CITY FOR THE CULTURES OF PEACE
CITÉ DES CULTURES DE LA PAIX
CITÉ DER FRIEDENSKULTUREN
www.paix-culture.org
www.peace-culture.org
AND MUSIC FOR CULTURES OF PEACE
STREET CHILDREN AS ARTISTS
Ivonne Bezerra de Mello is an innovative artist who rescued over 1500 children from the slums in Rio de Janeiro, giving them shelter, food, and education. One of her approaches is to teach street children to paint. Some of these children are talented artists. They know how to draw weapons and scenes of violence. Ivonne Bezerra de Mello teaches them how to paint flowers and symbols of peace. It is through drawings and paintings that these deprived children learn to express their fears and needs. ART BECOMES A CRUCIAL MEANS OF FINDING A NEW MEANING IN LIFE.
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PATRICK MAUBOUSSIN'S
ARTISTIC
CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE
For decades the French artist Patrick Mauboussin has helped children at risk from many different countries and religious denominations. Patrick Mauboussin stands up for social justice and peace. This year Patrick Mauboussin, one of the most innovative artist jewelers of past and modern times, created a ring entitled "Peace Colors." May the beauty of his ring inscribe the idea of peace into the consciousness of those who will wear it and of those who will see it. Since representatives of often conflict-ridden heterogeneous religious denominations as well as ethnic groups cherish Patrick Mauboussin's unusual artistic talent and work, he brings them together. In this respect, he is a cultural mediator who prompts people to help protect peace.
Patrick Mauboussin sculptures other important messages into his work. A wedding ring which he recently designed symbolizes the equality between men and women as well as the idea that gender relationships need to be based on mutual respect and understanding. This message is particularly important because some of his clients live in countries where women often do not enjoy the same rights, professional possibilities, and/or social status as men.
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The Golem in Bayreuth
A Music Theater
Play
by
Lesch Schmidt
Lesch Schmidt, noted composer from Germany, is the recipient of the "Franz Liszt Award for Musical Composition 2004" from Pro Europa: European Cultural Foundation and the City for the Cultures of Peace. His opera "The Golem in Bayreuth: A Music Theater Play" (1999) brings together in an unusual way German and the Jewish cultural and artistic traditions, including Wagner's music and Yiddish songs, undermines habitual modes of artistic expressions as well as familar readings of contemporary German society. This opera was performed by the Burgtheater/Akademietheater (Vienna, Austria) and published by the Suhrkamp Verlag and Schott Verlag, Germany, see: http://www.schott-musik.de. Ulla Berkéwicz, well-known author, actress, and editor, wrote the libretto. Zweitausendeins-Verlag - www.zweitausendeins.de - distributes the CD recording.
Henry L. Gates
Documentary Films
Henry L. Gates, Alphonse
Fletcher University Professor, W.E. B. Du Bois
Professor of Humanities, Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Center for
African and African American Research at Harvard University, and author of numerous innovative studies on and edited works of
Afro-American literature, ranging from the Signifying Monkey: Towards a
Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988) to the encyclopedia Encarta
Africana (1999) co-edited with Prof. Dr. Anthony Appiah, has produced
several important documentary films, including the BBC/PBS series Wonders
of the African World (1998-1999). In America Beyond the Color Line
Gates explores different landscapes of Afro-American culture located on
the East Coast, the deep South, Chicago, and Hollywood. Gates, who studies
their social, political, and economic dimensions, interviews their
representatives from Colin Powell, Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Fannie
Mae's Franklin Raines, Jesse Jackson Russell Simmons, Alicia Keys, Maya
Angelou, Morgan Freeman to grassroots Afro-Americans. In the
film „African American Lives" Gates explores by means of DNA
analysis the family histories of famous protagonists, including
Whoopi Goldberg, Quincy Jones, and Oprah Winfrey. In his most
recent film about TV star and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, „Oprah's
Roots," Gates uses again DNA analysis in order to uncover her actual
genealogy.
***
Yvonne Bezerra de Mello:
Award-winning artist, writer, and
human rights activist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello has devoted her life to
helping children in need. In the course of the past decades, she rescued
over 1500 children from the slums in Rio de Janeiro, giving them shelter,
food, education, and in particular emotional support. She established a
foundation which helps children in need. UNESCO honored her commendable
work with an important prize.
See: www.projetouere.org.br
Activities: web page, presentation @
2002-2011, III, Paris, France.
Warrior of Light (2003)
The award-winning film is distributed by New Yorker Films in the US and
Canada. See: http://www.newyorkerfilms.com
and by Absolut Medien in Europe, see:
http://www.absolutmedien.de
The film gives an insight into the sufferings of street children in Rio
and Yvonneąs efforts to help them."