Fri, Jun 20
|UGMTC Admin Offices
29th Annual Community Peace Celebration: Unite for Peace
The Celebration will be held on June 20, 2025, from 2-6 pm at the UGMTC Admin Offices (formerly Ober Boys Community Center), 376 Western Ave N. This free event features live music, food, resources, and activities for all ages.
Time & Location
Jun 20, 2025, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
UGMTC Admin Offices , 376 Western Ave N, St Paul, MN 55103, USA
Guests
About the event
ARTISTS AND SPEAKERS
Emcee Extraordinaire | T Mychel Rambo
Three time Regional Emmy Award winning actor, vocalist, arts educator, and community organizer; whose talents have made an indelible mark on stages across the twin cities. nationally and internationally. T. Mychael has appeared in local and national television commercials, feature films, HBO mini-series and other television programming. Nationally and internationally his credits include Carnegie Hall and performances abroad in Africa, Europe and South America. He is an accomplished recording artist, highly sought-after public speaker, and affiliate professor in the College of Liberal Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught for over 20 years.
Sound Provider | DJ A-Quil
A-Quil hails from the Saint Paul Rondo community. A product of Central High School, he's been involved in music for well over 2 decades. He's an Emcee (solo, plus part of the collective: Purest Form), and also a DJ, starting his own company, ASCEND Entertainment Productions. A-Quil has DJ'd numerous events for the community, schools, corporate clients, parties, weddings, as well as sporting events (including being a game day DJ for the Minnesota Vikings).
House Band | Rondo All-Stars
You have seen these folks at various venues around town and now here together as the Rondo AllStars! The AllStars line up convening this year is gospel singer, Robert Robinson, and jazz band musicians: Dale Alexander, Jim ten Bensel, Howard Bivins, Larry Foyen, W. Rayford Johnson, and Ollie Lyle.
Tearra Oso and Bombas
Join Tearra Oso and drummers for an interactive performance integrating Bomba, traditional Afro Boricua drumming, song, dance, and history. Tearra has been leading drumming sessions rooted in Bomba and Mind/Body medicine at the Black Youth Healing Arts Center and Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Tearra is proud to uplift her community by carrying the ancestral wisdom of Bomba in her work and interacting with audiences to ignite healing and empowerment for all.
KALPULLI YAOCENOXTLI
A traditional Mexica-Nahua (Aztec) cultural group dedicated to preserving and sharing the dances, songs, and philosophy of Nahua traditions and culture.
Ewangson
A dynamic music artist who, beyond his music, channels his passion for community organizing, humanitarian works, and peace initiatives, striving to create positive change in society. With a blend of pulsating beats and thought-provoking lyrics, he uses his platform to inspire unity, celebrate diversity, and advocate for social justice. Ewangson's dedication to uplifting the community through music and activism embodies the essence of his patriotic spirit.
ComMusication
ComMUSICation was founded in 2013 to fill a gap - to make high quality afterschool music programs accessible to youth. Our mission is to amplify young voices and cultivate skills for success through equitable access to music, collaboration, and opportunity. We believe every young person, regardless of background, deserves the opportunity to be in a safe and caring environment where they are free to express themselves, can define their future, and change the world. Our on-site programs are open to youth grades 3-12. Located in Frogtown/Rondo, these programs center youth voice and choice and are designed to foster confidence and leadership skills through music.
Dr. Sheronda Orridge
Owner / Operator of Loving Spirit Holistic Services. She is also a Holistic Life Coach and Trainer, Community Organizer, Author, Motivational Speaker, Community Consultant, Youth Development Worker, and Spoken Word Artist. As a spoken word artist she inspire, motivate, empower, and restore the village tradition through the power of the pen, while moving communities into action through spoken word. Dr. Sheronda has been writing and performing for 40 years and uses her gifts and talents as a way of healing herself and others.
Keynote Speaker
Jim Embry
Jim Embry considers himself stardust condensed in human form. Born in Richmond, KY, he is the grandson of small-scale farmers who were also social activists. As founder and director of Sustainable Communities Network, Jim contributes to the theory and practice of sustainable living while cultivating collaborative efforts at the local, national, and international levels with a focus on food systems. He is a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner. Each year, Jim travels to 25 cities across the United States on his Joy and Justice Journey sharing a message of empowerment, motivation and wisdom on food justice, sustainability and joy.
Exhibiting Artists
Food Demonstration - Healthy Roots Institute | Lachelle Cunningham Institute
The Healthy Roots Institute’s mission is to impact the economy and local food system through food education, culinary training and certification, business training and ongoing professional support for entrepreneurs and businesses.
Face Painting | Heaven
Heaven is a 14 year old artist. She is just about to start high school. Heaven plays the viola and runs track.
Face Painting | MM Face Painting
Exhibitors
Sober home for women, provides shared living at an affordable cost. Flyers for the home and wrapped candy.
