When first walking into the festival we heard drumming and children singing. There were also several children in different cultural outfits. Many different groups of children preformed diverse children songs from there own native culture. Several organizations based in the Seattle area preformed for the music festival, such as: El Centro de la Raza, Children of Peace, The Islamic School of Seattle, and may other additional organizations.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that this music festival included the participation of everyone who attends. The gathering finished with several local school children and the founder of Children Sing for Peace, leading the crowd in singing “We are Children of Peace”, written by both the founder and her school age students. The music festival was being recorded to later be aired on television in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and India.
The music that was preformed was so beautiful. I was flabbergasted at the amount of diverse cultured children whom attended the event. The songs that were performed by the children were very interesting to observe; although, they were all preformed in their own languages.
I discovered this music festival to be an eye opening experience. When children look at each other they do not see ethnicity or social class, they see another child. Children are our Peace, we just need to teach them to remain non judgmental and live with open arms to all people regardless of their ethnicity, economical class, social class and so on. Children love each other full-heartedly not considering any of the social issues that may affect them later in life; such as; violence, racism, poverty, ignorance, and fear. I wish we could all maintain the psychological purity that children possess and sadly lose over the years.
I found this event to be incredibly interesting and left feeling that every child and parents should be required to attend a multi-cultural event such as this, at some time or another. My nephews thoroughly enjoyed this event and I really enjoyed watching them interact and socialize with children in the diverse environment. I am without doubt planning to attend any of the “Children Sing for Peace” events that come about in the future.
