[Applause]
so there is a pastor in Baltimore
his name is Michael Phillips he is the
pastor of kingdom Life Church and he
often talks about how problems show up
in our lives so arrogantly with so much
confidence as if there’s just nothing we
can do about him and the murder rate in
Baltimore have been doing that year
after year it just kept showing up as
this big thing that there was nothing
any of us could do anything about but
the thing about Baltimore is that it has
never been the one to just be defeated
so the story about the Baltimore
ceasefire is that Baltimore look the
murder rate in the eye and said what
you’re not going to do is snatch our
greatness so two years ago I met a 300
men March meeting at the time I was a
leader in that movement and this guy
named ogoun he’s like a godfather of
hip-hop in Baltimore he came over to me
and he said yo I had this idea about
calling the ceasefire in Baltimore and I
feel like you are somebody I should talk
to about that and I was like I’m
absolutely somebody you should talk to
about that because that’s what we should
do and so we play phone tag and meeting
tag and two years went by and we never
really sat down and talked about it so
now we’re in May of 2017 my son Paul
he’s 19 years old he’s driving me home
from work one day and he says my did you
know that the murder rate in Baltimore
is higher than it’s ever been and I said
what you mean is higher than it’s ever
been how is that possible like I mean
what about these people who say they
have connections to the streets
why won’t they use those connections and
call a ceasefire or something in Orono
when I went from my own feelings of
helplessness about what other people
weren’t doing the next morning I woke up
and I realized that what I was really
angry about wasn’t about what other
people weren’t doing it was that I had
heard this message years ago and I
hadn’t moved on it so it was it was
about what I was supposed to be doing so
I got up and I’m going okay if we could
just have three days where everybody in
the city was committing nobody is going
to kill anybody and we’re going to
celebrate life and stay when can we do
that
so it’s may I look at my calendar I’m
like all right I got some free time the
first weekend in August we’re good we’ll
do it August 4th through August 6 right
so I’m all excited I start driving the
work and the more I Drive the scanner I
get right and so I start going never
mind I won’t say this thing out loud
nobody will ever know I was thinking
that if I don’t say it but it wouldn’t
let me go because God loves to show up
as us and because I look broken and I’m
always called to standing my wholeness
there was a call on my life to say this
thing out loud and because my city looks
broken and is always yearning to show up
and it’s wholeness that were huts that
morning calling all through my chest
that people around this city wanted to
do something great together
and people who had already been killed
in my city were calling to me up through
my gut in my chest as a knot in my
throat yo e you cannot just let us be
dead in vain when you know how to say
this thing out loud and I responded to
them with my fear but somebody might get
killed anyway that weekend and that was
the moment where I had to accept that
maybe while we’re out spreading this
message hey nobody’s going to kill
anybody we’re going to celebrate life
maybe somebody will be plotting to take
a life right then and there but now they
would have a rumbling in their spirits
and so I knew it was time for my city to
have a collective rumbling in our spirit
so I got on the phone I got around the
old going and I said yo you said you
wanted to do a ceasefire what is it I’m
ready so he said you know when I hear
about like the Israelis and Palestinians
at whoa I’m like oh that’s too bad they
should stop that but when I hear the
word ceasefire that makes me pause and
stop and really research what’s going on
and he wanted Baltimore to get that same
kind of attention from the outside but
introspection from the inside about what
was going on with us and we talked about
how it couldn’t belong to one person not
one person or one organization should
call a ceasefire the whole city had to
own it and do it together so we had our
first meeting in May about 12 or 15
people show up
and this is where it gives name the
Baltimore ceasefire because you know
what that means when you hear the word
ceasefire just don’t kill nobody and
this is where the Baltimore Peace
challenge was born because it’s not just
about not being violent it is about
being purposefully peaceful what is
going on in your thoughts what kind of
petty things are you not saying out of
your mouth how are you responding in
your behaviors to conflict I grabbed up
five people who I trusted and the six of
us became the organizing squad so let’s
give them props real quick on the count
of three I want you to yell squad one
two three
squad and it’s Charlotte’s birthday
happy birthday Charlotte’s right and so
we put out a press release and the media
told us this is not really a story yet
we will get with you and August segments
to see how the ceasefire went so we went
a word all right then and Baltimore got
