New York Times-bestselling author Douglas Abrams, who has worked with many of the most inspiring people on the planet — from Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama to Stephen Hawking and Jane Goodall — is the keynote speaker for EMU’s Academic & Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival.

Abrams will deliver a virtual address titled “Two Truths and Three Lies About Hope and Humanity” from 10:10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 17, in Lehman Auditorium. His address explores the importance of hope in our lives and how to cultivate it personally and collectively when we need it most. It invites audiences to see hope not as a passive or weak response, but as an act of resistance that challenges the status quo. Following his address, Abrams will remain available for a talkback session until 11:30 a.m.

The talk will draw on his work writing The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (2021) with Goodall (EMU’s Common Read selection for 2023-2024) as well as his collaborations with leading spiritual teachers, activists and scientists. Together with the Dalai Lama and Tutu, Abrams co-wrote The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World (2016), which inspired the documentary .

Abrams lives in Santa Cruz, California. He is the founder of Idea Architects, a literary agency and media development company that helps visionaries create a wiser, healthier and more just world.

He worked with Tutu as his co-writer and editor for more than a decade. He was a senior editor at HarperCollins Publishers and served for nine years as the religion editor at the University of California Press.

About the ACE Festival

The ACE Festival invites keynote speakers to engage the community in conversations around values important to us at EMU. The speaker is typically selected with the themes of the year’s Common Read in mind. We invite engagement and response from diverse perspectives, and encourage continued conversation around these themes.

This event is co-sponsored by EMU Convocation and the Language and Literature Program. It will be livestreamed on Facebook Live from the .

“Reconciliation is a personal, internal, collective journey that people must decide they are going to take, and I think Liberians are at that place where they want to move forward,” Gbowee said to the Voice of America following upon her appointment.

Gbowee, who completed a master’s degree through in 2007, said Liberians’ inability to approach reconciliation has blocked their country from dealing with many pressing issues on the national agenda. Gbowee plans to talk with all Liberians and solicit the help of retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel Peace Laureate. Tutu led the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the apartheid era officially ended. “I’ve been in touch with Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s office because I see the ‘Arch’ as one of those individuals who have all of the experiences when it comes to talking about reconciliation,” said Gbowee.

“The one thing that we are seeing happening is that our inability to approach the whole issue of reconciliation head-on has been adding more train to that gown,” said Gbowee. “So, we have one package – the issues of the war that haven’t been addressed and the issues of elections over the past few years…. Some of the other issues are disempowerment, the huge population of young people who cannot find jobs.”

“Leymah’s experience, peacebuilding skills, and above all her passionate commitment to the people of Liberia make her the right person for this position,” said , director of the practice and training institute at CJP.

Gbowee came to CJP in 2004 for its and returned for a round-table in in 2005. During 2006-07, Gbowee was in residence at EMU as she completed her .

Gbowee has been receiving widespread coverage in the U.S. media outlets, including a feature article in the December issue of Reader’s Digest and one in the Nov.  29, 2011 edition of Christian Century.

She officially started her new position on Nov. 29 with a Peace and Reconciliation Jamboree.

Learn more about and her .

Rev. Tutu receives a quilted wall hanging from EMU President Loren Swartzendruber that was created by sisters Brownie(l.) and Gladys Driver (r.) of Harrisonburg. Photos by Jim Bishop

At a mid-morning tree-planting ceremony at James Madison University, EMU President Loren Swartzendruber thanked JMU’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence for including EMU in welcoming Tutu, who is renowned for championing human rights and global peacemaking.

In brief remarks to Tutu and some 75 others present for the ceremony, Dr. Swartzendruber praised Tutu’s commitment to the cause of peace and reconciliation. “EMU, in the Christian peace church tradition, is also committed to this cause, believing that Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to find peaceful solutions to conflict,” said Swartzendruber.

The Gandhi Center was established in 2005 under JMU Professor Sushil Mittal “to promote a culture of nonviolence and peace worldwide based on universal values of justice, equality, freedom,” according to the center’s web site ().

The Gandhi Center selected Tutu to be the first recipient of its annual Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award and chose to present the award on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21.

‘Message of Peace and Non-Violence’

“We are proud to join with the Gandhi Center in promoting a message of peace and non-violence,” said Swartzendruber. “Thirteen years ago, EMU established what is now known as the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding with an annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. From three students in two countries – the U.S. and Burma in 1994-95 – our Center has grown to have more than 3,000 alumni living and working for peace in more than 103 countries, including 10 peacebuilder graduates in South Africa.”

