Recognizing that peace begins locally, the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize is proud to announce the selection of Kwabi Amoah-Forson as the 2022 Laureate. Since 2017, Amoah-Forson has worked in Tacoma AND INTERNATIONALLY to promote peace on multiple levels. Beginning in the Spring of 2017, he began The Peace Camp every Saturday in Wright Park, where he would take posters, a radio, and a megaphone with him to hold conversations with people about what peace means to them. He continued this work by spending the next two years bringing The Peace Camp across the Northwest, to California and parts of Europe.
This first campaign for peace, led into the “The Real Peace Podcast.” Here, Amoah-Forson interviewed community members about peace, interpersonal connectivity, conflict resolution, and the importance of culture and diversity. Continuing his work outside the studio, in 2019 Amoah-Forson began driving around in The Peace Bus, a 1988 Mitsubishi Van, distributing socks to our houseless community members. In August 2019, he brought The Peace Bus to the U.S.-Mexico border and interviewed non-violence educator Michael Nagler and members of Border Patrol. Upon his return to Tacoma, Amoah-Forson started sharing his experience and messages of nonviolence, compassion, kindness, and peace with students in Tacoma schools.
The board recognizes the need for community-based activists, who are dedicated to understanding the different perspectives people bring to conversations. Amoah-Forson’s dedication to looking at a fuller picture, and his passion for bringing others along on that journey, has impressed the Board and his community.
Teresa Hunt, who nominated Amoah-Forson, wrote:
“[Kwabi] has been instrumental in promoting peace and diversity in our community, [while continuing] his numerous community services programs. [He] is the most influential peace-promoting citizen we have amongst us.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close buildings and transition to online learning, Amoah-Forson and The Peace Bus distributed breakfast to families in need, under the belief that no Tacoma child should have to go without breakfast during the quarantine. During the Summer of 2021 Kwabi took his Peace Bus from Washington State to Washington DC, delivering hundreds of books on peace, love and understanding to Youth across the country.
Kwabi Amoah-Forson currently lives in Tacoma. He continues to work for Peace in our community and looks forward to the continuation of his recent peace campaign, “Every-Kid-Eats”, helping address child hunger in Tacoma. He also plans to finish his flight school training this year in preparation of his life long goal of flying for peace with his own airplane, “The Peace Plane.”
Social media:
https://www.instagram.com/thepeacebus
https://www.facebook.com/kwabi.amoahforson
The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize honors local citizens and institutions who promote, achieve, and sustain peace, justice, and reconciliation at home and abroad. First awarded in 2005, the GTPP is rooted in Norwegian-American culture and the Norwegian dedication to Peace. At the GTPP we are dedicated to celebrating the everyday ways people further peace in our communities, and to growing and nuancing our understanding of Peace in all its forms. You can learn more about the organization at TacomaPeacePrize.org.
Contact:
Barbara Gilchrist, board member
barbara@tacomapeaceprize.org
Cort Ockfen, publishing
cort@tacomapeaceprize.org
Greater Tacoma Peace Prize