Melannie Denise Cunningham, this year’s Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Laureate, recently received her official invitation from the Norwegian Nobel Committee to attend the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on Dec. 10, 2018 at the Oslo City Hall.

Cunningham will attend the ceremony (of course) and be accompanied to Oslo by a local film crew producing a documentary about Cunningham’s attendance at this celebration and her mission as “253 Peace Queen.” When complete, “The Peace Queen Talks” will likely air on KBTC, Tacoma’s Public Television station.

General Manager of KBTC, DeeAnn Hamilton said, “You don’t just meet Melannie (Cunningham), you experience her.”

Cunningham was awarded the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize last spring for her work in racial reconciliation in the Tacoma community. She was the person who started the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Celebration in Tacoma in the 1980s and she also created “The People’s Gathering: A Revolution of Consciousness.” This local conference has introduced hundreds of community members at a sold-out conference in Tacoma for the past two years. Her “Peace Queen” platform focuses on issues of rights for people of color in the South Sound and beyond.

“My ultimate mission with this project is to engage my community to ‘get woke’,” Cunningham said.

The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize originated in 2005 by local veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Tom Heavey. Each year the GTPP recipient attends the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremonies in Oslo. The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize and the only local U.S. Peace Prize recognized by the Nobel Committee.

The film crew traveling with Cunningham includes former “Bill Nye The Science Guy” co-creator/co-producer and Emmy-Award winner, Jim McKenna. Also on-board as producer of the documentary is Emmy Award-winner Jamie Hammond, producer of more than 11 PBS series.