“We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together — black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu — a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos and Community” 1967

When you think of peacemakers, several people might come to mind, and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often top any list. But have you ever wondered what people are doing these days to advance the nonviolent ways espoused by Gandhi and King?

Attending the Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking can go a long way to answering that question.

The fifth-annual event is coming up Oct. 17-18 at Christian Brothers University.

Allison Glass, conference coordinator, said attendees will hear from the premier experts on peace and nonviolence in sessions that will allow participants to focus on the big picture as well as their everyday lives.

“Really, the conference reaches each level of engagement,” Glass said. “There are skills taught on a personal and interpersonal level; there’s reaching out to your community; and there are people presenting on national and international issues.”

The focus of this year’s conference, entitled “Continuing the Dream … Constructing the World House,” is a concept put forth by King — it’s a beloved community that brings people together from all backgrounds and walks of life to live in peace.

“When I think of the ‘world house,’ I think of many different rooms within one structure,” Glass said. “So it’s a framework of how to bring together all of the different religions and different viewpoints and different cultures and be able to live together on this planet with respect for each other and the earth, and to begin living together as real community.”

This year’s Gandhi-King conference will examine what needs to be done to move forward using the three pillars of nonviolence, social justice and community building. The speakers, workshops, presentations of scholarly works, dialogues and film screenings that will occur over the two days will all fall under one of those three pillars.

The conference, which has proven itself a major draw for activists, organizers and academics across the country, began because of the presence of The Gandhi Institute in Memphis. Though the Institute is no longer in Memphis, the conference lived on after adding King to the title, recognizing his influence on the topic and the city.

Put on by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, the National Civil Rights Museum, BRIDGES-PeaceJam, HEAL Foundation and the Indian Community Fund and hosted by Christian Brothers University, the 2008 conference features several major speakers, including Dr. Michael Nagler, a longtime peace activist and educator who founded the peace studies department at the University of California-Berkeley in the 1970s; Fr. Roy Bourgeois, an international peace activist and founder of the School of Americas Watch in Fort Benning, GA; and Ruby Nell Sales, a renowned civil rights activist.

The keynote speaker is Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the award winning independent news program “Democracy Now!” Goodman recently made news herself after she was arrested while covering protests of the Republican National Convention.             

Goodman will be speaking at the banquet dinner on Saturday evening. The banquet is included in conference registration, but for those who can’t make the whole conference, banquet tickets are available on the conference Web site.

The second-annual youth component to the conference will feature what Glass expects to be a “dynamic and fiery address” from the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of Hip Hop Caucus, and follows last year’s speech by Rosa Clemente, now the vice presidential choice of Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney.

“Stretch some comfort zones in a good way,” Glass said of the goal of the headlining youth speaker, who has been a key figure at national conferences around the country, including the recent National Conference on Media Reform. The youth conference also features workshops designed specifically for high school students, and an evening concert featuring musical, spoken word and dance performances.

Tickets to the Friday night concert, which is open to the public as well for $5, will be available at the door of The Abbey in Galloway United Methodist Church on the corner of Cooper and Walker.

“I think that students in Memphis are very much aware of all the problems that are happening in our city and that as a microcosm of everything else happening in the country and around the world,” Glass said. “Students are really ready to step up and have their eyes opened and learn about what’s going on and what they can do to make positive change.”

(For information on conference registration and the schedule, visit www.GandhiKingConference.org or contact the Mid South Peace and Justice Center at 725-4990.)