We also produce Performances for Peace and Inspire Hope fund raisers. Herstory
On January 1, 2003, Jo Thompson threw a party in her Riverside, CA bungalow for her dear friend Nancy Tedder’s 40th birthday. In the midst of the lively celebration, a group of women gathered in the sacred space of the kitchen—as women often do—and started to discuss the problems of the world and what they could do to
make a difference. The Women Creating Peace Collective was born around that brightly painted kitchen table. The initial conception, though, happened a little over a year before. A group of concerned citizens had formed a local peace group after the attacks of 9/11, including several women who would become the original core of WCPC. Around that time, founding-member-to-be Gayle Brandeis organized an evening of spoken word, music and dance called “Speaking to Thunder: Local Artists Respond to the Events of 9/11”, believing that acts of mass destruction called for acts of mass creation. Nancy offered to belly dance at the concert, and suggested that her friend Jo display her heart-centered paintings in the lobby. Their art and dance and loving energy brought a whole new level of beauty to the evening. It was clear that the community was hungry for such an event; the concert was a healing and cathartic experience. Over the next year, the women were concerned that the local peace group didn’t offer that same healing energy; if there wasn’t true peace within the group itself, how could they possibly bring peace to the wider world? On New Year’s Day, 2003, Nancy and Jo birthed the idea for the Women Creating Peace Collective, a group dedicated to finding creative ways to nurture both inner and global peace. A core group of women-- Dawn Arens, Nanette Pratini, Sabrina Molinar, Karen Jennings, Brittany Tedder, Sue Nash, Gayle Brandeis, Molly Visscher and Susannah Faith--helped midwife the collective into being. Many other amazing women have since joined WCPC; you can read about the current members on the member's bio page. In her quest to connect with other women’s peace groups in the early days of WCPC, Jo stumbled upon the Gather the Women website, which encouraged community celebrations of International Women’s Day. The WCPC decided to create their own Gather the Women conference—no one told them they couldn’t put together a major conference in six weeks, so they did! The conference has since become an annual, deeply cherished event, full of inspiring, empowering workshops and performances. In 2003, the WCPC also staged their first Performances for Peace event at the UCR Botanic Gardens, bringing local performers together to raise consciousness, and in 2004, they produced their first Inspire Hope benefit concert. Both have since become beloved traditions, and Inspire Hope has raised funds for causes such as the local domestic violence shelter as well as people affected by Hurricane Katrina.The WCPC is excited to continue to gather the talents of passionate, wise, hilarious women in service of a better world.
