Jan. 26-29, 2006

"Arts in the One World: A Consideration of Genocide"

Theater Without Borders and Coexistence International

-California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California-

Four days of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and panels centering on the Rwandan genocide and the potentials of art for witness, representation, reconciliation and peace building. Conversation broadened to include the extent and variety of ways art responds to situations of profound conflict.

Looking at Rwanda, the soul dilates to accommodate the enormity of events. Struggles of comprehension want poetics. From the specific case of Rwanda in ’94 we pushed to understand a vital use for the arts in a world where inter-communal violence abounds.

January 26 was devoted to Rwanda, the 27th to mass violence and activist art in a global context, the 28th to ongoing, art-driven peace and reconciliation efforts (methods and networks, global and local), and the 29th to open space and planning.  The first two days were in Valencia, and the last two in downtown Los Angeles.

For expanded notes and an overview of the conference, please click here. 

Panelists included:

Claudia Bernardi, Berkeley, El Salvador, Artist

Cynthia Cohen, Brandeis, Director of Coexistence Research, Brandeis University

Rachel Jagoda, Director, Holocaust Museum, Los Angeles 

Hanay Geiogomah, UCLA, Playwright, American Indian Dance Theatre

Tessa Hicks, LA, Anti-Defamation League

Eric Kabera, Rwanda, Filmmaker

Jean-Pierre Karegeye, Rwanda/Berkeley, Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies 

Roberta Levitow, LA, Theater Without Borders

Christopher Merrill, Head, Iowa International Writer’s Program

Dijana Milosevic, Serbia, Director, DAH Theatre Center

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, LA and Uganda, Artist

Okello Sam, Uganda, Performer

Roberto Varea, San Francisco Director