At 9 am, on the first day of Friends Academy's annual four-day Peace Week, a Lower School voice rang out over the school speakers. Beginning with a moment of silence, third grader Camilla (representing "Slowworm," the resident ceramic Peace Week Snail), reminded the FA community about the importance of slowing down in the days to come.
"This is a special opportunity for everyone on campus to gather in our spaces while also listening and focusing on the same thing," encouraged (Peace Snail) Camilla, who introduced the first of four daily queries. "How can we face conflict when it comes up?" asked Camilla. "As a Peace Snail, I move slowly and make an effort to think before responding. Peace snails choose to act with love, just like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us. When you notice conflict arise, how will you choose to face it?"
A celebration that stretches back nearly 20 years, Peace Week traditionally kicks off the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, which has also been designated a National Day of Service. This year, the 2024-25 school theme framed lunch and learns, workshops, gatherings, and a service coat drive – "Empathy as the Path to Peace: Listening, Understanding, and Acting Together."
Spearheaded by the Student Affairs Office, Director of Student Affairs Camille S. Edwards emphasized the wish that the week's activities "promote peaceful conflict resolution, deeper listening, and compassion, both within the school community and the larger world." A community Peace Week planner illustrated queries to consider and numerous opportunities for reflection and community throughout the week, beginning with an evening Candle-lit Meeting for Worship on Tuesday evening.
Supported by FA's all-school Quaker Spiritual Life Board, the evening Quaker meeting featured student members of Lower School TASQUE (Teachers and Students for Quaker Understanding and Education), who sat on the facing bench of the Matinecock Meeting House. Bathed in golden hues from a myriad of candles, students, parents, trustees, and FA colleagues rose to share powerful and poignant messages of community and peace.
During Peace Week, the community welcomed two Quaker guests – Peter Murchison and Todd Drake. Peter, a member of Wilton (CT) Meeting, greeted Upper schoolers during their opening Peace Week assembly and offered a Lunch and Learn about his efforts to stem gun violence in the wake of the murder of his young nephew, Daniel, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "Gun violence is all around us. For a week, I invite you to try to not use any gun-related expressions, and see how difficult that might be," said Peter, who clerks a group at New York Yearly Meeting (a Quaker organization) that deals with changing hearts around gun safety. "We meet once a month and our latest initiative bought back 42 guns and two assault weapons," shared Peter. His group partners with another organization that takes the guns apart and turns their components into gardening tools.
New York City-based Quaker artist and activist Todd Drake spent the week with students constructing FA's first Friendship Tree linocut. Working in tandem with Lower School students at the start of Peace Week, Todd showed students how to create the linocut's background using brayers inked with red, yellow, and blue ink. "This is a community project that we can make and give to everyone," explained Todd, before asking Lower School artists, "Is community important?"
Painting curved and straight bands of color, the 5' X 6' canvases were quickly covered with a multitude of tones by partners of younger and older students working in collaboration. "Experiment with a small piece of paper and create your own colors," instructed Todd. "It's like a race car!" exclaimed one first grader as he used the roller-type tool to transfer the paint. "I liked using the white paint," said 1st grader Anna. "It made a picture out of little dots."
Unable to traverse NYC by subway during the pandemic, Todd was forced to walk and in doing so, ended up discovering the rich culture of graffiti and in turn adapting his linocut work to a new medium. "We were really scared during the pandemic and it gave me a chance to put up hope – “Don’t give up” – messages," shared Todd, who also refers to himself as a Quaker pirate because of the transient nature of his art. "You all think about things in a complex way," he said to the Lower School students seated in front of him. "You understand that one picture can have many layers of meaning. That is highly intellectual and as you grow up, a lot of things will need to be looked at in that way."
At the end of the week, Todd partnered with Upper School students to finish the art installation, The Friends Academy Friendship Tree, by applying two huge linocuts of an olive tree, the symbol of friendship, to the huge painted backdrops. After applying ink to the linocuts, students used their body weight and hands to burnish the image onto the canvas. Todd will return later in the year as a guest artist at Middle School Arts Week.
Peace Week culminated in a community event on Thursday with FAmily Night, an annual cultural exchange that featured an family international potluck and six different family workshops activities – Linocut Printing, Mindfulness meditation and games, learning how to play the ancient Chinese instrument Guzheng following a short student performance, floral arranging, and a roundtable discussion about how to use Quaker practice to navigate conflict and controversy.
Hosted by the Upper School student Diversity Committee (below), families brought children of all ages to eat, play, perform, and create in community.
A mix of student activities, from mindfulness sessions, rock painting, nature walks, and creating outdoor structures for the FA Forest Program, rounded out the week, including a newly returned Art & Community class that inspired a mixed-grade mural.
Happy Peace Week, Friends Academy.
See more photos from Peace Week on our Flickr page.
Photography by Alvin Caal, Margaret Pegno Schwartz, Nikita Desai, and MaryJo Allegra/Friends Academy