2026 Peace Calendar
I’m grateful for these evocative invitations to lift up the values of humanity. Each entry is a call to creative resistance. –Robin Wall Kimmerer p + p { margin-top: 1em; } h2 + h3 { margin-top: 1em; } h3 + p { margin-top:1em; } A full year of dynamic, uplifting artwork to sustain us through challenging times. The diverse array of media and styles – murals, painting, illustration, photography, and mixed media – will enrich your days throughout 2026. Dio Cramer's powerful cover art calls us to resist together to Hold Strong to our values. Provocative... Inspirational... Visionary... Essential. • Over 400 people’s history dates• Holidays for many faiths• Lunar cycles, 13 native moons• Monthly action steps NEW Check out the last few years of Peace Calendars ISBN: 978-1-956301-10-6 JANUARY I Am... Tijay Mohammed, mixed media ©2023 Public education (50 million students in the US) is key to brighter futures for each child and our society. Public schools provide not only general curriculum to help children understand the world around them, but opportunities for kids from diverse backgrounds to come together, learn, share experiences and build relationships. Effective public schools can also reduce inequality by providing children from underprivileged backgrounds with education, skills and connections to help them break the cycle of poverty. Ghanaian-born artist Tijay Mohammed includes Ghanaian symbols to combine traditional wisdom with academic knowledge. The current administration seeks to demonize public schools by pitting teachers and parents against each other, banning books, attacking queer kids and attempting to ban teaching about race, gender, current events and the unsavory parts of American history. While many improvements are certainly needed, a strong public education system is the foundation of a thriving society and we must fight privatization of education and protect public schools. FEBRUARY The Man Who Built a Library - related Children's Book Eric Velasquez, oil ©2017 Among the most pernicious myths underlying the political exclusion of Blacks after Reconstruction was the notion that Black people had no history worth recalling. Popular culture, schools, histories and textbooks depicted a people whose story began with enslavement. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) demolished that lie. Bibliophile, historian and political activist, Schomburg found his intellectual and spiritual liberation in correcting and documenting the heritage of the African diaspora. His collected works in print, art and music – nearly 3,000 volumes, over 1,100 pamphlets, and many valuable prints and manuscripts – included original newspapers published by Frederick Douglass, poems by Phillis Wheatley, and correspondence of Toussaint L'Ouverture. In 1926, New York Public Library acquired his collection for the 135th Street (Harlem) branch. Under a white director, Ernestine Rose, and Black librarians like Catherine Latimer, Regina Andrews and Pura Belpre (the first Puerto Rican librarian at NYPL), the Library refocused its programming and collecting to meet the needs of Harlem’s growing community of color. As books about African American history remain targets of censorship, and conflicts over access to information and representation are renewed, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture continues to champion the freedom to read and learn. MARCH Nadia Murad Ashley Longshore, acrylic ©2023 Nadia Murad, an Iraqi woman who survived the Yazidi genocide, and Dr. Denis Mukwege (Democratic Republic of Congo) shared the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” At 21 years old Nadia was kidnapped, sexually enslaved, and forced to convert. She later escaped to Germany, where she shared her story with the world. She has since focused on accountability for perpetrators of gender-based violence and expanding the UN’s work to stop sexual violence. Her work promotes a world where women, children, and minorities are protected from persecution and sexual violence and victims are protected through oppertunities for asylum and immigration. Nadia believes “...we must invest in our children because children, like a blank slate, can be taught tolerance and co-existence instead of hatred and sectarianism. Women must also be the key to solving many problems and must be involved in building lasting peace among communities.” APRIL The World We Share Ernesto Maranje, mural ©2022 Ernesto Maranje’s 2022 mural at Thornes Market in Northampton, MA, features weaver birds, known for their nest-building skill, and a raccoon, titled Azeban, after a “local told Ernesto that Azeban is a raccoon trickster in folklore for the Indigenous Algonquian people of the area”. The Indigenous cultures of the Connecticut River valley of western Massachusetts believed that all creatures were equal. Animals were different from people, but not necessarily subordinate to them. Wildlife should be left to live their lives the way that was natural for them. Habitat loss is the primary