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An unveiling of an innovative mural, "Envisioning Peace," Friday evening celebrated both East Palo Alto teens and the community's Teen Mural Program. The night featured music, dance, spoken performances and food, with a performance by the band Fear & Fancy.

The 5:30 to 7 p.m. event was at the Mural, Music & Arts Project Headquarters, 2043 Euclid Ave., East Palo Alto. East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis and Stanford History Professor Al Camarillo were featured speakers, discussing creativity and hope as a positive future for the community.

The mural design is a visual representation of the four areas of peace the teens researched this summer: international peace, national peace, regional peace and inner peace.

The mural speaks to the significance of achieving all of these components in order to foster a healthy community, according to young persons who designed and created it -- melding the design into the structure of the house that serves and headquarters for the teen-mural program.

These young muralists challenge youth from different sections of East Palo Alto (The G, The Vill, The Mid, Flooda, Over the Ramp) to live together peacefully.

Young persons are depicted marching together for peace, and recruiting others in their community to live in peace.

The hope is that this movement can continue beyond the borders of East Palo Alto and that the mural can inspire such longevity, according to Olatunde Sobomehin, director of the Teen Mural Program and deputy director of the Mural Music & Arts Project.

For more information on the Mural, Music and Arts Project, visit www.muralmusicarts.org.

-- Adapted story courtesy of EPA.net