Ceremony Honors Sacrifices Made on 9/11
The public is welcome to attend a Sunday, Sept. 11 ceremony beginning at 8:45 a.m. at Monument Point in Heisler Park.
In addition to an obelisk honoring war veterans, the point is anchored by a Jorg Dubin sculpture with fragments from the destroyed World Trade Center towers, which honors civilians and first-responders killed in the three terrorist attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001.
The Laguna Beach Fire Department and American Legion are organizing the program, Legion member Dave Connell said.
U.S. flags will line the street on Sunday, set out by Legion volunteers, he said.
Youth Stand for Peace
Local Jewish, Christian, and Muslim youth will perform a song they’ll write together over the weekend in an interfaith immersion program produced by Music in Common.
The free 7 p.m. performance takes place at BC Space Gallery in Laguna Beach and includes a screening of a short documentary, “From Madness to Music”, and includes a question and answer session with the participants, says local musician and radio show host Jason Feddy, who led a similar program last December with Music in Common founder Todd Mack.
Music in Common, which aims to build bonds through the universal language of music, was established in 2005 in the wake of the terrorist slaying of Daniel Pearl, a Wall St. Journal reporter.
Participants discuss issues related to religion, ethnicity, and culture and write a song together. Last year, they met the weekend following a terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
“Everyone, regardless of religion, was feeling very vulnerable and kind of raw,” observed Mack. “It was our job to create a safe space where they could share, work together, and get to know one another,” said Mack. (A video of the song can be seen at https://youtu.be/pZZTAvnmlm4.)
Feddy said he met Mack in Tel Aviv where Music in Common was producing a concert with American, Israeli, and Palestinian musicians in 2010.
“In Orange County we tend to live in our cars and rarely meet our neighbors, let alone people from other communities or faiths,” said Feddy. “If we want to break down barriers between people, we have to get to know one another.”
Feddy set his mind to bring Music in Common to town.
The local performances are supported by a city Community Access Grant, Trader Joes, Laguna College of Art and Design, Mark Chamberlain and BC Space, Big City of Dreams Entertainment, KX 93.5, and private donors. Donations will be accepted at the Sept. 11 performance.
More info: contact Jason Feddy at [email protected] / (949) 357-7756
Defeating Sadness With Kindness
Neighborhood Congregational Church invites the public to hear a special speaker at its 10 a.m. Sunday service Sept. 11.
Suzie Abels, who wrote “Kindness on a Budget,” will discuss how inexpensively and without much effort, everyone can spread kindness on a daily basis to others, and pay it forward, says a church statement.
“ ‘Kindness on a Budget’ chronicles my experience spreading kindness, love, and a dose of magic along life’s many roads, on a modest budget,” Abels said.
A coffee hour follows the service at 340 St. Ann’s Dr.
