The emerging Veteran Art Movement, in collaboration with the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, Veterans for Peace, About Face: Veterans Against the War, and the American Friends Service Committee - Chicago, will host a vigil and silent walk to mark the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. The war that ensued killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,500 US service members, while the reverberating effects of the broader US “Global War on Terror'' continue to impact untold numbers of people around the globe. To acknowledge, reckon with, and heal from this violence and loss the community will convene in the Grand Army of the Republic War Memorial inside the Chicago Cultural Center to listen to testimonies, poems, and visions of peace shared by war-impacted people, including BIPOC veterans, Iraqis, South and Southwest Asian artists, and others. Following the vigil, participants will walk in a silent procession to the lakefront, where they will drop flowers—a historic symbol of remembrance—into the water.

Register through our Eventbrite page below.