threat to the survival of many species in the US and across the globe. Ecosystem protection and restoration, sustainable practices and the creation of wildlife corridors (undeveloped lands connecting two or more habitats) to support migration and breeding are vital to survival. The Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, who Maranje has worked closely with, believes we can promote these ideas and actions through art. MAY Rising Up Against Fascism AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, photography ©2025 The early months of Trump 2.0 have brought an unprecedented federal assault on human rights and democracy. This frightening period has also led to increased organizing, with new people joining every day to protect one another and our values. June 14, 2025 was perhaps the largest day of protest in US history as over five million people participated in 2,000+ actions in cities, towns and suburbs across the country. It was powerful evidence of the vibrant, growing movement to protect one another and the basic democratic institutions on which we depend. The protests followed militant Immigrant Rights/Stop Mass Deportations protests in Los Angeles. These actions responded to cruel arrests and Trump's efforts to militarize the city by sending in National Guard and Marines. Tens of thousands have been kidnapped, brutalized and illegally deported. Mobilized, nonviolent people power is key since there's little reason to believe the Democratic Party, disillusioned Republicans, or the Courts will stand up strongly to stop this would-be dictator and his wealthy allies. The coming period will challenge us in many ways to hold strong and stand together. We are the ones we've been waiting for. JUNE Transgender Pride L. Lepenven, traditional mixed media ©2017 A year ago, on June 18, 2025, despite passionate testimony from transgender people, families and medical professionals, the Supreme Court ruled that states can withhold gender affirming healthcare to transgender youth. This denial of care, which severely endangers the health and well-being of trans youth, is also part of a larger, concerted effort to stigmatize those whose very existence contradicts the orthodoxy of the religious right. Additional efforts seek to ban the use of preferred pronouns, limit participation of transgender people in sports and remove trans affirming books from libraries. In addition to the direct harms caused to individuals and communities, these initiatives, like those limiting reproductive rights, are repressive intrusions by the state into personal and family medical decisions. June should be a time to celebrate the LGBTQ++ community’s history of struggle, achievement of civil rights, beauty and verve. In its most radical and transformative expressions, the Queer movement has always been a powerful intersectional force linked with other social movements. We stand against these renewed threats, in the spirit of the Stonewall rebellion, calling for nothing short of full human liberation. JULY Grief In and For Palestine David Najib Kasir, oil ©2025 The scale of suffering in Gaza is overwhelming. As of late May 2025, well over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, over 125,000 injured, the territory's infrastructure destroyed and nearly two million displaced, most multiple times. The specter of mass starvation hangs over the besieged territory, while the world watches and the US continues to supply arms and diplomatic cover. The heinous October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel came after decades of state violence, land theft and oppression, leaving no path to Palestinian self-determination. The largest-ever protest movement in support of Palestinian rights has been largely ignored and suppressed by the US, as well as many other western governments. We must further that movement to recognize the human and national rights of the Palestinian people and prevent the proposed ethnic cleansing of Gaza, while also opposing actual anti-Jewish bigotry and violence. AUGUST Flood in de Main Road Kvita Mongroo, mixed media ©2024 Small islands around the world face existential threat due to climate change and resulting sea-level rise. By 2050, the area expected to be flooded per year for smal island developing states (SIDS) is projected to triple. Families fleeing powerful storms and coastal erosion in low-lying Pacific islands have become some of the world’s first “climate refugees”. By the end of the century, more than a million people will be exposed to flooding in the 31 Caribbean SIDS annually. Their ability to adapt, maneuver and place trust in global community will be an example and a testament for the rest of the world. Despite their low contribution to global emissions (less than 1%), SIDS are leading the way in ambitious national climate action plans. In an impassioned speech at COP27, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados asserted: “We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution. Are we now to face double