'People that needed to be here were here': First Peace Festival attracts small crowd

Altogether, about 70 people showed up to give peace a chance in York City.

They gathered at William Penn Senior High School on Saturday for the inaugural Peace Festival, an event aimed at discussing the reduction of violence in the community and steering youths into more constructive choices.

The four-hour, free public festival, or summit as it was also described, involved a lot of discussion — opening remarks, a Q-and-A session with four panelists and motivational speaker Dawn Michelle in the school’s cafeteria.

Philadelphia-based rapper Freeway also made a half-hour appearance. He performed three songs and gave a speech to the small audience gathered around him.

“Important people speaking about peace and unity and how we can break barriers, I think that’s beyond great,” said Tiff Lowe, project manager of the York City Group Violence Intervention program.

GVI, which topped the list of the event’s sponsors, was created and is overseen largely by local law enforcement as an initiative to reduce gun violence and homicides where civilians help do outreach to gang members and victims.

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Attendees: Peace Festival attendees were made up of residents, stakeholders, sponsors, a few vendors, a DJ and about a dozen youths. They included three teens Lowe said she hired and put to work at a vendor table selling T-shirts with the message “More graduations, less funerals.”

For the most part, the panel forum was adults talking to adults about youths.

Panelists Lowe, Tavon Parker of The Advantage Program, Brandt Kingsley of Pedal for Peace, and Juanita Baxter of WellSpan Health who also serves as a board member of The Program, It’s About Change, each fielded questions and comments from members of the audience.

While the adults were talking this year, Lowe said after the session, she hopes to have more youths participate next year.

“I think that the way it looks today is the way it was supposed to look. Us adults had to get in here first and get together, have these conversations, understand what we need to do,” she said. “And then next year, I think we’re going to have more adults but also bring in the youth now. Because we’re going to be more ready next year than we were today.”

She noted she wants youths to be part of the panel next time, as well as some youths working as vendors.

Could be 'magical': York City Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow praised the inaugural festival as “powerful" and "necessary” and said he was proud of the work that went into organizing it.

But next year, he’d like to feature the event during a school day, when the school’s approximately 1,500 students are there to be part of the conversation.

“This exact event needs to occur during the school day, needs to be carved out as part of the school day as an assembly, and needs to occur while the kids are in the building and have the voices in one place to hear all this,” he said. “This was good, the format was incredible, but it becomes something magical when you do it during the school day.”

Jamiel Alexander, president of York’s NAACP branch who also served as the event’s emcee, said planning for the festival began around February. He estimated approximately $8,500 was spent setting it up.

Lowe didn’t have a figure.

“Oh, I don’t have a number,” she said.

The city paid Freeway $5,500 for his appearance.

A contract, drawn up in late February and signed in early April, shows that terms called for the artist to perform at the school for an hour, with two songs and a speech.

Terms called for a guaranteed $5,000 regardless of venue capacity and a $500 buyout for local ground transportation. His rider also included hotel accommodations and meals.

Little promotion: The Peace Festival’s organization did not involve much promotion.

A digital flyer circulated here and there on Facebook over the past couple of weeks, and a news release went out on Wednesday. Otherwise, little was actually announced.

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Lowe admitted the event could have been promoted better, but she wasn’t disappointed with the work that was done.

“The people that needed to be here were here,” she said.

She said she’d love this year’s attendance of about 70 to triple next year as she aims for a larger event and for collaboration that reaches beyond the city and out across the county.

“There’s people that are afraid to come to York City,” she said. "I want them to be able to come here and understand that we do want peace, and that we will do anything to get peace, but we need everyone to join together.”

— Reach Aimee Ambrose at aambrose@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @aimee_TYD.