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Welcome
December 2023
Dear Friends of Peacebuilding and the Arts Now,
We’ve been planning this issue of our newsletter since July of this year, when Dr. Cynthia Cohen, the founder and first director of the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts (PBA) at Brandeis University, retired after a quarter of a century at this institution. We wanted to both celebrate Cindy’s extraordinary contributions to the field of arts, culture, and conflict transformation, and inform you, our readers, about another transition here: PBA has moved from its first home, the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, to the new Vic and Bobbi Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT), where it is part of the Global Community Engagement program. (See our new logo above, and web address https://www.brandeis.edu/peacebuilding-arts/index.html).Given the horrific violence and suffering in Israel and Palestine at the moment, however, we’ve decided to foreground Cindy Cohen’s innovative work with Palestinian and Jewish women in the Boston area of the U.S. rather than the broad scope of her impact. We’ve also invited just a few of Cindy’s countless colleagues and admirers to reflect on her efforts to cross deep divides and to advocate for recognition of the potency of engagement with arts and other aspects of cultural expression in situations of violence, oppression, and other precarity.
In our next issue, we’ll highlight PBA’s latest initiatives in its new home at COMPACT, including one amplifying the experiences of Ukrainian young people – in their own words -- in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion, and another focusing on legacies of the Armenian genocide, which are particularly pronounced in the face of contemporary anti-Armenian actions in Azerbaijan.
For now, devastated and sickened by the brutality inflicted on innocent people in the Middle East, and frightened about the escalation of the already intolerable destruction of lives, homes, and communities, we share with you links to articles about artists’ responses to events in Israel and Gaza, including calls for an immediate ceasefire, along with Cindy’s thoughtful and revealing reflections about a particular (and particularly complex) oral history project she co-directed. The project brought Palestinian and Jewish women in the Boston area together through folk arts and conversation. The themes it explored resonate tragically with the violence we are witnessing today. This is followed by links to the website of Feryal Abbasi Ghnaim, the co-director of the oral history/folkarts project, and to a paper Cindy co-authored with her colleague and friend Farhat Agbaria, based on their experiences facilitating coexistence sessions with young people and adults.
Playwright and human rights activist Catherine Filloux, a colleague of Cindy’s in the Acting Together on the World Stage anthology and documentary film initiatve, has contributed a review of a film by Kurdish artist and activist Adalet R. Garmiany about his home, Mosul, in Iraq. We close this issue with notices about upcoming opportunities and events.
We feel for all who have lost people they love, and all who are terrified at what awaits others in Israel and Palestine, where crimes against humanity and war crimes have already been committed. We join those who call for the addressing of the conflict’s underlying issues in ways that lead to flourishing lives of dignity and safety for all the people of the region.
Toni Shapiro-Phim and Armine Avetisyan
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Reflections on 'A Passion for Life'
By Cindy Cohen, Ph.D
Founding Director, the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts
Over thirty years ago, Feryal Abbasi Ghnaim, a Palestinian embroiderer, and I co-directed an oral history/folklore project entitled A Passion for Life: Stories and Folk Arts of Palestinian and Jewish Women. It was a complex, difficult and in many ways successful project, and several years later I wrote a reflection on it, Removing the Dust from Our Hearts: The Search for Reconciliation in the Narratives of Palestinian and Jewish Women, which was published in the journal of the National Women’s Studies Association. As I reread that essay in the context of the anguish, heartbreak and rage engendered by contemporary events in the Middle East, I see how meager were our efforts in comparison to the enormity and complexity of the conflict we sought to address. At the same time, the intention that animated our project – the desire to find modes of expression and communication that would support people to reach beneath their defenses and to appreciate each other’s humanity – still points to necessary and urgent work. We looked to the stories and folk expressions of women, and through them we found and created moments of deep, reciprocal recognition that heightened our yearning for reconciliation. I wonder whether now arts-based and cultural initiatives could be crafted exquisitely and strategically enough to contribute to the shifts in consciousness that will be required for the emergence of as-yet-unimagined paths towards healing, justice and peace.
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A Note About Cindy
By Daniel Terris, Ph.D
Founding Director, International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University and Dean of the Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences
When the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life was founded in the mid-1990s, we decided early on that we wanted to be engaged in the work of healing divisions between peoples in conflict. How lucky we were to find Cindy Cohen to lead our efforts in planning for a longtime engagement in the field of what we then called "coexistence." Beginning in 1997, Cindy brought to the Center her deep experience in working in divided communities and her brilliant intellectual approach informed by her doctoral studies in the field of education. Tangible, carefully constructed plans emerged from Cindy's tactful consultations and deep conversations with scholars and practitioners in the coexistence field, broadly defined. She laid the groundwork for a brand-new Master's program in Coexistence and Conflict at Brandeis (still going strong under the auspices of the Heller School). She took a leading role in an international fellowship program that brought together an extraordinary group of activists from Israel/Palestine, Sri Lanka, the Balkans, and South Africa. And she began programming that would eventually lead to her pathbreaking work as a global leader in the field of Peacebuilding and the Arts.
Read the full note.
