Naomi Tutu presentation to kick off Ashland Center for Nonviolence events
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The Ashland Center for Nonviolence (ACN) at Ashland University will kick off the Season for Nonviolence with a special event, as it welcomes the Rev. Naomi Tutu for a fundraiser dinner and keynote address on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
As an Episcopal priest and the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, she is a much sought-after speaker and will present “Striving for Justice: Searching for Common Ground.”
The fundraising event will be held in the alumni room of the John C. Myers Convocation Center, with a buffet-style dinner 5-6:30 p.m. featuring a interview with Tutu conducted by Peter Slade, Ph.D., chair of the AU Department of Religion.
Tickets are $120 per plate. Contact Elizabeth Buttil, assistant director of ACN, at ebuttil@ashland.edu or 419-289-5313 for more information.
Tutu’s presentation, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. It will include a reflection on the challenges of growing up Black and female in apartheid South Africa, as well as an examination on how the whole human family loses when society accepts situations of oppression and the dangers of teaching and preaching hate and division.
Tutu was born in South Africa, educated in Swaziland, the U.S. and England and her professional experience includes time as a development consultant, educator, activist and ordained minister while dividing her time between South Africa and the U.S.
Tutu is the founder of Nozizwe Consulting. The guiding principle of Nozizwe, which means Mother of Many Lands, is to bring different groups together to learn from and celebrate their differences and acknowledge their shared humanity.
The Season for Nonviolence runs Jan. 30-April 4, marking the period of time from Mohandas Gandhi’s assassination to Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. ACN hopes to take this time to demonstrate that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform and empower individuals within their community.
There will be other ACN events during the Season for Nonviolence, including a presentation by a Yad Vashem Visiting Scholar, the ninth annual John D. Stratton Conference, a documentary screening and a conflict resolution training session. More details about those events will be announced in the near future.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Daughter of Desmond Tutu to speak at AU Jan. 30
