Barry Peace-In Demonstration Challenges War, Genocide and Suicide
By Crisbely Welsh
Peace begins with action, dialogue and understanding. Barry University's 18th annual Peace-In brought students, faculty and community advocates together for workshops exploring violence prevention, healing and social justice.
The 18th annual Peace-In Demonstration event featured four 50-minute workshops led by Barry University faculty and community partners on Sept. 21, each focused on understanding all forms of violence and promoting peace and justice around the world — including a demonstration to repatriate Ukrainian children who were forcibly deported to Russia.
For a half a day, Andreas 111 was filled with dedicated advocates of peace in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace. In the crowd were students, faculty and guests who traveled to Barry University just to be at the event.
The Peace-In is part of the university’s Peace Week initiative, which features various events sponsored by different departments on campus. Dr. Laura Finley, professor of criminology and sociology, is at the helm of this event every year.
Each year, Dr. Finley invites speakers who can share unique perspectives and inspire students to take action, all in commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Peace.
"It is important that we not only teach students how to create a more peaceful and just world in our classrooms but that we also allow them to learn from advocates and activists doing peace-related work every day,” she said.
Healing, Justice and Self-Care Tools
Ruth Ifakemi Jeannoel, the facilitator and community organizer with more than 15 years in healing justice work, opened with a call-and-response movement song built around the question "What side are you on?" The audience answered that they were on the peace side. She then introduced a free digital toolkit called Medicines of the Swamps, created for about 300 students who traveled to the state Capitol to speak about housing, violence in their communities, and public school funding. Attendees scanned a QR code to open it on their phones.
Participants stood and used the compass app to face each direction while student volunteers led the south and west with intentions of courage and release. The facilitator then drew a card from the Sacred Ori affirmation deck. She pulled card number 11 while in room 111, and it centered on courage. The session ended with a four-count breathing exercise called square breath. She told the group, "We have to have peace and justice within ourselves."
When she asked how the exercises felt, attendees answered openly. One said the experience felt peaceful and grounding. Another said movement makes prayer easier to follow and noted that facing the directions was a simple way to combine the two. During the question period, a student asked how someone became an organizer. The facilitator answered that leadership takes many forms, from leading a breathing exercise to standing up for someone who is being bullied. She also described a ten-year campaign in Miami to bring restorative justice into schools, which she said succeeded in 2015.
The event featured a special workshop this year called Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2023 to coordinate efforts to return children whom Ukraine says were unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred by Russia. Its work includes tracing missing children, reuniting families, and pursuing accountability under international law.
"With all that is going on in the world right now, our efforts to create peace in our lives, families, families, and communities is more critical than ever," said Finley.
Words That Shape Beliefs and Behaviors in Society
This workshop had a more serious tone. Dr. Finley opened by questioning phrases such as "war on crime" and the way they may shape how officers view the communities they serve. "Our words matter," she told the room.
Jacob Gabriel, a forensic psychology major who works as a suicide-prevention worker, spoke about the phrase "committing suicide." He explained that the word "committing" echoes the language of crime and that wording such as "ending one's life" makes it easier for people to ask for help.
He cited a study of more than 500 young patients in which many never told their care providers about suicidal thoughts, and he noted that India and Ghana have decriminalized suicide.
Dr. Pamela Hall, a psychology professor who directs the African studies program, then explained how prejudice becomes discrimination and gave examples of microaggressions. An audience member read aloud a slide describing an account of street harassment, and the words carried more weight coming from a fellow attendee.
The discussion that followed covered a wide range of topics. The speakers did not always agree with one another or with the audience, and each view was heard. Organizers handed out a two-page guide to replacing militarized language and invited suggestions for future panels, including one on how words wound across cultures.
Peace can feel like a large and distant idea, but the Peace-In workshops connected it to daily habits.
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