ACW is a diverse non-profit coalition of change makers employing the arts in service of positive social change. ACW would like to hand out promotional material (postcards) to raise awareness about ACW and the work they do to support art and artists with a core theme of social justice.
Program Fliers for youth healing activities
Capitol Region Watershed District
Harm Reduction Supplies'/ testing for STD
FREE summer programs - Gospel Choir (grades 3-12) and SOAR Choir (grades 9-12). ComMUSICation was founded in 2013 to fill a gap - to make high quality afterschool music programs accessible to youth. Our mission is to amplify young voices and cultivate skills for success through equitable access to music, collaboration, and opportunity. We believe every young person, regardless of background, deserves the opportunity to be in a safe and caring environment where they are free to express themselves, can define their future, and change the world. Our on-site programs are open to youth grades 3-12. Located in Frogtown/Rondo, these programs center youth voice and choice and are designed to foster confidence and leadership skills through music.
confidence To Create
Community outreach services
We will be offering a free art activity for folks to participate in, and also informing people about the Capitol Rice Street Recontruction project and how they can provide input.
Friends for a Nonviolent World
FNVW works to promote and create peace and justice in our community by using the principles and practices of nonviolence to transform conflict and to address the root causes of violence.
Friends of the Mississippi River
Friends of the Mississippi River engages people to protect, restore, and enhance the Mississippi River and its watershed in the Twin Cities region. We host volunteer events, engage people in advocacy, and offer educational programs for all ages. We would love to share about upcoming workshops and events at Community Peace Celebration and share information about how people can protect clean water in the Twin Cities.
Giving away fresh produce from local farms
Frogtown Neighborhood Association + Hamline Midway Coalition
The purpose of a District Council is to create opportunities for residents to learn about what is happening in their neighborhoods and collaborate with one another and city government to maintain and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods.
High School for Recording Arts
We are a creative arts high school program that plans to encourage students ages 14-20 to register for our school
Organ eye and tissue donation education and facilitation, we will provide info on what being a donor means and how we are connecting with communities to build trust in our organization.
MFJN is a collaboration of individuals and organizations in the Twin Cities Metro Area partnering to advance racial equity by transforming our food system. We center communities that are most affected by systemic racism in the food system; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), through collective power and shared resources.
Metro Food Justice Network | The Common Table
The Common Table is a good justice exhibit at the Minnesota State fair. We plan to have activities that engage people on questions about what it means to promote justice around food, and to color some leaves which will be incorporated into the exhibit.
Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers
Founded in 1995, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) is a coalition now comprising over seventy organizations with a collective membership of many thousands of concerned citizens. Nearly half of its institutional members are faith-based. Since its inception, MAP organizations have focused on issues relating to peace, justice and the environment.
Fresh fruit and fun games
We are project establishing a free native pollinator plant seed economy and will have how-to and hundreds of locally-harvested native plant seed packets to share with neighbors. We also have kids activities.
Insurance & Enrollment Assistance - Health & Wellness Education- Healthcare services -Community Support and Outreach
Our Streets puts people first by transforming transportation and infrastructure in the Twin Cities, the metro region and the state of Minnesota. We do this by making our streets places where people can easily and comfortably walk, bike, roll, and use public transit. Sign on to the letter to keep at-grade options on the table for Rethinking I-94.
Educational resources
Public Art Saint Paul (PASP) is a private, non-profit organization working in partnership with the City of Saint Paul to imagine and create a more just, sustainable, and beautiful city. By placing artists in leading roles, we help shape public spaces, improve city systems, and deepen civic engagement. We will provide information about past and future public art projects.
Renewing The Countryside supports environmental conservation and growing the local food system through sustainable agriculture and more. We will be sharing about our Farm to Early Care work in St. Paul , our mini forest work in Rondo, and may offer to sign folks up for more information on both.
Mobile Library and a table outside the truck. Fliers about library services. Library swag.
SHH provides SNAP Outreach, SNAP application assistance, and connects people to food resources. We will have flyers and branded items to distribute.
Summit-University Planning Council
The Summit-University Planning Council is one of Saint Paul's 17 District Councils. We are an organization made up of community members and our mission is to promote community stewardship and amplify the voices of the neighborhood.
Twin City Unhoused Union/Freedom from the streets
Moving forward for social justice platform of peace
Health screenings
Caring for people experiencing homelessness, hunger and addiction in the Twin Cities since 1902. We welcome all with kindness, compassion and dignity.
2025 Peace Partners
We are so grateful to each of these organizations and individuals for joining us in the mission to create safe space in our community. Without their investments this day would not be possible.
Special thanks to the 29th Annual Community Peace Celebration Planning Team:
Elder Melvin Giles (founder and motivator), Jane Powers, Michael (Special Ops) Stratten, Kiersti "KP" Phenow, John Ewu, Megan Phinney, Jeff Stitt (the research guy), Ms. Hellen, Chef Lachelle Cunningham, Timothy Page, Metric Giles, Dwane Martin, Ruti Meija, Ms. Shari Cueto, Allyson Green