By Daily Press staff
Peace activists will gather at the beach Sunday to honor women, mothers and peace through an afternoon of ceremonies and an aerial photo taken of hundreds of people recreating Picasso’s “Motherhood.”
The event takes place on Mother’s Day from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Ocean Park Beach, just west of Ocean Park Boulevard.
Peace on the Beach and CODEPINK will bring together thousands of mothers, grandmothers, mothers to be, their families and friends to reclaim Mother’s Day from commercialism and platitudes, to celebrate women’s political engagement in today’s society, and to continue a call for an international movement of women for peace. Organizers ask participants to wear a touch of pink.
Commentator, author and activist, Arianna Huffington, and Ohio Representative, Democratic Presidential candidate, and author of the initiative for the Department of Peace, Dennis Kucinich, will kick off the event at 2 p.m.
Iraqi mother and school teacher, Um Haider, will join the crowd with her son Mostafa. Um Haider’s legal name is Akbal Fithyab, following the death of another son, Haider, when their house was bombed in 1999 by a U.S. cruise missile, she took his name.
Following additional speakers and music, the gathering will begin forming the aerial image at approximately 2:45 p.m. and end the vigil by 4 p.m.
CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans, and Peace on the Beach producer Patricia Foulkrod will lead the re-creation of Picasso’s “Motherhood,” directed by aerial artist, John Quigley/Spectral.
Quigley has directed more than 30 aerial images, most recently recreating Picasso’s “Face of Peace” on Feb. 15, at Peace on the Beach. It is an image that has now gone around the world. Hundreds of families and friends will join them.
“We wish to reclaim the original intention of Mother’s Day, which was a call for women to assemble for peace and to send a message of solidarity and compassion to Iraqi mothers, and all mothers around the world who endure lifelong suffering due to war and injustice,” Foulkrod said. “We will honor women who labor daily to achieve the most difficult of births — global peace and respect for Mother Earth.”
Evans said the event is not just about peace, but justice for all women.
“Americans may revere motherhood and their own mothers, but we do not support all mothers,” she said. “Poor, unemployed mothers may enjoy flowers, but they also need childcare, job training, health care, a higher minimum wage and paid parental leave. Today, our greatest threat is not just from missiles and terrorism, but from our indifference towards human life, the quality of life for our mothers and their children, and the health of our planet.”
Also part of the event will be Reverend Michael Beckwith, director and founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, Agape Choir Director, Rickie Byars Beckwith, singers Barbara Williams and Jacqueline Fuentes, singer and composer Georgia Muldrow, the LA Women’s Circle, and Janet Planet and the LA Drum Corp will play.
Following tremendous losses of the Civil War, Julia War Howe in 1870 sent out a proclamation, declaring: “Arise, then women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”
The event is endorsed by the Coalition for World Peace, United Artists for Peace, Agape International Spiritual Center, Americans Against War, N.O.W., Women International League for Peace and Freedom, Mothers Against Military Madness, The Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, Peaceful Warriors, Topanga Peace Alliance, and Westside Greens, Palisades for Peace, and Students taking Action and Responsibility Today.
For more information, log onto: www.codepinkalert.org, or www.peaceon thebeach.com.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2003. Read the original PDF.