PRESS RELEASE: LiveFree OKC to host Peace Needs Conference in September with Chuck D as keynote


LiveFree OKC sends this information as posted below:


OKLAHOMA CITY (July 9, 2024) –  LiveFree OKC is proud to announce the inaugural Peace Needs Conference, taking place September 26 – 28, with keynote addresses by Chuck D of Public Enemy and Diana Oestreich. Early bird tickets are on sale now for the three-day program, with additional speaker and art activation announcements to come.

The Peace Needs Conference is positioned to punctuate a “Summer of Peace” across the Northeast OKC community as LiveFree and its partners continue to address the preventable public health crisis of gun violence, an affliction remedied by continued collaboration, coordination, and community-informed outreach with groups and individuals at the highest risk of being involved in a shooting.

Aptly named Peace Needs, as peace needs every one of us, the conference will be a curated space for conversation and local and national thought-leadership in an ongoing effort to eliminate gun violence in our communities. The concept for the event came from a desire to initiate a more inclusive ecosystem for policy creation, converging proven peacemaking strategies across community organizing, art, education, dialogue and advocacy, ultimately seeking to find a meaningful resolution to community violence.  

“We all deserve peace, but peace requires broad community collaboration,” said LiveFree OKC Executive Director Jabee Williams. “When I co-founded LiveFree OKC, it was in response to the ballooning crisis of gun violence here in OKC but also throughout this nation. And we know it will take all of us, so we’ve put together an amazing opportunity for our city to learn and collaborate, joining us in commitment to reducing violence and building peace because it is possible.”

Keynote speakers Chuck D (activist, producer, musician) and Diana Oestreich (activist, author, veteran) will personally address conference attendees, setting the tone for the inaugural event. Chuck D is leader and co-founder of legendary group Public Enemy and part of the supergroup Prophets of Rage, who first rose to acclaim in the 1980s with a string of critically lauded and commercially successful albums addressing weighty issues of race, rage and inequality with a jolting combination of intelligence and eloquence. Diana speaks across the country, empowering listeners to identify their own rural, urban, political or religious divides to cross their own “enemy lines” in order to remake the world and heal all that’s tearing it apart.

In a press conference last week, LiveFree OKC revealed a dramatic decline in gun violence across Northeast OKC at the halfway point in 2024, with three homicides to-date, trending strong for year-end reflection and celebration of the impact of community-based violence intervention after one year of operations. Since launching in August 2023, the nonprofit has helped 45 clients, conducted 121 interventions with 369 individuals and hired three full-time and two part-time PeaceMakers. The organization is committed to pursuing peace through this pilot program by continuing to work with partners, educating the residents of OKC and catalyzing Northeast OKC neighbors through open dialogue, intention and visibility.

Homicides in Northeast OKC (data provided by OKC Police Department):

  • 2021 – 15
  • 2022 – 7
  • 2023 – 12
  • 2024, to-date – 3

LiveFree OKC staff attended a briefing on Gun Violence and Intervention at the White House last month where they were provided a copy of the recent United States Surgeon General Advisory declaring gun violence as a public health crisis, which requires the nation’s immediate awareness and action. The Advisory also discussed circumstances and realities contributing to gun violence statistics, citing a national study that found that social capital, social mobility, income inequality and social service spending demonstrated significant associations with firearm homicide rates. While a bullet does not discriminate between race or socioeconomic status, Black communities are enduring the brunt of this public health crisis.

More information, including volunteer and sponsorship opportunities are available here.


Author Profile

Free Press curates press releases from organizations and people we know to be reputable. If you would like to submit a well-written press release for us to publish on our site, please click the email icon at the top of this page.