Global Family for Love and Peace (GFLP) is an NGO that organized the 6th Poetry Slam for Peace, which featured more than ten artists from around the world sharing their artistry through diversified performances to express their longing for peace. The initial broadcasting of the video went online on November 11 EST - the date when World War I stopped - to symbolize the yearning for peace and ceasefire.

Double Eleven has in recent years acquired the additional meaning of a commercial mechanism with a chant that goes ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to hype up irrational consumerism, while it was originally the historic date that marked the end of WWI. That the inaugural airing of the video was slated on Double Eleven goes a long way in bringing to mind the meaning of peace and ceasefire. ‘Artists from around the world celebrating the many colors of Peace’ was the theme of the video, and it was curated by GFLP’s representative to the United Nations, Laurence Singer, with two-time Emmy award-winning producer Kit Thomas responsible for the making of the film.

GFLP Founder, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, remarked that somehow people have gotten to be oblivious to our connectedness to the Earth and instead went on an exploitation spree of seemingly inexhaustible resources to the extent that wars of hatred and weapons of mass destruction have been spent at mankind’s cost. The Master appeals to the world that the strengths of religion be deployed to turn humanity around and return to spirituality, that wars be stopped and conflicts mitigated, and that materialistic consumption be harnessed so that damages to ecology will come to a halt to warrant the Earth’s safety, sustainability, and world peace.

GFLP’s long-term objective is to spread out increasingly more seeds of peace and the curation of the Poetry Slam for Peace for six consecutive years has witnessed varying themes that inspired poets, artists, and other celebrated personalities from the literary establishment to give expressions to how they perceive the core idea of peace via performances of poetry, reciting, chanting, singing, praying, even dancing. Thus it can be said that the Poetry Slam for Peace is an extended platform born out of Dharma Master Hsin Tao’s ideas of ‘Loving the Earth / Loving Peace’ as well as the spiritual ecology.

For the last two years, the Poetry Slam for Peace has gone online for livestreaming to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, while pushing for visibility to grow future audiences. The growing list of co-organizers testifies to the fact that the event has been gaining traction, and co-organizers for 2022 include the Museum of World Religions (MWR), Chan Space New York, the non-profit Sustainability Commission of New York, Purpose Earth, Unity Earth, and Smart Planet Media. The number of cooperating portals and Web 3.0 pages is on the rise as well.

The 6th Poetry Slam for Peace was opened by show host Roberto Mukaro Borrero with an introduction to the what, why, and how of it all. The lineup of the cast was eye-ball grabbing, too, to include the Greek Poetry Slam for Peace champion Dimitris Stamiris, celebrated Canadian poet Tawhida Tanya Evanson, musician Wayquay Ghostflower who was a winner at the American Indian Film Festival and the Music Award for Indigenous Americans, South African author Nomfundo Khambule, Romanian vocal artist Ioana Lungu from Barcelona, Spain, classic musician Radhika Vekaria, inspiring musician Jeremy Roske, and art educator May Garces.

Link to the 6th Poetry Slam for Peace
https://www.gflp.org/2022-poetry-slam