May 11, 2016
More than a dozen Broadways stars came together Monday night in New York City to support the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative during Forest Whitaker’s Performers4Peace concert. Approximately 250 guests filled the concert venue, 42West, to enjoy an evening of music featuring popular songs of peace, love, and friendship.
The event was an opportunity to highlight some of the peacebuilding work that WPDI does around the globe. Guests saw a video that explained WPDI’s mission and featured many of our youth peacemakers. Mr. Whitaker spoke during the event about the importance of many people coming together, through small acts of love and kindness, to create significant change. He thanked the performers and producers who made the event possible, as well as those in attendance for supporting WPDI’s peacebuilding efforts.
Representatives from several of WPDI’s partner organizations were in attendance Monday night, including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Ericsson, Starkey Hearing Foundation, The Earth Institute, UN Women, UNESCO, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and the International Institute for Peace.
The concert was also attended by 40 high school students from the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics and their principal, Mr. Edward Tom. Several weeks ago, Mr. Whitaker has the opportunity to visit the Bronx Center and speak to students about his advocacy work and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. During his remarks at Performers4Peace, Mr. Whitaker discussed how building peace requires future generations to take up the mantle, and in that respect, he was especially glad the students could be at the concert.
Performers4Peace was produced by Julie Boardman at Untitled Theatricals in association with Jacob Langfelder. The concert was directed by Olivier Award-nominee Stafford Arima and music directed by Annastasia Victory. Tony Award-winner James Monroe Iglehart and Sirius XM Radio’s Julie James emceed the festivities. WPDI is grateful to the talented team of artists and producers that made this event a reality.