Quaker Voices

Elinor Hamilton is a 12th generation Quaker, descending from some of the earliest Friends in America, in Virginia.  She is interviewed, along with her daughter, Sarah Hamilton Maines, by the High School First Day Class of Live Oak Friends Meeting on May 8, 2005.  We learn of the line of ancestors - the Pierponts, Chews and Kings - and their participation in the anti-slavery movement.

Dailey Burnham Terrell was born in Port Arthur, TX before moving to Landsdown, Pennsylvania as a young child.  He was raised a Methodist. he began attending Quaker Meeting while at college at Swarthmore.  In 1942 he went to Mexico with AFSC.  The High School First Day Class at Live Oak Friends Meeting interviews Burnham on May 1, 2005.

Chris was born in Cedar Rapids, IA. He did his undergraduate work at Earlham College. This interview was conducted by the High School First Day Class of Live Oak Friends Meeting on May 22, 2005.

Our guest in this interview is Peterson Toscano. Peterson's spiritual experiences as an adolescent led to his association with Christians who encouraged him to deny and change his attraction to other males. He is the author and performer of the one-man comedy, "Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House--How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement!" He is a member of Hartford Friends Meeting in West Hartford, Connecticut. You can learn more about him and his performance on his website: http://www.homonomo.com Or check out his blog: http://a_musing.blogspot.com/

Adrien Niyongabo, an African Quaker from Burundi who survived the genocide, is now working at the grassroots level in the villages and displaced person camps to bring his Hutu and Tutsi countrymen and women back together. Hear his talk from March 28, 2005, on the Texas Southern University Campus in Houston, Texas. Mr. Niyongabo is the African Coordinator for Trauma Healing and Nonviolence Training for the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) of Friends' Peace Teams. In Part 1 Mr. Niyongabo talks about the colonial roots of the conflict, the division of Hutu and Tutsi, and the cycle of violence up to 1993.

In this, Part II, Niyongabo talks about the efforts to reconcile and heal his country.

Here is Part 3: Questions and Answers, including the concluding words from his talk. When asked why he would turn to European culture, Quakers, for solutions rather than African culture he answered: "I would not really be afraid to say that looking at the Quaker principles and knowing what my culture is, I would say that my ancestors were Quakers."

Albert Munn, a long-time member of Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston, Texas, is interviewed by the High School First Day class on October 3, 2004. Albert shares some of his experiences growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington, education, military service, life as a Catholic monk and becoming a Quaker.

Joan Thompson Libby was an early member of Live Oak Friends Meetings, in Houston, Texas. She is interviewed by the High School First Day class on October 17, 2004.

Polly Clark, one of the original members of Live Oak Friends Meeting, is interviewed by the High School First Day class on December 5, 2004.

This interview with May Mansoor Munn was conducted by the High School First Day class at Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston, Texas on September 26, 2004. May is a life-long Quaker, born into a Quaker family in Jerusalem. Her grandfather was the mayor of Ramallah. Her family deserted their home in Jerusalem when a nearby hotel was bombed by the Haggadah (sp?). She was 12 years old at the time. She came to U.S. to attend college at Earlham when she was 15.

The following interview with Mary Bates Griffiths was conducted at Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston, Texas by the senior high first day class on November 14, 2004. Mary began attending Live Oak Friends Meeting in 1955, the year after its beginning. She was born in Sunbury, PA and became a convinced Quaker in early adulthood.