest, women suffer the most, but that through their collective efforts, women can become an unstoppable force.

In 2003, Gbowee helped organize the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, an alliance of both Christian and Muslim women that rallied together in protest, including confronting Liberia’s corrupt leaders and holding a sex strike. It was this coalition of woman, through determination and unrelenting hope, that helped led the nation back to peace. The movie titled Pray the Devil Back to Hell, based on Gbowee’s book of the same name,details this remarkable story of courage and strength will be screened Wed. April 3, 7 p.m. in Musser Auditorium, Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. A panel and Q&A discussion will immediately follow the screening.

Liberian peace activist and trained social worker Leymah Gbowee is the Founder and President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative and Cofounder and Executive Director of Women Peace Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She also is a founding member of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West African Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP), where she was the Liberia Coordinator of Women.

Currently, Gbowee is the Newsweek Daily Beast’s African columnist. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Gbowee Peace Foundation USA, the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the PeaceJam Foundation. Gbowee has been honored for her work many times, having been awarded the John Jay Medal for Justice in 2010, and the Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights in 2009. She is also a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and was awarded the Blue Ribbon Peace Award by the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2011, Gbowee was named the Nobel Peace Laureate.

 

LINKS:

Mighty Be Our Powers - http://leymahgbowee.com/

PBS – Women, War and Peace - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/

The Daily Show interview with Leymah Gbowee:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-14-2011/exclusive---leymah-gbowee-extended-interview-pt--1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-14-2011/exclusive---leymah-gbowee-extended-interview-pt--2