2 comments | Over the last weekend in September, an arts festival will take place at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego (IPJ.) The Festival is entitled Bearing Exquisite Witness. An unusual nomenclature until the words are looked at closely. Bearing in this case means enduring or supporting. Exquisite means beautiful. And witness can be described as seeing or perceiving. Thus, seeing and supporting beauty.
Jenni Prisk is the founder of Voices of Women.
The three-day gathering of women and men from around the world will feature theatre, story-telling, dance, film, music and poetry to raise awareness about the effects of violence, especially on women and girls. This is a conference using the performing arts to heal, transform and educate.
The arts have been used through the centuries to enlighten citizens on the state of their countries and of their global community. The Greeks, the Egyptians and the Romans produced theatre, art and architecture that documented life. And when we think of one of history’s greatest proponents of the human condition, we need look no further than Shakespeare.
While the performing arts were highly prized in ancient civilizations, today they can be scorned. If people ask me which profession I would have pursued if I had my life over again, and I answer “actor” it’s very interesting to hear the responses: “I bet you’re glad you went into a field where you can earn a living,” or “you must be glad you went into something meaningful.”
The arts are meaningful And when they bear exquisite witness, they can shed light on a topic that is challenging to talk about. Like violence against women, or sex trafficking, or children becoming soldiers. An evocative painting becomes a thousand words on canvas. An artist’s rendering of a woman hiding her sorrow or shame in the shadows illuminates her story. An actor delivering a playwright’s words of war or peace can drive home a powerful thought-provoking message.
When Voices of Women was founded after 9/11, we utilized the power of the arts for our first fundraising event. We entitled the program Moving Moments in Time and featured local actors and musicians. At the conclusion, our audience asked us to “please do more of these, it helps us to understand global issues and to think about them in a different light.”
The actors delivered pieces from authors as diverse as Tolstoy and Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt and Eve Ensler. We did not charge admission. We raised $3,000 to help build a school in Afghanistan.
In April 2003 we staged Reflections on War and Peace to highlight the cruelties of war, after the United States had invaded Iraq. At that event we raised $2,000 for Save the Children.
On September 24 this year, when the Arts Festival commences at the IPJ, four women peacemakers from our global community will be in attendance. Marta Benavides of El Salvador, Rubina Feroze Bhatti of Pakistan, Zeinab Blandia of Sudan and Liza Llesis Saway of the Philippines arrive from their respective countries in the middle of September. For almost two months they will live at the IPJ, and tell their stories to diverse audiences in our county. Local writers will document their stories. The peacemakers will describe the atrocities that have plagued their countries, and they will also tell of their hopes for peace.
The women will deliver their stories from a stage. They will for a time be artists… artists sharing their courage, their strength and their words in a quest for justice and beauty in our global community, through bearing exquisite witness.
Jenni Prisk is the founder of Voices of Women.
Tags: joan b. kroc institute for peace and justice, SDNN, University of San Diego, USD, women's equality
Comment by: Carolyn Passenau Posted: September 11, 2009, 8:29 am
Exquisite, Jenni!
Comment by: Leigh Fenly Posted: September 13, 2009, 7:38 pm
So nicely said, Jenni.