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The Two Cindys I Love Dearly
By Kithce Magak, Ph.D
Professor of Literature, Masaai Mara University, Kenya
A Prologue
When I received an email from Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim asking colleagues to write messages or articles about “any aspect of (Dr. Cynthia Cohen’s [Cindy to all colleagues]) contributions to the broad field of arts and conflict transformation” on her retirement from Brandeis University, I turned into a potpourri of emotions – intimidated, honoured, sad and excited. Intimidated by the stature of Cindy’s professional work (what does one say about an individual who is larger than life), but at the same time deeply honoured to be asked to attempt this mission impossible. Sad because retirement can be such an ugly beauty, but also excited in the knowledge that Cindy cannot really retire and that this retirement is merely a transition into a different of the same.
I met Cindy more than a decade ago, through a mutual friend, Ms. Kate Gardner (a New-York City-based community theatre practitioner, a social change activist and an advisor/coach to executives and owners). Our common belief in the power of the arts for social transformation brought the three of us together. Through the years, I have to come to know two Cindys – the larger-than-life consummate professional and the almost-shy humane over-kind individual. Rolled into one, the two Cindys is a compassionate transformative force of nature.
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Wonderful Memories
By Kyoko Okumoto, Ph.D
Professor at Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan, and president of the Peace Studies Association of Japan (2022-2023)
I have wonderful memories with Cindy, a leader, an academic researcher, a facilitator and an artist.
Our paths crossed three times in person -- It was May 2005 when I first met Cindy at "the Fifth International Peace Museum Conference" in Guernica, Spain. For me, it was an amazing encounter and I learned from Cindy that there was a leading group of people working in art and conflict transformation. I had been doing my small research on it on my own until then, and I still remember vividly that it was fascinating to learn that there were "comrades" out there!
I guess it was also 2006 when I partially joined the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) conference in Calgary, and I met several such "comrades" of art and peace including Cindy and her network.
In 2012, there was another IPRA conference in Tsu, Mie, Japan. We had interesting and inspiring discussions on the theme. Also, I remember Cindy and I explored a bit in Kyoto and Osaka to dig out some of her father's history based in Japan.
Of course, we met online many more times, but always, her presence and wisdom welcomed all of us so warmly and in a challenging manner, from which I always get inspired.
Thank you, Cindy, for all those years, and many more years to come!
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Families of the hostages participate in a special ‘Kabalat Shabbat,’ (welcoming the Shabbat) prayer service next to a "Shabbat Dinner" table set up in the Tel Aviv museum plaza, with 200 empty seats, representing the hostages and missing people on October 20, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Getty Images through ARTnews.
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Artists and Cultural Workers in the face of the Crisis in the Middle East
“Artists and arts organizations around the world are on strike today, October 20, in a show of solidarity with Palestinian people as Israel continues its deadly bombardment of Gaza. Across New York City, Amsterdam, Santiago, Berlin, London, and beyond, dozens of art galleries, museums, and individuals are closing their spaces and studios to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel’s air raids have killed upwards of 4,200 Palestinian people.”
8,000 artists and cultural workers warn of genocide in Gaza and call for ceasefire
Fred Mazelis/World Socialist Web Site, Oct 20
“Eight thousand artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed an open letter warning of ongoing genocide of the Palestinian population of Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The letter follows other statements, including one from more than 2,000 British filmmakers, artists, actors, curators, playwrights and others that surfaced a few days ago."
Israeli Art Community Responds to 2,000 Cultural Leaders Demanding Ceasefire in Gaza
Francesca Anton/ARTnews, Oct 21
“Amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East, an open letter demanding an immediate ceasefire circulated online earlier this week, receiving signatures from more than 2,000 visual artists, writers, and actors. On Saturday, an Israeli response to that open letter began circulating…
…It ends with an appeal for unity among groups that have been impacted by the conflict, with ‘no contradiction between staunchly opposing the Israeli occupation and the crimes in Gaza, and unequivocally condemning brutal acts of violence against innocent civilians in Israel.’”
On the Cusp of Invasion, a Poet in Gaza Reflects on Trauma
Mosab Abu Toha/The New York Times, Oct 14
“It had been a long day for all of us, especially parents. We have to be responsible not only for our own lives during Israel’s military attacks but also for the safety of children and the old around us. It’s been five days since I last had a shower. It’s been four days since I last left my house for the shop or the barber’s.”
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The Map’s Legend: MOSUL, MY HOME.
A Review of Adalet R. Garmiany’s Award-Winning Film
By Catherine Filloux, playwright/librettist and activist
Kurdish artist/activist Adalet R. Garmiany produced my play The Beauty Inside, in Northern Iraq, Kurdistan Region, in the Kurdish language, with the organization he founded, ArtRole. My play is about the attempted honor killing of a fourteen-year-old girl, her mother and woman lawyer. I was fortunate that Adalet introduced me to my play’s Kurdish translator Nawzad Shwani on a prior visit to Northern Iraq and subsequently introduced me to well-known Kurdish actress/director Gaziza Omer and her colleague, Peshro Hosaen, who directed the production. Actors were from a variety of places in Iraq, and Adalet carefully nurtured this multicultural theater piece. A few years later I am fascinated when Adalet shares the news about the film he wrote, directed and produced, MOSUL, MY HOME, winner of the NETPAC Prize, given at the Toronto International Film Festival to a film from the Asia-Pacific region. Adalet feels that when one first hears the name of the city, Mosul, one immediately thinks of the humanitarian crisis, chaos, devastation and slow recovery. However, Adalet wants to tell the story of Mosul beyond the stereotypes, examining the aftermath of war, the environment, communal places, institutions, as well as the lives of the city’s inhabitants.