jeopardy by having to pay the cost as a result of those greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? That is fundamentally unfair.”On this frontline, there is no battle. The tide can only be stemmed by unified, collective action to reduce emissions and restore balance between extraction and regeneration. SEPTEMBER Disability Justice Caitlin Blunnie, digital art ©2023 Disabilities come in many forms, including physical, mental, and intellectual along with chronic illness, and affect people of all ages, ethnicities and socio-economic status. While the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees civil rights, it does not mandate the home and community-based services that make it possible for people to live, work and thrive in their communities. Decades of determined activism have created some of those necessary programs and services, but they now face massive changes, or outright elimination. This month’s art affirms the right to bodily autonomy, and raises other critical issues like sub-minimum wages and disability benefits. Moving forward, the disability community needs to continue taking action at the local, state and federal levels to advocate for their interests – voting, protesting and working alongside elected officials, so all voices are heard and necessary options and services are afforded to all. OCTOBER Syracuse Resists Fugitive Slave Act Sanlly Viera Alarcón, digital painting ©2025 The mid-19th century found Syracuse, NY’s vibrant abolitionist movement increasingly incensed at the lack of change. 175 years ago this month, that organizing and exasperation culminated in the Jerry Rescue, an action which inspired the movement nationally and reverberates today. After passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Syracusans of all races, including clergy, judges and elected officials, openly declared their intent to resist any effort to enforce the law, and created a plan. On October 1, 1851, William "Jerry" Henry, a barrel maker and “fugitive slave,” was arrested. The nonviolent rescue that evening included white conspirators painting their faces to protect the identity of their black comrades. Key participants battered down the police station door, and a crowd flooded in, freeing Jerry and passing him to the gathered crowd of nearly 3,000 people. An awaiting carriage brought Jerry to a home where he recuperated for four days before being taken north to Canada where he lived out his life. Twelve men were arrested for the rescue, with none convicted and the rescuers publicly celebrating the action. Afterward, the work of the region's Underground Railroad was much more open. A monument celebrating this daring act of resistance was unveiled on the 150th anniversary in 2001. NOVEMBER Celestial Embodiment Melissa Whiteman/Creative Enterprise Zone, mixed media, mural ©2022 As we imagine a better world amid system chaos and unchecked excess, we see indigeneity as the present and future, not just some distant past. Racist, supremacist and capitalist ideologies created the inequitable, oppressive, inhumane and unjust systems that violently displaced indigenous peoples. This is an ongoing practice. It is as yet unremedied, despite unchallenged historical records of crimes against humanity and flagrant breaches of covenants by the US government. Today, there is worsening contamination of indigenous lands, waters, and bodies from industrial food production; impacts of false climate solutions; extractive industry; and sexual exploitation and trafficking tied to extractive industries – the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. It is time to shift toward the rooted, Earth-centric, responsible and equitable; to manifest harmonious relations among all peoples and living beings.“Indigenous peoples offer possibilities for life after empire. That process rightfully starts by honoring the treaties the United States made with Indigenous nations, by restoring all sacred sites… all stolen sacred items and body parts, and by payment of all sufficient reparations.” - An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. This is the starting point for mending, for strong and ethical foundations of a nation, and for a brighter future for all. DECEMBER Three Generations Working to Open Doors Joel Bergner, acrylic paint and aerosol ©2022 This collaborative community mural seeks to inspire unity, peace, love and perseverance in East New York (Brooklyn) where people experience persistent inequality, poverty, lack of services, violence and mass incarceration. Young people here face these and other systemic obstacles to creating healthy lives and futures. Many of their community's elders are absent as a result, leaving them with fewer role models, mentors and caretakers. Artivism can fill in some of these holes, offering inspiration and bringing in some resources to support their growth and development. But without larger institutional change, individuals will occasionally flourish, but most will remain mired by those larger forces of oppression.
