In the wake of the traumatic and tragic events that are playing out in Baltimore, self-described social change makers are spreading messages of peace in Rochester.
Adelaja Simon is with The Work That Reconnects, which aims to heal the relationships people have with each other and their environments. Simon has a two part plan for fostering peace. The first part involves giving people an opportunity to express their emotions.
"It scares me to think of, in any way asking folks not to show up with the fullness of who they are in their own experience."
Simon says physical violence is inevitable when those emotions are suppressed, and there needs to be a space and opportunity to express the frustration and anger people feel.
Second, Simon grows food.
"I really appreciate the opportunity to look at the link between gardening and growing our food and the violence in the city."
Simon works with young people in community gardens in Oakland, California.
What's really potent and what's really present is the lack of community, the lack of connection. And if we're connected at the base level, which is our food, and through that connected to the other than human beings, we can also deepen into that connection and relationship with each other."
Simon and others will be speaking at the Ghandi Institute of Rochester at 7:00 Wednesday evening.
