Welcome to the Virtual Convention
This page contains the live meeting links and session recordings for registered attendees. If a session has not started yet, the Watch Now button will become active at the scheduled time. Recordings will be added as they become available.
Please note: Unless otherwise noted, all convention schedule times are listed in Central Time (CT).
Thursday
August 6, 2026
Please note: Not all sessions are available live on Zoom. Sessions that are not listed will be videotaped and the recordings will be made available to online registrants within a few days of the end of the convention
Also note that participation from the Zoom is limited to comments and questions in the chat, which will be shared in the live room when possible. Except for scheduled speakers, all live questions and comments will be limited to those present in person.
Poetry Gathering
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Gathering together to share our poetry at the start of the convention is a longstanding VFP tradition. This year we are in for a treat with Vietnam veteran poet Strong Buffalo joining us in person to enliven the space with his words, and Vietnamese American poet Teresa Mei Chuc introducing works, including her own, from the recently published anthology, Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War, which she co-edited. VFP cofounder and first poet laureate Doug Rawlings will be joining us onscreen to read a few of his wonderful poems, and to introduce Teresa. As always, there will be time for others to read, both in person and virtually. (Sign up ahead of time and let us know if you will be reading in person or virtually, by emailing editor@veteransforpeace.org
Film – Special Report from Tokyo Broadcasting System: Storage of Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa during Cold War with center on China
Time: 10:00 pm – 11:30 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Friday
August 7, 2026
Welcome
Time: 9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Welcome: Bryson Ripley
Land Dedication and Comments: Dr. Daniel Wildcat
Opening Remarks: Lieutenant General Nguyen Huu Chinch, Ann Suellentrop, Kimmy Ogla
Panel: The Two Faces of Genocide – Repression And Resistance
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Joy Metzler (Moderator) Zahed Rahman and Zeeyad Kadur
The genocide in Gaza has garnered international attention and outrage, but in the West Bank, Palestine, a slower, quieter form of genocide has taken hold. Hear from two panelists – one who has been to Gaza during the genocide as a nurse, and one whose family is from the West Bank and continues to be targeted by Israel – about the accelerated massacres in Gaza and the deadly apartheid in the West Bank. The story of Palestine is one of colonialism, settler violence, and displacement, but it is also a story of resilience, community, and an international movement for liberation, all centered in on a land called Palestine.
Panel: Emancipatory Internationalism
Time: 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
The three panelists will engage in a conversation on theme/s related to racial capitalism (especially in relation to war and peace), people’s movements/organizing, and international solidarity, in line with the 2026 convention theme. Margaret Stevens will serve as moderator as well as a participant in the conversation.
Speakers
Time: 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Ann Wright
VFP Advisory Board Member
Panel
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Film: Gaza Is Our Home – by Monear Shaer
Time: 8:45 pm – 10:15 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
“In 2023, the project began as a simple, auto-generated slideshow on Monear’s phone, created after a visit to his family in Gaza. As life there became increasingly unbearable and his family faced unimaginable loss, that collection of images and videos grew into an urgent act of preservation.
From these fragments emerged a deeply personal documentary—one that traces family memory, everyday moments, and grief—offering audiences a way to see Gaza not as an abstract conflict, but as a home: full of relationships, history, laughter, and love, even amidst the struggle.”
Saturday
August 8, 2026
Business Meeting
Time: 8:30 – 10:30 am
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
– President’s Report
– Treasurer’s Report
– Membership Report
– Executive Director Report
– Resolutions
– Bylaws
Paul Cox
VFP Board Secretary
Mike Tork
VFP Board Treasurer
Josh Shurley
VFP Board Vice President
Michael McPhearson
VFP Executive Director
Susan Schnall
VFP Board President
SESSION #1
Time: 11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Location: Student Union
SAVE Our VA / Labor Working Group – Rm 401
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
Resisting the U.S./ Israeli War on Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon: Student Union – Rm 401
Gerry Condon as Moderator
SESSION #3
Time: 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
Latin American and “Donroe Doctrine:” Resisting U.S. Intervention in Cuba, Venezuela and Throughout the Hemisphere – Rm 401
“The Event” Banquet
Time: 5:30 – 9:00 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
– Presente
– Speaker: Rev Yearwood
Reverend Yearwood will share his thoughts and dynamic energy, emphasizing that we have the strength and community wisdom within us to build a much better world as we turn back the rising fascism, hate, and threats to real democracy.
– Speaker: Mitch Walking Elk (Southern Cheyenne/Arapaho/Hopi) will be speaking about the relationship that traditional Indigenous people have with the natural and the supernatural world.
– Awards
– Fundraising
Film: doctrine of discovery
Time: 9:15 – 11:00 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Sunday
August 9, 2026
SESSION #4
Time: 8:30 – 9:30 am
Location: Student Union
The US vs Asia – Rm 401
Closing Plenary
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Nagasaki Commemoration
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm
Location: Student Union – Rm 401
Veterans for Peace conventioneers are invited to a Hiroshima-Nagasaki remembrance event 1-2:30 PM August 9 after the closing plenary, followed by a picnic across the street, organized by PeaceWorks Kansas City, which has been organizing such remembrance events since 2010. The program includes local and national conventioneers plus locals affiliated with the No Nukes KC Coalition, including Atsuki Mori, a nurse living in Warrensburg, MO, who was raised in Japan and whose grandmother lost her fiancé from the Hiroshima bombing.