Loren Swartzendruber presents Rev. Desmond Tutu with a CD-ROM of greetings from EMU students who are studying in South Africa the fall semester.

Swartzendruber presented Archbishop Tutu with a CD of recorded greetings from 24 EMU students and two faculty members who are spending the fall semester in a cross-cultural seminar in South Africa. He also gave the archbishop copies of “Peacebuilder,” the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s semi-annual magazine, and books from the “Little Books on Justice and Peacebuilding” series.

“As a symbol of Mennonite’s strong belief in community,” Swartzendruber presented Tutu with a quilted wall hanging made by sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, residents of the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community and members of Weavers Mennonite Church.

The Archbishop told sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, “I’ll hang [the piece] in my office so I can look at it and think of you when I am working.”

The tree planting celebrated the establishment of the Gandhi Center. The Anglican archbishop congratulated JMU on “establishing a center that seems a vibrant, lively institution” dedicated to the promotion of peacemaking and nonviolence.

Tutu Speaks on ‘Power of Goodness’

The evening of Sept. 21, Rev. Tutu spoke on “The Power of Goodness” at JMU’s Convocation Center with thousands of people attending, including many students, faculty and staff from EMU.

Tutu’s remarks displayed his warmth, humility and disarming sense of humor, as this anecdote shows. While attending a ceremony for a 400-year-old school that was named in his honor in England, “a student came up afterwards and asked me if I was there when the school began.” Tutu chuckled at the recollection, then added this punchline: “A few years later, they changed the name.”

“I hold young people in the highest regard,” Tutu declared. “Many of them have an incredible passion for making this a more caring and sharing world through a most wonderful collaboration with God.”

EMU Well-Represented

Swartzendruber with his wife, Pat, sat at Tutu’s table at the banquet that preceded the convocation program. Present at other tables were executive director Lynn Roth and professor Lisa Schirch of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, among other EMU officials.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, associated with EMU’s music department, treated the thousands in the crowd to a South African medley, “Freedom is Coming/Siyahamba” and “Abide With Me,” arranged by Celah Pence, an EMU alumna.

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, EMU president emeritus and member of the board of trustees of the Gandhi Center, and alumnus Ron Yoder offered a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on Archbishop Tutu at the close of the award ceremony. Yoder, the chief executive officer of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, is also a member of the Gandhi board of trustees.

Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Africa, and a 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work in ending apartheid, Tutu will receive the JMU Mahatma Ghandi Center for Global Nonviolence’s top honor.

The award will be presented during a public program 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, the “International Day of Peace,” at the JMU Convocation Center. Archbishop Tutu’s award presentation is entitled, “Goodness is Powerful.”

EMU representatives are honored to be among the invited guests for the evening, and the entire EMU community is encouraged to attend the public event.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber with his wife, Pat, and Lynn Roth of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and wife Kathleen will represent EMU as guests of JMU President Linwood Rose and Gandhi Center Director Sushil Mittal for the banquet preceding the convocation. Swartzendruber will provide a special blessing for the meal.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, part of EMU’s music department, was honored to be invited to sing at the ceremony honoring Archbishop Tutu. They will sing the South African medley, “Freedom is Coming/Siyahamba” and “Abide With Me,” arranged by Celah Pence, EMU alumna.

The name Desmond Tutu resonates profoundly with people all around the world.

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, EMU president emeritus and member of the board of trustees of the Gandhi Center, will offer a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on Archbishop Tutu at the close of the award ceremony. “Rev. Tutu’s influential endorsement of the Gandhi Center and its activities has been a major contributing factor to its development and success,” said Dr. Augsburger.

Archbishop Tutu will receive the Gandhi Award “for his contributions to peace, encouragement of a nonviolent approach to human relations and world affairs, and efforts to promote reconciliation and forgiveness among people,” said Professor Sushil Mittal, director of the Gandhi Center.

The name Desmond Tutu resonates profoundly with people all around the world. While his vigorous anti-apartheid activism in his native South Africa first propelled him into the glare of international news media, today he is revered as a “moral voice” and someone who speaks with gravitas on a range of issues. While he is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus and steadfast in his religious beliefs, Tutu places great value on religious inclusiveness and interfaith dialog.

Desmond Tutu joined the International Advisory Board of JMU Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence in 2005.

Admission is free and open to all. Seating capacity is 6,000 on a first come, first seated basis. Convocation doors open at 5 p.m. It is recommended that persons arrive early. Once the program has begun, there is no late admittance.