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VWU Hosts Opening of 2024 Season for Nonviolence
Community members gathered in the Peace Garden to kick off grassroots campaign
University News | February 1, 2024
Virginia Wesleyan University hosted the opening of the 2024 Season for Nonviolence (SNV), an international, peace movement that is celebrated annually as an educational, media, and grassroots campaign to demonstrate that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower lives and communities.
Held in VWU’s Peace Garden, just outside the Robert Nusbaum Center, the program featured community speakers from the Virginia Beach Season for Nonviolence (SNV) Collective, NAMI Coastal Virginia and Virginia Beach City Public Schools, as well as VWU’s Robert Nusbaum Center and students Janesa Lowe, Lindsey Syms and Robbie Reynolds, representatives of the recent January Term (J-Term) course, “Service Learning and Civic Engagement," which supported the work of the SNV Collective.
Students in the J-Term course, taught by VWU Professors Kathy Stolley and Robin Takacs, studied poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. They engaged with the Virginia Beach Season for Nonviolence Collective to better understand these societal issues and create meaningful projects, such as a mental wellness rock garden that is now installed in the VWU Peace Garden. The garden offers messages of encouragement, inspiration, and hope.
First-year student, Robbie Reynolds ‘27 served as the architect for the design of the rock garden. “I wanted it to be something that related to all of VWU and the community around us, as well as to the project against violence in general. That’s where I came up with the idea of the peace sign arrangement for the rock garden, and it worked in perfect conjunction with the peace pole itself.”
Reynolds and other students in the J-Term course also engaged in the YIMBY (Yes, in My Backyard) exhibit that focused on myths and facts associated with affordable housing in communities.
Reynolds, an environmental science major, notes that when he first took on the project, it seemed simple and easy. But as the final product came together, he realized just how important the task was.
“I formed a connection with the project and although not literally, I felt like I was doing something good for people with lesser fortune. It meant a lot to me that I could make a difference just through attending VWU and taking the civic engagement course during January term. I felt very connected to the community for the first time since I moved here last January.”
And, connection is just what community organizers are seeking.
“This is the first year that we've had active engagement from VWU, Virginia Beach’s University,” said Teresa Stanley, the local coordinator for the Interspiritual Empowerment Project and a member of the SNV Collective, “and we welcome that connection.”
Stanley worked with the J-Term class to engage the students in connecting their learning to the social concerns of the day and create projects that engaged their passion and compassion.
“Our belief is that the Season for Nonviolence gives us a 64-day reflection time for embracing the power of nonviolent practices. It is our desire that this ripple effect of change will become a reality in our community, as we evolve and continue to learn to cultivate this third way of compassionate living into our lives 365 days a year. The students and their professors give me such hope for the future!”
In addition, a J-Term public art course taught by Professor John Rudel, resulted in students designing and creating unique “cloud” benches for the Peace Garden, a project supported with funding from a William Granville Sale, Jr. Peacemaking Award sponsored by the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia Peacemaking Committee. During the opening program, students from Campus Ministries at VWU led program attendees in “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” and 2023 Hampton Roads Youth Poet Laureate Areen Syed recited her original poem. Members of Virginia Beach Mayor’s Youth Leaders in Action also led participants in a “Community Pledge of Nonviolence." Following the program in the VWU Peace Garden, attendees were invited to The Lighthouse for hot chocolate and a student presentation of the "Yes, in My Backyard" exhibit.
About the Season for Nonviolence
A decade long effort that began with Virginia Beach City Public School Teachers and Season for Nonviolence Collective Members Herta Okonkwo and Mandy Stanley to embrace the practices of nonviolence in our schools and the community, culminated in 2019 when Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer proclaimed “Art of Humanity Day” to honor celebrating the Season for Nonviolence locally. The Season for Nonviolence begins with the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on January 30 and ends with the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination on April 4. Local activities during the Season for Nonviolence are supported by the City of Virginia Beach SNV Collective, Virginia Beach Public Schools Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, NAMI Coastal Virginia, VB Human Rights Commission, StandUP for Kids Hampton Roads, and ViBe Creative District nonprofit.
For more information about activities during the 2024 Season for Nonviolence, please visit the Art of Humanity – ViBe Creative District.