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We live in a time of fear,
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and our response to fear
can either be to contract
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and attempt to guard ourselves
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or to extend ourselves,
hold on to each other,
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and face our fears together.
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What is your instinct?
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What do you see more of in the world?
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The problem with the first approach
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is that in our mounting isolation,
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we divide ourselves from others.
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Our sense of isolation grows,
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because our imagination
goes into overdrive
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about the people and the spaces
that we no longer engage with.
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Our sense of otherness grows,
and we lose empathy.
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Today I'm going to tell you
about a group of people
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that took the global
challenge of terrorism
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and began creating spaces
where strangers connect in solidarity.
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My own obsession with what I see
as irrational divisions began as a child.
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As a fourth-generation
Kenyan Muslim of Indian origin,
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it bothered me that in four generations,
there wasn't a single marriage
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in my family outside of my small
religious community.
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And I wondered what that was about.
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Was it fear?
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Was it racism?
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Was it cultural preservation?
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Did it have something
to do with colonialism?
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Certainly, we didn't share a lot
of the same public spaces with others.
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These divisions bothered me deeply,
and they drove my career choices.
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When I was 20, the US embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed.
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A year later, I was on my way
to the Middle East
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to study conflict resolution.
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And then from that point on,
it wasn't very hard for me
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to find insecure environments to work in,
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because the world was quickly shifting
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in what we now know
as the time of terrorism.
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I was in Washington, DC
when 9/11 happened,
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and then I moved back home
to Kenya to work with refugees,
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and then later worked in Pakistan
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and in Afghanistan.
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In all of these places, what I noticed
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was how important physical spaces are
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to making us feel safe,
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and well,
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and like we belong.
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In 2013, I came back home
to Nairobi from Afghanistan.
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Al Shabaab operatives had besieged
Westgate shopping center,
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killing 67 people in a day
of utter horror.
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Soon after that,
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I could see how Nairobi
was beginning to change,
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and it was beginning to feel more
like the fear and terror-weary
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and war-torn cities that I had worked in.
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And Nairobi continues to grow
in fear-driven ways.
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We see more walls, more barriers,
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more security.
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And like other parts of the world,
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we are experiencing an erosion
of human connection.
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Divisions along religious lines
are deepening,
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and we're doubting more and more
how much we have in common.
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We are at a pivotal time
when we need to restore
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our confidence in humanity
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and stand boldly and visibly together.
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So in 2014, I brought together
a group of people in Nairobi
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to figure out what to do:
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public intellectuals, diplomats,
artists, development workers.
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And the group articulated
our challenge as threefold:
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one, to reclaim the city
from the narrative of terrorism
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and back into the hands
of the people that lived there;
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two, introduce a language
beyond race, tribe, or religion
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that would help us
transcend our differences;
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and three, provide a gesture
that would help restore empathy
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and conversation and trust.
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One of the people in this group
was an artist and architect,
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Yazmany Arboleda.
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He and I have collaborated
in other parts of the world
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over many years.
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He has a history
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of disrupting urban environments
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and making strangers connect
in incredible, beautiful
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and spectacular ways.
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He had an idea.
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The idea was to unite people
of different faiths
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by getting them to paint
each other's houses of worship,
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mosques, temples, synagogues, churches,
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paint them yellow
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in the name of love.
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By focusing on icons of faith,
we would get people to reexamine
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the true essence of their faith,
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the common belief that we share
in kindness, generosity and friendship.
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By creating pathways
between houses of worship
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within one neighborhood,
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we would create islands of stability
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and networks of people
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that could withstand threats.
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And neighbors, by picking up
a paintbrush with other neighbors,
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would engage not just with their heads
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but with their hands
and with their hearts.
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And the painted buildings would become
sculptures in the landscape
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that speak of people
from very different backgrounds
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that stand together.
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We called the project Color in Faith.
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We loved the idea, and we immediately
began approaching houses of worship:
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churches, temples, mosques, synagogues.
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Door to door, we went
to more than 60 rabbis,
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imams, pastors and priests.
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As you can imagine,
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bringing these communities together
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when prejudices are reinforced
by a global pandemic of fear
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is not easy.