to work and not only did people send
money to the PayPal account so we could
buy flyers and posters people came and
got the fliers and posters and they put
them all around the city and people were
having conversations with each other
what kind of resources do you need what
are you going through what has happened
to you because we understand the root
causes of violence in this country
people who said it wouldn’t work still
into their sentence with but please keep
trying somebody needs to do something
anyway
teenagers who would tell us about the
stuff they were doing in the streets all
day ask but can I have a poster to put
it on my world at night so I can see it
on my way to be guyst is what Carla’s
saying I can tell you where violence is
not going to come from because we’re
committing to the peace challenge and
they kept their word when people said oh
it’s not gonna work because somebody’s
gonna kill over Wessel somebody’s gonna
kill all over east we said that doesn’t
matter
it’s about self-determination yo you
telling me you can’t keep this three or
six block radius safe and they would say
oh don’t get it twisted is going to stay
safe around here and they kept their
promise
for a song and I know it looks like I’m
holding up five fingers but I had four
fingers so this is four for me four
songs got made about the Baltimore
ceasefire and the one that most
exemplifies that we’re a bunch of
artists came together and made a song
that one is currently nominated for a
Grammy out here right and so now what
was happening was from the most
beautiful corners of crack houses to the
grimy is corners of politicians offices
everybody was talking about this thing
Baltimore was doing together right and
then the weekend came events all over
the city people yell a happy ceasefire
day over two hundred people got their
records expunged and got jobs and people
went into drug recovery programs because
of what was happening in our city that
weekend people were going but the air
feels different in Baltimore nobody’s
mother got that phone call last night I
didn’t hear any gunshots and on Saturday
trade went to go get a job and was
excited about it at 24 hours of no
killing we were singing Kendrick Lamar
we’re gonna be all right
we’re gonna be all right and then at
4:59 on Saturday we get a message that
somebody was killed we didn’t know his
name but it turned out to be Trey so we
rushed over to sergeant Street and we
held hands in a circle and we looked at
the pavement and we said this is sacred
ground because we make it so because
everywhere in our city where people lose
their lives to violence needs to be
sacred ground and it wasn’t just about
upholding Trey in his transition and
sending love to his family it was about
us pausing to really think about what
must it feel like 20 minutes after you
kill somebody can’t we pour love into
that cuz until we do we will not heal
this epidemic later on in the day we get
another call Dante is murdered so by the
end of this day we were shook
in real life we were shook because we
had opened up our hearts together and
changed the atmosphere of the city and
now our hearts were broken together and
we had to be honest about the fact that
last weekend when we lost six people to
violence it didn’t feel the way it felt
this weekend when we lost these two
because now we were paying attention now
we were all hoping together that nobody
got killed and so we had to make a vow
with ourselves not to be numb anymore
when we lose people in our city these
two lives were going to remind us to
vibrate higher and to move forward so as
we move forward into Baltimore ceasefire
365 because it’s work that needs to be
done all year and there’s another
ceasefire happening next weekend
November 3rd through 5th mark your
calendar right and we expect the same
thing it was news media from all around
the world Australia and Norway in China
everybody wanted to come get this work
from Baltimore and y’all can come get it
right so as we push fuller we don’t need
to keep asking now what can we do we
have seen the power of collective
consciousness y’all were the ones who
misunderstood Baltimore your thought
Baltimore was just the wire when we lost
Freddie gray y’all saw the Baltimore
uprising and people around this world
mischaracterized it and misunderstood it
what you fail to realize is Baltimore is
the power to rise up and that is what we
continue to do and so as we move forward
we see you America with your systems of
violent oppression trying to beat us
into the ground and still we rise we
rise and stand where cities all over
this country just like us who are handed
through no fault of their own criminal
conditions in which to live and then
they get labeled savages for how they
live we stand with them we remind them
we are an example of what you can do
when you say no I don’t have to accept
these conditions that you are trying to
hand me I get to decide what the
greatest vision
myself looks like and so the next time
you are faced with a dilemma with a
problem you can say let me be like
Baltimore let me look it in the face let
me tell it but what you’re not going to
do it snatched my greatness
please believe it thank you
[Applause]
so there is a pastor in Baltimore
