News & Blog

One of the Ikeda Center's best instances of turning lemons into lemonade during this pandemic year—best acts of value creation, if you will—has been how our program staff has successfully translated our in-person dialogue events into online "virtual dialogues." It's thrilling to be online together with participants from all around the world, dialed in and eager to explore creative ways of building diverse peace cultures. Still, it's hard not to be nostalgic for the unique experience of in-person dialogue, especially as it developed through our Dialogue Nights series over the last three...

With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the continuing fight for racial justice, it can feel overwhelming to add one more challenge to the table. Yet, climate change is a long-term issue that is inseparable from the prevailing challenges that we have faced this year. It is Center founder Daisaku Ikeda’s conviction that in the midst of such large-scale issues like climate change, when facing them head on, we find in them “a remarkable diversity of opportunities for human beings to give expression to their limitless potential.” Thus, if we can tackle the climate crisis together, we then can...

On July 16, we hosted our third virtual dialogue event of the year, called "The Poetic Spirit: Our Power to Reconnect a Divided World." It centered around a panel discussion between Dr. Sarah Wider (Professor of English, Colgate University) and Ikeda Center Youth Committee members Isaiah Moon and Valentina Frasisti. Two hundred fifty participants from 19 countries joined via Zoom. Here's a quote from Daisaku Ikeda that helped shape the discussion:

The poetic spirit can be found in any human endeavor. When the spirit of poetry lives within us, even objects...

Because it was conducted on Zoom, our June 11 dialogue event was called a “virtual” one. Yet there was nothing simulated or “less than” about the conversations that took place when 250 participants from 19 countries around the world gathered online for “Asking Questions Together: What Is Our Path Forward?” The panel discussion featured Dr. Ceasar McDowell (Professor of Civic Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Ikeda Center Student Ambassadors Giulia Pellizzato (Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University) and Anthony Jojola (Masters candidate, Boston College) who shared thoughts...