A panel of artists and teachers led a discussion about the use of art for social change in an event titled "Cultural Expression in the Wake of Catastrophic Violence" at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Nov. 20.
The panel was a culminating event for "Soulographie: Our Genocides," a series of 17 plays written by Erik Ehn, professor of theater arts and performance studies, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York Nov. 11-18.
Ehn described the panel as "a conversation among five artists and teachers committed to art as social change, especially trauma relief." Ehn had worked with most of the panelists before, he said, and all of them are involved with international philanthropic work related to the arts.
George Ongom, one of the panelists, is the project coordinator for A River Blue in Uganda, a small community-based organization. The organization works to help small communities in northern Uganda recuperate and unite in the face of the brutalities committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.
A River Blue promotes celebration and life through art, music and vocational training. The music and dance traditions of Ikoce and Okeme are particularly helpful to the refugees in Uganda, Ongom said.
Two of Ongom's friends from Uganda performed an Ikoce song for the panel. The lyrics told the story of the war in northern Uganda.
Aisha Khadar Desince, another panelist and executive director of the nonprofit organization Khadarlis, works with communities in Sierra Leone and Guatemala to help reinstitute civil infrastructure.
Desinse started the organization after visiting her family's old home in Sierra Leone and being shocked by the lack of structure in the society, she said.
"I just thought, it's five years after the war. Who is helping these people?" she added.
Khadarlis is working with the collaborative arts institution One Million Bones, which recognizes the victims of genocides across the globe through the creation of artificial bones. The bones will be assembled as a installation in Washington, D.C., in 2013.
Panelist Dijana Milosevic helps to run a theater company in Serbia, a country still reeling through the effects of a brutal civil war. The company started the campaign In/visible City, which sponsors performances about the positive side of Serbian history on public buses.
"People ask, do we have the right to do theater or art when people are suffering?" she said. "We realized that we can create a change even in the middle of the darkest times."
Claudia Bernardi discussed how she helped found a school of art called Walls of Hope in the Salvadoran town of Perquin.
The small community's economy thrived during the war, she said. "It has gotten to the point where people are looking back at the war with nostalgia."
The community reached out to bring art into the postwar situation, Bernardi said, adding that the school's greatest achievement is that it is now run by local artists.
Pauline Ross, the final panelist, runs a community arts center called the Playhouse Theater in Derry, Northern Ireland.
In the aftermath of the conflicts between the Irish Republican Army and the British armed forces, the Playhouse is a neutral space where everyone can come together, she said.
Performances relating the severe trauma the local people experienced have had cathartic effects, she said, adding that inviting artists from outside cultures neutralizes the situation.
After presentations from each of the five panelists, the audience and panel formed a circle for a question and answer session. Panelists addressed issues such as the recruitment and training of volunteers and the concern that artistic efforts can often keep emotional wounds open.
"It's important that we not forget our responsibilities regarding peace and continue to provide gestures of compassion," Ehn said. "If not, we will fall into mediocrity that spoils into violence."
