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While the year might feel off to a stressful start — with a divided nation preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and devastating wildfires blazing through Los Angeles County — a local cultural hub is offering an antidote: peace.  

During the heart of the same weekend that not only celebrates the ultimate peace preacher, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also leads to the 47th presidential inauguration, Busboys and Poets is hosting the “2025 Peace Ball: Voices of Liberation and Justice” at Arena Stage on Saturday, Jan. 18.

“Sometimes we feel beaten down, and we need to maintain that sense of hope, that sense of possibility, the sense of love and in connection with other human beings. There’s nothing like having a space where people can come together, can hug one another, can dance together, can share their innermost feelings with one another, and then go out there and continue the hard work they have to do,” Andy Shallal, founder and CEO of Busboys and Poets, told The Informer. 

Since its inception, the Peace Ball, which was first hosted in January 2017 (during Trump’s first inauguration weekend), has been about gathering in order to effect change.

“We’ve always had it for the sole purpose of bringing people together who believe that a better world is possible,” Shallal said, adding that this year’s event furthers that mission. “This is not just about an election. This is not about a candidate. This is really about movements that have to continue to prosper and thrive in these very, very difficult times that we’re facing today.” 

Invited speakers include: Angela Davis, Ibram X Kendi, Sonia Sanchez, Gina Dent, former U.S. Reps Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman and current Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

Further, as the ball approaches, celebrated writer, historian and thought-leader Alice Walker is one of the many artists leading the peace cause. 

Walker told The Informer Shallal and Busboys and Poets have long championed her literary work and supported her efforts toward preserving the legacies of writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. However, for the legendary author, joining the Peace Ball is more than a thank you for Shallal’s support, it’s a means of pushing an important narrative of tapping into joy.

“There’s so much medicine in having a good time,” she said. “It’s part of [African American] heritage too. You know, we were down there on the plantation, and they were hanging us and beating us… but when we had a chance, you know, we had a barbecue,” she said smiling. “We could gather to eat, and it was somebody strumming his or her box—their guitar— and somebody was absolutely going to start the dance. And once you started the dance, there was no end to the dance.”

Alice Walker Emphasizes Dancing as Resilience, Resistance, Offers Call to Action  

For Walker, being able to dance and enjoy the peace ball is a way of resisting hate.  While Walker, 80, said she won’t be able to attend the event in person, she emphasized the critical need for dance to address challenges of today.

I love dancing,” she told The Informer. “By dancing, we connect with what is primal, what is eternal and what is so deeply us as human beings, who are always, in some form, jumping up. They put us down, we jump up. And that is a part of the dance that we offer to our coming generations, that we did not just sit on the sidelines and watch, but we were there.”

The lauded writer said the ball is a party with a purpose.

”I am a person who believes deeply in people holding council…. So I think of the peace ball as a kind of dancing council,” she explained. “This is beyond just, having a good time, although a good time comes with good medicine, but you’re creating something that is about healing. It’s about helping us survive, to overcome the trauma that [people in this world] have inflicted on a lot of us.”

Hosted at Arena Stage and featuring performances from groups such as Sweet Honey in the Rock, Black Leaves Dance Company, Farafina Kan, Superior Cling Jazz Band, artists from Joe’s Movement Emporium, and the engaging, exciting sounds of DJ Farrah Flosscett, the Peace Ball will offer guests an opportunity to dance the night away and celebrate life.  There will also be an open bar and food to keep spirits lifted, energized and nourished during the festive occasion. 

“We’ll have all the things that I think bring together this dance council in a way that is spiritually uplifting,” said Shallal, thanking the team working hard and collaborating to bring the event to life. “I’m really fortunate to be surrounded by extremely talented, bright, energetic, unbowed people that really care— they care to make the world a better place.”

For Shallal, the Peace Ball is a perfect way to encourage guests to work toward a stronger community, nation and world. However it’s also a rallying call and a way to peacefully fight against hatred and oppression.

“I think oftentimes those who want to see a dystopian world want nothing better than for us to just walk away and hide, I think you know, just by being, just by existing, just by dancing, just by being joyful, that is a serious act of resistance,” Shallal told The Informer.

While Walker, 80, said she is disappointed she won’t make it to the Peace Ball in person, she encourages others to join the “dance council” before going out to do the necessary work toward equity and justice for all.

”Rise up for your lives,” she said.