his name is Michael Phillips he is the
pastor of kingdom Life Church and he
often talks about how problems show up
in our lives so arrogantly with so much
confidence as if there’s just nothing we
can do about him and the murder rate in
Baltimore have been doing that year
after year it just kept showing up as
this big thing that there was nothing
any of us could do anything about but
the thing about Baltimore is that it has
never been the one to just be defeated
so the story about the Baltimore
ceasefire is that Baltimore look the
murder rate in the eye and said what
you’re not going to do is snatch our
greatness so two years ago I met a 300
men March meeting at the time I was a
leader in that movement and this guy
named ogoun he’s like a godfather of
hip-hop in Baltimore he came over to me
and he said yo I had this idea about
calling the ceasefire in Baltimore and I
feel like you are somebody I should talk
to about that and I was like I’m
absolutely somebody you should talk to
about that because that’s what we should
do and so we play phone tag and meeting
tag and two years went by and we never
really sat down and talked about it so
now we’re in May of 2017 my son Paul
he’s 19 years old he’s driving me home
from work one day and he says my did you
know that the murder rate in Baltimore
is higher than it’s ever been and I said
what you mean is higher than it’s ever
been how is that possible like I mean
what about these people who say they
have connections to the streets
why won’t they use those connections and
call a ceasefire or something in Orono
when I went from my own feelings of
helplessness about what other people
weren’t doing the next morning I woke up
and I realized that what I was really
angry about wasn’t about what other
people weren’t doing it was that I had
heard this message years ago and I
hadn’t moved on it so it was it was
about what I was supposed to be doing so
I got up and I’m going okay if we could
just have three days where everybody in
the city was committing nobody is going
to kill anybody and we’re going to
celebrate life and stay when can we do
that
so it’s may I look at my calendar I’m
like all right I got some free time the
first weekend in August we’re good we’ll
do it August 4th through August 6 right
so I’m all excited I start driving the
work and the more I Drive the scanner I
get right and so I start going never
mind I won’t say this thing out loud
nobody will ever know I was thinking
that if I don’t say it but it wouldn’t
let me go because God loves to show up
as us and because I look broken and I’m
always called to standing my wholeness
there was a call on my life to say this
thing out loud and because my city looks
broken and is always yearning to show up
and it’s wholeness that were huts that
morning calling all through my chest
that people around this city wanted to
do something great together
and people who had already been killed
in my city were calling to me up through
my gut in my chest as a knot in my
throat yo e you cannot just let us be
dead in vain when you know how to say
this thing out loud and I responded to
them with my fear but somebody might get
killed anyway that weekend and that was
the moment where I had to accept that
maybe while we’re out spreading this
message hey nobody’s going to kill
anybody we’re going to celebrate life
maybe somebody will be plotting to take
a life right then and there but now they
would have a rumbling in their spirits
and so I knew it was time for my city to
have a collective rumbling in our spirit
so I got on the phone I got around the
old going and I said yo you said you
wanted to do a ceasefire what is it I’m
ready so he said you know when I hear
about like the Israelis and Palestinians
at whoa I’m like oh that’s too bad they
should stop that but when I hear the
word ceasefire that makes me pause and
stop and really research what’s going on
and he wanted Baltimore to get that same
kind of attention from the outside but
introspection from the inside about what
was going on with us and we talked about
how it couldn’t belong to one person not
one person or one organization should
call a ceasefire the whole city had to
own it and do it together so we had our
first meeting in May about 12 or 15
people show up
and this is where it gives name the
Baltimore ceasefire because you know
what that means when you hear the word
ceasefire just don’t kill nobody and
this is where the Baltimore Peace
challenge was born because it’s not just
about not being violent it is about
being purposefully peaceful what is
going on in your thoughts what kind of
petty things are you not saying out of
your mouth how are you responding in
your behaviors to conflict I grabbed up
five people who I trusted and the six of
us became the organizing squad so let’s
give them props real quick on the count
of three I want you to yell squad one
two three
squad and it’s Charlotte’s birthday
happy birthday Charlotte’s right and so
we put out a press release and the media
told us this is not really a story yet
we will get with you and August segments
to see how the ceasefire went so we went
a word all right then and Baltimore got
to work and not only did people send