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Upcoming Events
IMPACT: Creating Hope Together
Januaryy 19, 2024
At a time when many people around the world are facing instability and oppression, IMPACT, Inc. will offer an online space to connect with each other, share and learn together, and find hope and creative inspiration. IMPACT: Creating Hope Together is a chance to (re)-engage with IMPACT, Inc. and come together whether you are an artist, practitioner, academic, or funder.
Join IMPACT to find out more about its updated advocacy mission, network and exchange with each other on key global challenges, share your initiatives, discuss the role of funders and influencers, explore existing and new networks,
look into systems theory applied in arts, culture and conflict transformation and more.
Register for the event | Record and share a video message of hope.
Kyiv Biennial: Against the Logic of War, October 2023 through January 2024
Kyiv Biennial is an international forum for art, knowledge, and politics that integrates exhibitions and discussion platforms. It adopts an interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of the humanities, socially engaged art, and political activism in order to reflect on the crucial issues of the contemporary world. Kyiv Biennial is organized by the Visual Culture Research Center.
The fifth edition of the Kyiv Biennial will take place across Europe at locations in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod, Berlin, Warsaw, Lublin, Antwerp and Vienna.
See this review of the event, “Kyiv’s Exiled Biennial Is the Most Energizing Exhibition of the Year.”
Webinar: Empowering Disabled People in Sri Lanka and Nepal through Dance and the Right to Information on January 30, 2024 at 9-10.30 am (New York)| 2-3.30 pm (London) | 3-4.30 pm (Berlin)
"Please join the webinar on ‘Empowering Disabled People in Sri Lanka and Nepal through Danceand the Right to Information’ to share the findings and outcomes of our impact project‘Performing/Informing Rights’ (Arts and Humanities Research Council - AHRC).
The webinar will be an opportunity for knowledge exchange about current practices in the areas of dance, disability and human rights law. Participants will have a chance to share their work in these areas, with a view to developing collaborations for future work.
We will introduce the training resource developed during the project which aims to provide human rights trainers/facilitators with creative movement exercises that they can draw on to introduce people to Right to Information. It can be adapted for different groups, including both disabled and non-disabled people and different socio-economic and cultural contexts. We will also share the work that we have been doing to develop policy recommendations in the areas of human rights education."
Please RSVP to Hetty Blades hetty.blades@coventry.ac.uk by 26 January 2024.
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Courtesy of 2023 Seed Awardee Daniel Eduardo. Source: Prince Claus Fund
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Opportunities, Announcements and Resources
Call for applications: Prince Claus Seed Awards 2024
Deadline for applications: January 16, 2024
"Each year, the Prince Claus Fund grants Seed Awards to 100 emerging artists who work in contexts where cultural expression is under pressure. The Seed Award is intended to support their personal and artistic development, amplify their talent, and spark a new wave of changemakers.
Each Seed Award recipient will receive an award of €5.000 to invest in developing their artistic and cultural practice on their own terms."
Open call: ArtsLink International Fellowships 2025
Deadline for applications: January 15, 2024
Fellowships support international artists, curators, and arts leaders in developing their practices and expanding professional networks in the US and transnationally. Priority will be given to artists and arts leaders whose work expands people’s awareness, understanding, and active participation in environmental and/or social justice issues. Additional attention will be given to artists and arts leaders who have been displaced from their homes or forced into exile, regardless of where they are now living.
Call for nominations: The Justice Brandeis Practitioner-in-Residence Limited Series
Hosted by The Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Engagement (COMPACT) and ENACT, both at Brandeis University, in celebration of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life
Deadline for nominations: April 1, 2024
The newly announced Justice Brandeis Practitioner-in-Residence Limited Series will highlight the knowledge and experience developed by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and will expose the Brandeis University campus community to spheres of activity that have only become more critical to our interconnected world over recent years.
On or around Justice Brandeis’ birthday of November 13, COMPACT and ENACT will host a practitioner whose life and work exemplify Justice Louis Brandeis’ values of justice and truth as applied to community engagement activities, global or local. During the one-day residency, the visiting practitioner will interact with students, faculty and staff through class visits, workshops, lectures, and other opportunities. Each residency will produce an output which can be shared afterwards, for example a written document, short documentary film, a podcast, or an exhibit.
This limited series will be hosted from 2024-25 through the 2027-28 academic years. Practitioners will receive a $10,000 honorarium.
Submit a nomination online.
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The Two Cindys I Love Dearly
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Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts
Global Community Engagement, COMPACT
Brandeis University
415 South Street | MS 086 | Waltham, MA 02454-9110
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