The Dalai Lama and more than 20 musical artists, including Dave Matthews, Counting Crows and Nas, will be part of a “landmark” two-day forum, “Common Ground for Peace,” at Syracuse University on Oct. 8-9.

The forum, meant to bring together international thought leaders and the Syracuse community on the SU campus to engage in talks of how to shift global consciousness toward peace, includes panel discussions for faculty and students, a public talk by the Dalai Lama and a festival-style concert in the Carrier Dome featuring two dozen artists, according to an SU news release.

The event is produced and sponsored by the One World Community Foundation, an organization established by Samuel Nappi, an SU trustee. Nappi asked the Dalai Lama to visit the SU campus. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet.

“His Holiness’ first commitment is to the promotion of human values,” Nappi said in the release. “This two-day event asks us all to remember our common origins, to respect our religious and cultural differences, and to recognize our shared compassion and humanity.”

The Dalai Lama will hold a public talk at 7 p.m. Oct. 9. It will be followed by the One World Concert, a festival-style music event in the Dome. The Dalai Lama will speak about resolving conflict through global consciousness, and the artists will then take the stage to perform an original song. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg will emcee the event.

The full list of performers will be released in the coming days. Dave Matthews, Counting Crows, Nas and Andy Grammer were announced in Monday’s release.

The concert is expected to be “one of the largest gatherings of international artists ever to travel to the region,” according to the release.

“We are profoundly honored to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Syracuse, and thankful to our Trustee Sam Nappi and One World Community Foundation for organizing and hosting this globally important event,” Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in the release. “Helping launch an international dialogue about the pursuit of peace at a time when the world seems increasingly divided advances SU’s legacy as an institution deeply engaged with the world’s most pressing issues.”

NBC News national and international correspondent Ann Curry will moderate two panels: one on the Arab Spring and one on shifting global consciousness toward peace. With limited tickets available, the panels will be broadcast on closed-circuit television around campus.

The panels will take place in Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center. The panel on the Arab Spring is Oct. 8 at 9 a.m., and the panel on shifting global consciousness toward peace begins at 1 p.m.

Others traveling to join the Dalai Lama at the academic panels on Oct. 8 include human rights advocate Martin Luther King III, founder and chairman of the Global Partnerships Forum Amir Dossal, as well as foreign policy specialist and former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey Jr.

In addition, ticket proceeds from the benefit concert will help fund a new scholarship named after Bassel Al Shahade, the SU graduate student killed in May in Syria while making a documentary film on the country’s violence.

Information on ticket availability and scheduled performers is available at oneworld.syr.edu.

Published on August 27, 2012 at 9:40 am

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr