Two American women — one of Lebanese Christian descent, the other Jewish — will visit Lawrence to weave together stories, poetry and songs as a step toward fostering peace and tolerance between different cultures.

B.J. Abraham and Audrey Galex, storytellers from Atlanta, will present an hourlong work called “Tapestry” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lawrence Jewish Community Center, 917 Highland Drive.

“I think it will be a vision of what peace and cooperation (between Arabs and Jews) could be, as well a lot of fun. B.J. and Audrey have had emotionally moving experiences growing up in this country and on their trips to the Middle East,” said Anne Haehl, secretary of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, one of the event’s sponsors.

Other sponsors for “Tapestry” are the Jewish Community Center, the Kansas Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East and the Kansas University Hillel Foundation.

It was Haehl’s idea to bring Abraham and Galex to Lawrence.

“I saw them at the National Storytelling Convention in Denver in July, and they were wonderful. I called Allan Hanson, coordinator for the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, and I said we’ve got to do this if we can,” said Haehl, who is also a storyteller.

“We figured we couldn’t afford to pay the total cost of them coming here, so we looked for some other sponsors also.”

Abraham and Galex will also appear Friday at the Kansas Union as part of an oral history workshop, “Learning to Hear the Stories IV: War and Modern Memory,” sponsored by the Hall Center for the Humanities.

Abraham, who is of Lebanese ancestry, grew up in the Mississippi Delta. She is a member of the National Storytelling Association and a charter member of the Southern Order of Storytellers of Atlanta.

Galex grew up in Illinois along the Mississippi River, immersed in stories of her Jewish heritage. She is co-founder of Roots and Wings Life Stories, which works to preserve stories in a variety of media.

The two women perform “Tapestry” for different groups around the country.

“They’re friends, they’re storytellers and they were both very upset about the revival of the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation),” Haehl said. “They thought, ‘What can we do, we’re storytellers? We’ll do what we can.'”

Judy Bonifield, chair of the Kansas Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East, is looking forward to the performance of “Tapestry.”

“It’s going to be lovely, emotionally moving and interesting to see these two women from different backgrounds weave their stories together, in a way that really demonstrates the hope for peace,” she said.

Rabbi Scott White, spiritual leader of the Jewish center, said he viewed “Tapestry” as a constructive effort.

“It seems to be the kind of event that would unite rather than divide people, and that it would demonstrate that the Arab and Jewish cultures have much more in common than people might know,” he said.