The Tucson Raging Grannies getting ready to sing at the 2017 Peace Fair. From left: Barbara Taylor, Rosemary Plakas, Deb Livingston, Marita Stith, and Stephanie Keenan. Courtesy Deborah Livingston.
By Deborah Livingston, Co-Chair, Tucson WILPF
The Tucson Raging Grannies performed at Tucson’s 35th annual Peace Fair and Music Festival, which was held on February 25, 2017. This year’s theme was “Demilitarization—Solidarity Not Hate; Let’s Stand Together.” The WILPF Tucson Branch had a table at what is one of Arizona’s largest gatherings for peace, justice, and environmental advocates. WILPF members have participated every year of the fair’s 35-year history.
The event, which the Tucson Peace Center organizes each year, offered a day of live music and other entertainment, children’s activities, tabling, and food. Just some of the many other groups represented were Jobs with Justice, the Sierra Club, Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA), the American Friends Service Committee, the Nuclear Resister, Global Art Project for Peace, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, CODEPINK, Black Lives Matter, and Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona (DPAA).
A photo of the Raging Grannies is featured in The Daily Wildcat coverage of the fair. More photos of the 2017 Peace Fair can be seen on the Tucson Peace Center Facebook page.
This year, Vermont WILPF member Robin Lloyd was in Tucson. She gave a presentation about her grandmother, Lola Maverick Lloyd, who was one of the many women who went to the Hague with Jane Addams before WWI and who helped to start WILPF in 1915.
