CONFERENCE
SHOWS THE PATH FROM TRAUMA TO ACTION
By
Matthew Schuerman
NEW YORK, Feb. 17--About 200 people gathered
Saturday at the 27th annual Scholar and the
Feminist Conference at Barnard College to discuss
how trauma—especially the trauma of Sept.
11—needs to be transformed into meaningful
action.
The forum itself, entitled "Public Sentiments:
Memory, Trauma, History, Action," was conceived
months before the terrorist attacks. But its
timing allowed participants to move from mourning
the victims to formulating some response, now
that the World Trade Center tragedy is more
than five months old.
Anna
Deavere Smith |
"One
reason we bear witness and remember is not just
because we want to remember but to prevent it
from happening again," said Janet R. Jakobsen,
director of the Barnard Center for Research
on Women, which sponsored the conference. "In
any type of experiencing of the memory of public
trauma, there comes a question: ‘What do
you do in response to that?’"
The event featured scholars, artists and activists
from around the country, including two-time
Obie Award winner Anna Deavere Smith. A morning
plenary explored other, no less dire ordeals
including the Holocaust, American slavery, AIDS
and military dictatorships in South America.
One of the speakers, Nieves Ayress, a Chilean
dissident, received a standing ovation after
her description of being tortured during Augusto
Pinochet’s regime.
And while participants did not immediately rush
out to take arms, many did pledge their help
or signal their interest in various causes.
"The conference itself was inspiring in
the sense that if people are starting to have
forums and discussions, I would think that’s
the first step towards action," said Barnard
junior Kristin Carlson, one of several students
who attended, along with professors, affiliates
and community members.
A few speakers said the Sept. 11 attacks have
been particularly difficult to respond to because
of the way any action is immediately taken to
be either patriotic or unpatriotic. The afternoon
panel, featuring the performer Smith and the
scholar Ann Pellegrini, highlighted the way
in which, over the past five months, private
feelings have been turned into public displays
of emotion.
"After Sept. 11," Pelligrini said,
"it was so difficult to find space to mourn
because so much of our mourning was immediately
hijacked by the media and channeled into this
project of nationalism."
"No," Smith jumped in to correct her,
"of going shopping."
Neither Smith nor Pelligrini was completely
skeptical of the possibility of responding to
trauma, however. Smith recounted how her one-woman
shows have developed as responses to traumatic
social confrontations. For both "Twilight:
Los Angeles 1992," about the riots following
the acquittal of the police officers accused
of beating Rodney King, and "Fires in the
Mirror," about the 1991 riots in Crown
Heights, Brooklyn, Smith interviewed dozens
of participants and witnesses and then played
those parts on stage. But when she embarked
on this hybrid of journalism and drama, she
said she had no idea what sort of response audiences
would have. Her point was that artists need
to develop the ways they communicate as much
as they work on the messages they want to convey.
"I don’t think you can jump into any
of this stuff and change the world," Smith
said. "You have to think about what you
do technically and how you can make it bigger.
We have no idea what these tools for communication
can do unless we learn to know how to use them."
During the lunchtime sessions, participants
heard from other women who had already formed
responses to Sept. 11 and similar traumas. One
discussion was led by members of Women for Afghan
Women, a new organization established to provide
schools and job training to some of the millions
of Afghan women who had been excluded from public
life during the Taliban regime. Members of the
group are ready to intervene, but are wary that
putting women in schools may end up challenging
the status quo too forcefully.
"Kabul is safe, but the rest of the country
is not safe," said Fahima Danishgar, a
co-founder of the group. "If women try
to go out and get an education or a job, no
one knows what will happen to you.
"A reporter asked why women were still
wearing burkas when they don’t need to,"
she continued. "It’s not a question
of being emancipated but a question of whether
they’d feel safe taking off what had been
their protection."
Another discussion featured two professors,
Irena Klepfisz of Barnard and Sherry Gorelick
of Rutgers, who are members of Women in Black,
an international organization opposed to Israel’s
occupation of the West Bank. The group started
demonstrating in Israel during the first intifada,
dressed in black and holding signs declaring,
"End the Occupation." The New York
chapter now holds weekly protests in Union Square.
"I want to put in a pitch for small actions,"
she said. "When Women in Black got started,
there were 37 places in Israel where people
could not help but run into a reminder of the
occupation that had become invisible. Sometimes
we’re just five women standing in Union
Square. We’re not going to topple a government
like that, but things will build on themselves."
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