Adi Grabiner Keinan

Reading the book "They Poured Fire on us from the Sky" was my first significant encounter with the story of the "Lost Boys" and girls from Sudan. I have heard the expression "Lost Boys" before, but its historical and cultural contexts were vague to me. The personal voices of Benson, Alepho, and Benjamin exposed me for the first time to the trauma, loss, courage, and hopes of these young adults who try to build their lives while dealing with their horrible memories.

When I first saw the paintings in the Gallery I was perplexed and troubled. They expressed a deep, complicated, and traumatic reality, and I doubted whether I had the moral right or even the ability to interpret them. Each painting seemed to be a sacred representation of an incomprehensible reality. I felt that only the people who experienced this reality are able to comprehend fully the deep messages and representations of these paintings. Though it was clear to me that the paintings reflected voices that must be heard, I was not confident in our ability to express them.

After listening to the interviews with Atem I have realized that we can actually do something significant and profound. Atem's memories and stories led me into the experience and made me feel much more confident and involved. I have realized that we can help communicate the Sudanese story and that our main task is to collect as many Sudanese voices as possible, and simply let them speak for themselves in the exhibition.

The meeting with Daniel and Franco was another meaningful experience for me. First, their personal thoughts and feelings enabled me to better understand the paintings' cultural and historical contexts. More importantly, they corroborated the feeling shared by most of us, according to which the personal and intimate voice should be the focus of this exhibition.

The evening I spent in the Gallery with other members of the design committee was as fascinating as it was intense. We kept on moving paintings around trying to match one section to another and each painting to its neighbor and reconsidering the general layout of the exhibition. As opposed to my first encounter with the paintings, at this point of the process I was much more confident. This confident allowed me to express opinions I have developed during the process. Overall I felt that we have managed to incorporate the different Sudanese voices in a fascinating way.

At the opening evening the Gallery looked absolutely impressive. It was the outcome of a dynamic experience during which everybody involved contributed his own unique view.






This website has been developed by the Museums and Public Memory (Anth 159a) class taught by Professor Mark Auslander at Brandeis University. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the African Refugee Artists Club.