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It was complicated.
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We were confronted with
the hierarchy of decisionmaking
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within religious establishments.
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For example, with Catholic churches,
we were told that the archbishop
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would have to make the decision.
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And so we wrote a letter
to the archbishop.
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We wrote a letter to the Vatican.
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We're still waiting to hear back.
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And with other houses of worship,
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we were told that the patrons,
the people that pay for the building
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and the construction
and the painting of the buildings
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would have to make a decision.
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And then we came head-to-head
with the long legacy of missionary
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and donor dependence that so impedes
unconditional civic action,
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and we learned this the hard way.
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There was one community
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that in our repeated conversations
would keep asking us
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to appreciate them.
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And so we would keep going back
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and telling them that we appreciate them,
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and of course,
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if we didn't appreciate them,
we wouldn't be here.
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And then we learned
painfully late in the game
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that the word appreciation
is code for getting paid to participate.
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And so we challenged them,
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and we asked the question,
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"So what will it cost?
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How much could we pay you?
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And if we pay for your faith,
is it really faith?"
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We started the project
asking the question,
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"Where does your faith live?"
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And here we found ourselves
asking the question,
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"How much does your faith cost?"
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But the most difficult issue
was the perceived risk of standing apart.
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We had one synagogue
that flat-out refused to participate
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because it feared
drawing attention to itself
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and becoming a target.
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Similarly, we had a mosque
that also feared becoming a target.
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And these fears are justified.
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And yet, there were 25 houses of worship
that pledged to participate.
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(Applause)
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These bold leaders took the gesture
and reinforced it with their own meaning.
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For some, it was to tell the world
that they're not terrorists.
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For others it was to welcome people
through their doors to ask questions.
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And for some, it was to bridge the gap
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between the older
and the younger generation,
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which by the way is something that
many faiths are grappling with right now.
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And for some it was simply
to build neighborhood solidarity
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in advance of feared election violence.
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When asked why yellow,
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one imam beautifully said,
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"Yellow is the color of the sun.
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The sun shines on us all equally.
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It does not discriminate."
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He and others spread the word
through their congregations
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and over the radio.
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Municipal government officials
stepped forward and helped
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with permits and with convening
civil society organizations.
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The paint company donating
a thousand liters of yellow paint
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mixed especially for us
in what they now call "optimistic yellow."
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(Applause)
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And a poetry collective joined forces
with a university and hosted
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a series of tweet chats
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that challenged the nation
on issues of faith,
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our faith not just
in the context of religion,
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but our faith in politicians
and tribe and nation,
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our faith in the older generation
and in the younger generation.
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And then Color in Faith
was launched at a gallery event
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that invited an incredible mix
of gallery goers
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and religious leaders and artists
and businesspeople.
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Already, even before
picking up a paintbrush,
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we had accomplished so much
of the conversation and connection
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that we had hoped for.
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And then we began to paint.
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Muslims stood by Christians
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and atheists and agnostics and Hindus
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and painted a mosque yellow.
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And then they all came together again
and painted a church yellow,
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and then another mosque,
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and then another church.
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Poets and musicians
performed while we painted.
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We painted in Nairobi
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and then we painted in Mombasa.
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The local and international press
did features on Color in Faith
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in English and French and Swahili
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and Spanish and Somali.
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CNN highlighted Color in Faith
as a way of bringing communities together.
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And our social media platforms lit up,
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connecting more and more people.
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And these neighbors
continued to stay in touch.
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There are some that are pursuing
politics with a platform of peace,
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and we have communities
as far as Argentina and the US
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and as close as Mali and Rwanda
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that are asking for our help.
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And we would love to help.
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It's our dream that this project,
this idea, spreads across the world,
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with or without our support.
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Color in Faith is literally highlighting
those who mean well in yellow.
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Color in Faith is binding
neighborhoods together,
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and it's our hope that
when threats come knocking,
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they will collectively
sift fact from rumor
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and stand in solidarity.
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We've proven that the human family
can come together and send a message
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far brighter and more powerful
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than the voices of those
that wish to do us harm.
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Though fear is infectious,
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we are showing that so is hope.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)