Hundreds ‘Walk For Peace’ throughout the North Side

The honorary chairs of last Saturday’s event were Talk Magazine’s Luther and Roxanne Sewell, whom Guy said were selected because they continue to work in the community and “care so much about what’s going on.”
Along with the two-mile Walk for the Peace, the daylong event also included a concert by the R&B, soul and neo-soul duo Kindred the Family Soul; a festival; a mural unveiling; and  much more. Also, several representatives from various community organizations were on hand to offer information on their causes and available resources.
While she enjoyed the entire day, Guy said the unveiling of a mural painted over the summer by youths in the community, was the highlight of the day.
“I saw some shy kids from ‘the hood’ find voice yesterday. Speaking in front of that crowd, they killed it. I was so proud of them. When they found their voice and they could articulate what their vision was for that mural, and people got it, to me that was the best part of the whole day,” she said.
Annual Walk participant La’Tasha Mayes, founder and executive director of New Voices Pittsburgh, said, “The Women’s Walk for Peace is critical to raising awareness in our Pittsburgh community about the devastating impact of street and domestic violence women experience especially Black women.
“The Northside Coalition for Fair Housing works tireless each year to create this safe space. New Voices Pittsburgh is proud to support their efforts as we organize with Black women and girls to achieve complete health and well-being.”
Each year, in addition to addressing the need to stop the violence, the Walk also “highlights an emerging issue affecting women of color,” this year’s issue was  putting a stop to the mass incarceration of women due to unjust policies and procedures. According to Guy, there has been a 300 percent increase in women of color being incarcerated.
“We want to make sure the community is aware that they’re filling up the prisons not only with our men, but they’re locking up women of color at an unprecedented rate,” said Guy. “We really want to work with other women to stop this and free the women that have already encountered this unjust criminal justice system.”
To spread the message, the Coalition welcomed keynote speaker Andrea James, founder of Families for Justice as Healing, an organization in Massachusetts that focuses on the incarceration of mothers and its impact on children, and the author of “Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts On The Politics of Mass Incarceration,” “A Letter To My Children From A Mad, Black, Incarcerated Mother” and the children’s book, “My Grandparents Are Polar Bears.”
Guy said James, who worked in the criminal justice system for 25 years as a youth worker for a former criminal defense attorney, was the chosen because of her work and dedication in advocating on behalf of these women, and she too was a victim of unjust criminal justice policies. James spoke of her story and commitment to the cause.
Guy said she hopes that what people took away from the walk is that, “we’re stronger together, there are so many issues to get involved in and that if you have just a little bit of time-get connected. Everybody needs to get connected and work on this change. If we come together we can fix these schools and we can fix these neighborhoods.”
(For more information on the Northside Coalition for Fair Housing, visit www.northsidetenants.org.)