CHSO April 2012 : Page 72

72 | the RADAR | City Peace Out! Chicago prepares to host a who’s-who of global luminaries at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. | By Matt Lee | Illustration by Donovan Foote | It sounds like the beginning to a joke: “Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama and F.W. de Klerk walk into a room...” But, while fantastical, that is indeed the exact scenario that will take place in Chicago this month when, on April 23-25, the city becomes the first location in North America to ever host the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates (nobelsummitchicago.org). Just how important is the summit? Conceived in 1999 at the request of the Gorbachev Foundation, it brings Nobel Peace Laureates, or Peace Prize winners, from across the world to an annual conference where they discuss relevant topics and promote peace initiatives. Laureates scheduled to attend the Chicago conference as of press time include, but are not limited to, President Jimmy Carter, Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, de Klerk and Lech Wałęsa—while President Obama, Shimon Peres, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Kofi Annan, Vice President Al Gore and several other super-luminaries had been invited but had not yet confirmed their attendance. Taking place at the UIC Forum and Orchestra Hall, this year’s summit is themed “Speak Up, Speak Out for Freedom and Rights” and differs from past conferences in two ways. First: “Our mantra is ‘no speeches!’” says Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and a co-chair of the summit. “It’s all panel discussions.” If heading to the UIC Forum on April 23 to hear a panel consisting of Gorbachev, Carter, Wałęsa and de Klerk debate “New Challenges for Peace” sounds too good to be true… well, it may be. Which brings us to our next point: This year’s event is targeted largely at students. So while a limited amount of tickets, which are free, will be available to the public for the above-mentioned panel, or to, for instance, see the Dalai Lama at Orchestra Hall on the 25th, the majority of the available seats will be allotted to students of all ages. “The focus of the conference is not business elites or the cultural glitterati or political leadership,” says Chris Kennedy, chairman of the board of trustees for University of Illinois, and also a co-chair. “It’s students.” To that end, nine Nobel Laureates will each visit a different Chicago school, where they will speak to an individual classroom. Thanks to a curriculum called “Speak Truth to Power” offered to Chicago schools by the RFK center, the students will be familiar with the Nobel Laureates’ stories. The encounters will then be broadcast over the web and at schools across America. “The conference is very much geared toward the next generation, and is very much about the capacity of one person to make a difference on social justice issues,” says Kerry Kennedy. “If you think about the wide range of issues covered by the Nobel Peace Prize winners, in each and every case, a small group of determined people who wanted to create change did it.” It’s a truism, her brother points out, that isn’t just for the young. “We have an issue in America where an entire population of people are disenchanted with the government,” says Chris Kennedy. “We have the Occupy movement, who think government is the enemy. And the Tea Party folks think government is the enemy. The Nobel Laureates are great examples of people who found a way, through peaceful protest, networking and alliance building, to change the countries that they lived in and the very governments that were oppressing them. They’re great examples to everyone in the United States about what the future can hold.” | April 2012

The Radar City

Matt Lee

Peace Out! Chicago prepares to host a who’s-who of global luminaries at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. It sounds like the beginning to a joke: “Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama and F.W. de Klerk walk into a room...” But, while fantastical, that is indeed the exact scenario that will take place in Chicago this month when, on April 23-25, the city becomes the first location in North America to ever host the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates (nobelsummitchicago.org). Just how important is the summit? Conceived in 1999 at the request of the Gorbachev Foundation, it brings Nobel Peace Laureates, or Peace Prize winners, from across the world to an annual conference where they discuss relevant topics and promote peace initiatives. Laureates scheduled to attend the Chicago conference as of press time include, but are not limited to, President Jimmy Carter, Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, de Klerk and Lech Wa³êsa—while President Obama, Shimon Peres, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Kofi Annan, Vice President Al Gore and several other super-luminaries had been invited but had not yet confirmed their attendance. Taking place at the UIC Forum and Orchestra Hall, this year’s summit is themed “Speak Up, Speak Out for Freedom and Rights” and differs from past conferences in two ways. First: “Our mantra is ‘no speeches!’” says Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and a co-chair of the summit. “It’s all panel discussions.” If heading to the UIC Forum on April 23 to hear a panel consisting of Gorbachev, Carter, Wa³êsa and de Klerk debate “New Challenges for Peace” sounds too good to be true… well, it may be. Which brings us to our next point: This year’s event is targeted largely at students. So while a limited amount of tickets, which are free, will be available to the public for the above-mentioned panel, or to, for instance, see the Dalai Lama at Orchestra Hall on the 25th, the majority of the available seats will be allotted to students of all ages. “The focus of the conference is not business elites or the cultural glitterati or political leadership,” says Chris Kennedy, chairman of the board of trustees for University of Illinois, and also a co-chair. “It’s students.” To that end, nine Nobel Laureates will each visit a different Chicago school, where they will speak to an individual classroom. Thanks to a curriculum called “Speak Truth to Power” offered to Chicago schools by the RFK center, the students will be familiar with the Nobel Laureates’ stories. The encounters will then be broadcast over the web and at schools across America. “The conference is very much geared toward the next generation, and is very much about the capacity of one person to make a difference on social justice issues,” says Kerry Kennedy. “If you think about the wide range of issues covered by the Nobel Peace Prize winners, in each and every case, a small group of determined people who wanted to create change did it.” It’s a truism, her brother points out, that isn’t just for the young. “We have an issue in America where an entire population of people are disenchanted with the government,” says Chris Kennedy. “We have the Occupy movement, who think government is the enemy. And the Tea Party folks think government is the enemy. The Nobel Laureates are great examples of people who found a way, through peaceful protest, networking and alliance building, to change the countries that they lived in and the very governments that were oppressing them. They’re great examples to everyone in the United States about what the future can hold.”

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