money to the PayPal account so we could
buy flyers and posters people came and
got the fliers and posters and they put
them all around the city and people were
having conversations with each other
what kind of resources do you need what
are you going through what has happened
to you because we understand the root
causes of violence in this country
people who said it wouldn’t work still
into their sentence with but please keep
trying somebody needs to do something
anyway
teenagers who would tell us about the
stuff they were doing in the streets all
day ask but can I have a poster to put
it on my world at night so I can see it
on my way to be guyst is what Carla’s
saying I can tell you where violence is
not going to come from because we’re
committing to the peace challenge and
they kept their word when people said oh
it’s not gonna work because somebody’s
gonna kill over Wessel somebody’s gonna
kill all over east we said that doesn’t
matter
it’s about self-determination yo you
telling me you can’t keep this three or
six block radius safe and they would say
oh don’t get it twisted is going to stay
safe around here and they kept their
promise
for a song and I know it looks like I’m
holding up five fingers but I had four
fingers so this is four for me four
songs got made about the Baltimore
ceasefire and the one that most
exemplifies that we’re a bunch of
artists came together and made a song
that one is currently nominated for a
Grammy out here right and so now what
was happening was from the most
beautiful corners of crack houses to the
grimy is corners of politicians offices
everybody was talking about this thing
Baltimore was doing together right and
then the weekend came events all over
the city people yell a happy ceasefire
day over two hundred people got their
records expunged and got jobs and people
went into drug recovery programs because
of what was happening in our city that
weekend people were going but the air
feels different in Baltimore nobody’s
mother got that phone call last night I
didn’t hear any gunshots and on Saturday
trade went to go get a job and was
excited about it at 24 hours of no
killing we were singing Kendrick Lamar
we’re gonna be all right
we’re gonna be all right and then at
4:59 on Saturday we get a message that
somebody was killed we didn’t know his
name but it turned out to be Trey so we
rushed over to sergeant Street and we
held hands in a circle and we looked at
the pavement and we said this is sacred
ground because we make it so because
everywhere in our city where people lose
their lives to violence needs to be
sacred ground and it wasn’t just about
upholding Trey in his transition and
sending love to his family it was about
us pausing to really think about what
must it feel like 20 minutes after you
kill somebody can’t we pour love into
that cuz until we do we will not heal
this epidemic later on in the day we get
another call Dante is murdered so by the
end of this day we were shook
in real life we were shook because we
had opened up our hearts together and
changed the atmosphere of the city and
now our hearts were broken together and
we had to be honest about the fact that
last weekend when we lost six people to
violence it didn’t feel the way it felt
this weekend when we lost these two
because now we were paying attention now
we were all hoping together that nobody
got killed and so we had to make a vow
with ourselves not to be numb anymore
when we lose people in our city these
two lives were going to remind us to
vibrate higher and to move forward so as
we move forward into Baltimore ceasefire
365 because it’s work that needs to be
done all year and there’s another
ceasefire happening next weekend
November 3rd through 5th mark your
calendar right and we expect the same
thing it was news media from all around
the world Australia and Norway in China
everybody wanted to come get this work
from Baltimore and y’all can come get it
right so as we push fuller we don’t need
to keep asking now what can we do we
have seen the power of collective
consciousness y’all were the ones who
misunderstood Baltimore your thought
Baltimore was just the wire when we lost
Freddie gray y’all saw the Baltimore
uprising and people around this world
mischaracterized it and misunderstood it
what you fail to realize is Baltimore is
the power to rise up and that is what we
continue to do and so as we move forward
we see you America with your systems of
violent oppression trying to beat us
into the ground and still we rise we
rise and stand where cities all over
this country just like us who are handed
through no fault of their own criminal
conditions in which to live and then
they get labeled savages for how they
live we stand with them we remind them
we are an example of what you can do
when you say no I don’t have to accept
these conditions that you are trying to
hand me I get to decide what the
greatest vision
myself looks like and so the next time
you are faced with a dilemma with a
problem you can say let me be like
Baltimore let me look it in the face let
me tell it but what you’re not going to
do it snatched my greatness
please believe it thank you
[Applause]
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