Eljuri writes & performs music from a rich & diverse palette of musical & cultural influences. Born in Equador of a Lebanese pianist-composer mother & a Spanish actor father, and having grown up in Manhattan, NY, her music naturally draws on & fuses numerous styles & genres, powered by her evocative, mostly Spanish, lyrics & powerful guitar. Eljuri was the winner of the 2018 Songs for Social Change competition.

On October 20th 2007, after having a revelation about the severity of climate change, Marshall Saunders launched Citizens Climate Lobby. He then inspired over one hundred thousand everyday citizens to appeal directly to members of congress. He helped empower them to offer a bold and straight forward solution to address climate change. Everyone who met Marshall, heard him speak, and worked beside him walked way with determination and a deeper belief in their own ability to change in the world.

Leslie Davis is from Milwaukee, WI, where she is a psychologist for the state’s largest free medical clinic, providing services to principally undocumented immigrants. In 2019 Leslie Davis expanded her compassionate outreach by making 4 extended sojourns on the US-Mexican border, starting with the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, attempting to provide much-needed service from both her general energy and compassion, and also from her skills as a clinical psychologist.

Leslie invites you to contact her for additional resources at les.davis3@outlook.com, like Dilley Pro Bono Project, Al Otro Lado, & the Refugee Health Alliance. Also, give a listen to The American Life: The Out Crowd.

Kelly Lundeen was a founder of Just Peace from the Chippewa Valley back in 2001, spent time in Milwaukee at the Casa Maria Catholic Worker House, which led her to do accompaniment work in Columbia as part of the International Peace Observatory. But her work recently, back in Wisconsin, has been as a mother of 3 and as staff for Nukewatch, working for a nuclear-free future since 1979. The folks at Nukewatch have been sentinels for the safety, well-being, and future of our country by their investigation of and action on nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the USA.

Claudia Schmidt & Sally Rogers are a soul-deep musical combination. Sally is perhaps more closely associated with the folk music genre, and while Claudia has done a lot of folk, she's also well-known and loved for her expeditions into the jazz world. Whenever they combine their voices & music, there is an alchemy that transmutes music into magic. Both tell stories & capture images to rivet the heart & guide us on a better, more fulfilling, path.

Dean Stevens writes & shares the music of compassion & connection. Raised in Costa Rica, living in Boston, Dean's life is overflowingly rich with international & local roots & work. Check out his fairer-than-fair-trade coffee from El Salvador, visit the Community Church of Boston where he does music & administrative work, or travel with him to Central America, you'll be singing joyfully all the way.

Our guest is David Hartsough, author of Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, a wonderful book combining the stories and inspiration for a better world that David has lived out and been witness to. David has gone inspirationally into the crucial events of the past 60 years, in the Civil Rights movement, across the Berlin Wall, working against nuclear weapons, traveling in solidarity with the people of Central America & Kosovo and making himself available everywhere that people need compassion and support. He’s a founder of many organizations including the Nonviolent Peaceforce and World Beyond War.

Past/current religious/spiritual influences:
Quaker

Sally Rogers has been a fountain of folk music for 4 decades (check out her 40 Years, 40 Songs collection), now sung all around the country & world. Her classics include Lovely Agnes, Touch of the Master's Hand, & Circle of the Sun, and there are ever-more greats coming. Her last visit with us was 2007. In addition to her work as a music teacher in schools, she's been a long-time co-host for the 3rd Friday Song Swap at Vanilla Bean in Pomfret, CT.

Have you ever wondered, "Who might be bisexual in the Bible?" Drawing on the scholarship of Rabbi Mark Sameth, author of the New York Times essay, Is God Transgender? Liam Hooper digs into the story of Judah, the son of Jacob, and an encounter he had with another man. 

How we communicate frequently makes all the difference between war/peace, connection/division, and safety/danger, and a very strong tool for effective, compassionate, dialogue is Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Claire Bates has been passionate about learning and teaching NVC since 2013, teaching people how to live well with others. Trainings & resources for your area can be found at Center for Nonviolent Communication (cnvc.org), such as the Needs Inventory mentioned in this interview.

Past/current religious/spiritual influences:
Quaker