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Moving into springtime, B-PEACE’s partnership with the Edison K-8 School in Brighton is finding new life. B-PEACE is now sending me, one of two full-time B-PEACE organizers, to spend one day a week volunteering in classrooms at the school. In the morning I spend time in a fifth grade classroom for English language learner students. There are students from Colombia, Cape Verde, Korea, China, Brazil, and Kuwait. It’s amazing to behold a space of such active and engaged learning. In the afternoon I help out in a theater class for third graders.

B-PEACE organizers Julia MacMahon and Charlie Emple

B-PEACE organizers Julia MacMahon and Charlie Emple

I always wear my B-PEACE t-shirt with Jorge’s face on it when I go to volunteer at the Edison school. Several of children have asked me about Jorge and about the shirt. I have found myself offering the answer that Jorge was a friend of mine who was killed by gun violence. Of course, I never had the honor of meeting Jorge when he was alive. And yet I have spent almost year giving effort to the work catalyzed by his murder. As I continue volunteering at the Edison, I will keep wearing my B-PEACE t-shirt. As children continue to ask, I will continue attempting to convey to them who Jorge was and to give a sense of his legacy, of the work that his death has given way to. It is my hope that Jorge’s memory, his face emblazoned in the colors of peace on our humble B-PEACE t-shirts, will catalyze the young children of the Edison school to have thoughts and questions about the violence and inequality present in their surroundings.

Categories: B-PEACE