A Proclamation for Peace
Kim Stafford's vital poem and Theresa Koon's moving score deserve to be shared with the world and you can help make it happen with a tax deductible donation.
A Proclamation for Peace joins poetry, translation, music, and film to produce a short film to be shared internationally to advance cultural exchange, education and peace. The project draws on a poem published in the book A Proclamation for Peace Translated for the World by Kim Stafford and adapted into a vocal score by Theresa Koon, sung in English, Punjabi, Ukrainian, French, Spanish, Arabic and German .
Theresa’s score was recorded this past January with a dozen remarkable vocalists and musicians. We’re now gearing up to create a compelling short film directed by Ron Bourke, featuring the recording's original vocalists and musicians. Performed on busy urban streets, in sunlit wheat fields, gritty factories and pristine forests; our film will be spread like a seed across the globe. The film will support literature and music education. It will promote the song's performance in many languages. It will raise awareness to the importance of a personal commitment to peace. We’re scheduled to begin filming in June, but need your help to make this happen. Donations are tax deductible and include on-screen recognition for your generosity. Long live poetry! Long live music! Long live a commitment to peace!
If there ever was a time to spread peace - this is it.
A Proclamation for Peace
by Kim Stafford
Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
a single bird on a wire
left by migration behind.
Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
and peace an abstraction
while war is real;
Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas I am afraid;
Whereas I am free — despite all
fire and anger and fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
shall be my calling — a song
not yet made shall be vocation
and peaceful words the work
of my remaining days.
Musicians include: Ben Tissell, Theresa Koon, Hannah Hillebrand, Sharon Fendrich, Talia Valdez, Shivani Joshi, Bhaskar Ganguly, Rita Marquez, Inna Kovtun, Lamiae Naki and Nat Hulskamp. Engineered by Tommy Hazerian at Portland’s Dead Aunt Thelma Recording Studio,
Our creative team includes:
Kim Stafford, founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, teaches and travels to raise the human spirit. He taught writing at Lewis & Clark College for forty years before retiring and becoming Professor Emeritus in 2020. Kim is the author of 20 books of poetry and prose and in 2018 he was named Oregon’s 9th Poet Laureate.
Theresa Koon composes music primarily for voice, emerging from an international vocal performance career including several years at the Thüringerlandestheater in Germany. Operas, song cycles and choral music provide a foundation for her musical explorations into social issues and current events.
Ron Bourke is an award winning filmmaker known for emotionally affecting insights into the immigrant experience. Previous documentaries have focused on the trauma experienced by children in the Syrian civil war and the challenges faced by young girls and families who’ve escaped the war in Somalia to forge a new life in the US. Both films have been broadcast nationally in the US on PBS and screened in numerous international film festivals..
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