Source: Susan Allen, 785-532-6444, slallen@k-state.edu
Web site: http://www.k-state.edu/nonviolence
News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-532-6415, kmayes@k-state.edu

Monday, Jan. 25, 2010

K-STATE'S 2010 SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE TO CELEBRATE A DECADE OF NONVIOLENCE EDUCATION

MANHATTAN -- The impact of nonviolence education at Kansas State University over the last decade will be the focus of the 2010 Season of Nonviolence, Jan. 30-April 4. This year's theme is "For the Public Good."

The annual communitywide event is dedicated to promoting nonviolent relationships and takes place on the 64 days between the assassination anniversaries of two world-famous peacemakers: Mahatma Gandhi, who was killed Jan. 30, 1948, and Martin Luther King Jr., who was shot April 4, 1968. The observance was started in 1998 and has grown into an international event.

"We've been working for a decade now to build a safe and equitable campus and community, using proactive, nonviolent strategies, tactics and tools," said Susan Allen, K-State's director of nonviolence education programs. "Students new to the university probably don't realize that many familiar programs -- SafeZone, noontime yoga, the international TV in the K-State Student Union, K-State's Peace Pole and others -- were created by their fellow K-Staters through the Campaign for Nonviolence."

K-State's Campaign for Nonviolence -- of which the Season for Nonviolence is part -- has worked for a decade to move the K-State and Manhattan communities toward better health through proactive, positive nonviolence projects, Allen said. A list of projects is available at:
http://www.k-state.edu/nonviolence/links/Nonviolence_Programs.htm

"If we wait for a crisis before responding to conflict, the only option is to react after the fact," Allen said. "Nonviolent actions seek to change conditions that cause conflict before problems become so severe."

Events for K-State's Season for Nonviolence, all free and open to the public, include:

* Monday, Feb. 1: K-State's Playback Theatre Troupe will have a community storytelling event at 6 p.m. in the K-State Student Union's Little Theater. Directed by Sally Bailey, associate professor of theater, the troupe is an improvisational group that listens to individual stories and plays them back to the audience.

* Thursday, Feb. 18: Sister Jean Rosemarynoski from the Sisters of St. Joseph, Concordia, will discuss the Concordia Year of Peace project at 6:30 p.m. at the Manhattan Public Library, 629 Poyntz Ave.

* Monday, March 1: A showing of "Poland -- We've Caught God by the Arm," noon in the Union courtyard. The film documents the 1980 Gdansk Shipyard strike that launched the Polish Solidarity Movement and provides a close-up look at the individuals who organized to bring a nonviolent end to Soviet rule.

* Thursday, March 4: A community panel will discuss institutions that exist to serve the public good at 7 p.m. in Room 212 of the Union. Panelists will come from the Manhattan Public Library, new local public radio station KONZ, K-State's master of public health program, UFM Community Learning Center and the K-State Credit Union.

A full listing of events for the Season of Nonviolence is available at http://www.k-state.edu/nonviolence