TJP will kick off Peace Day Philly on Sunday, September 17 at 3 p.m. at the Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square. This free concert is the Preview Party for our new CD that includes such songs as “Get Together”, “Wonderful World”, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and “America the Beautiful.” In these tumultuous times, we hope the messages in the album will resonate, bringing back reminders of the hippie generation when dialogue and constructive action for peace and love took place everywhere.

Peace Day Philly, the local initiative for the United Nations International Day of Peace observed annually on September 21, takes place across the Philadelphia region for one week, from September 17 through September 23. In its seventh year, there is a wide range of peace-related programs on personal, local and global peace topics. Peace Day Philly founder Lisa Parker is looking forward to this year’s plans. She said, “Diverse, positive peacebuilding activities can create the conditions for greater understanding, respect, unity and peace. We are pleased about the many collaborations formed for this year, and the more than 30 organizations that are involved. We invite individuals, organizations, government officials and communities to engage in this effort through a meaningful peace-related activity in their home, school or community, or through attending a Peace Day Philly event.”

This year’s global Peace Day theme, set by the United Nations, is: “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.” The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Our duty as a human family is to replace fear with kindness.” Peace Day Philly has produced a 2017 video around the global #jointogether campaign set to the song medley “Waters of March/Get Together” that we recoded with the youth chorus from Philadelphia Performing Arts, a String Theory Charter School and also appears on the album.

For more about Peace Day Philly, go to www.peacedayphilly.org. Peace Day Philly invites everyone to use #peaceday and #phillypeace on social media throughout the week of Peace Day Philly, and to share a response to the question: “How will you #jointogether to make your community and city a more peaceful place?”