Peace Festival LA 2004

October 10, 2004 – Los Angeles: “Peace Festival LA” was held for two days at the University of California Los Angeles. Sponsored by The Unity and Diversity World Council, people of numerous religious affiliations came together on common grounds in support of world peace.

Key speakers included Dr. Robert Muller, former Assistant Secretary General of the UN, and Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Native American musician, actor and activist. Two of the featured performances included the International Children’s Choir and the World Peace Flag ceremony.

Awards were presented to exceptional humanitarian organizations for doing their part to forward world peace. Amongst those awarded was the Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, one of the groups that Artists For A Better World International (AFABW Int) supports. Accepting the award was Ashleigh Prince.

AFABW has been connected with Peace Sunday and its members since 2002. One of the Peace Sunday executives, Narayan De Vera, was awarded the “Outstanding Contribution as an Artist” award at the AFABW Awards ceremony during the AFABW 4th annual Arts Festival on October 2, 2004. Last year, Stephen Longfellow Fiske, the Producer of Peace Sunday, received the “Humanitarian Artist” Award from AFABW.

AFABW member, Barbara Cordova, closed the ceremony on Sunday evening with a performance of her song, “Planet of Peace,” co-written with Dan Weitzman. Performing with Ms. Cordova were Bashirrah Creswell and Tor Campbell from the Agape International Choir. Ms. Cordova addressed the audience about Artists for a Better World and some of its activities at Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood.

During a ceremony where representatives of various religions lit a candle in honor of world peace, Cat Tebar, Public Relations officer for the Church of Scientology, read the following quote from humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard:

“Because somebody’s skin is a little bit different color or because his nationality is different, his language is different, why he is something else, somewhere else and has nothing to do with us….We’ve fallen away from that idea and we’ve gotten the idea that we’re all brothers or sisters under the skin.

“Well, when that idea gets abroad, if it gets abroad intellectually and truthfully, not obsessively, you re not going to find very many soldiers firing their guns off in battle.”

Artists For A Better World International is dedicated to building a worldwide network of artists who share a vision of creating a better world through aesthetics.