In this Issue:

Anderson University, Indiana

Ohio University – performance and talk

Ohio Workshop with Burning Feather

Oberlin College, Ohio

Paths of Initiation

‘The Blessing Next to the Wound’- excerpt

‘Maybe a Poem’ – by Vivien Sansour

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Anderson University, Indiana - February 23rd – 25th

Hector recently performed NightWind at Anderson University, Indiana. The performance was followed by two workshops; ‘Awaken Your Imagination’, which was open to all, and ‘Transformational Teaching’ with the students and faculty of Anderson University.

Here is what Marian Osborne Berky had to say about Hector’s visit:

Dear Hector, students are still talking about your work with them last week.  One student in class this morning said, “I miss Hector.”  You did have a profound influence on a number of folks here.  You stretched some, you encouraged and invigorated others, and you challenged all of them to work out of their passions.  Thank you!

Marian Osborne Berky

Anderson University Peace and Conflict Transformation Program

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Ohio University – April 29th and 30th

Thursday April 29th: Lecture – The Popular Theater as a Tool for Social Change

In this interactive lecture Hector will explore with audience participation some of the main techniques he has been developing while traveling the world and working with communities at risk.

Time: Noon- 2:00 PM –- FREE Event

Venue: The Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center, MLK Jr. Lounge/Room #100-A

Address: 153 W. 12th Ave. Columbus OH 43210-1389. Phone: (614) 292-0074

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Friday April 30th: Nightwind – a solo play & workshop

Time: 6:30- 8:00 PM — FREE Event

Venue: TBA

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Ohio Workshop with Burning Feather – May 1st

Saturday, May 1st, 9am-noon and 1-6pm

Wild Goose Creative

2941 Summit Ave,

Columbus, Ohio

Admission: $35

For reservations and information, call: (614) 975-1085

and visit: http://burningfeather.org/

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Oberlin College, Ohio – Week of May 3rd – 8th

Hector will be returning to Oberlin, Ohio, during the week of May 3-8 to offer an intense ‘Awaken Your  Imagination’ workshop, along with street theater training. Details to follow! Check our website for updates.

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Paths of Initiation

A Mentoring Retreat for Younger and Older Men

Mendocino, California ~ August 17-22, 2010

Mendocino Woodlands Camp, Mendocino, CA

Proceeds support Voices of Youth and Intercultural Projects.

For more information and registration visit the Mosaic website at: www.mosaicvoices.org or contact the Mosaic office at: 206-935-3665.

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The Blessing Next to the Wound – excerpt

“Hernán Darío was a sissy. He was a Mama’s boy. When we played soccer in the street, he cried, afraid the ball might hit him. Was it my fault? my mother sometimes wondered. After three boys, I wanted a little girl so bad, is that why Hernán Darío came out like a girl?

I was also capable of crying like a girl. One night I heard terrible whimpers and found a kitten in the yard. It had been horribly injured, its body half-crushed, and I looked on its suffering and had no idea what to do. Then along came Hernán Darío, incapable of hitting a ball or hurting a fly. Do something. I was crying, Someone has to do something. My brother picked up a rock. Do you want me to put it out of its misery? All I could do was cry. Do you want me to kill it? he said. Hector, please stop crying, and he smashed the little creature’s head. I should have realized then that when it came to killing pain, Hernán Darío wouldn’t falter.”

—from The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation, now available for pre-order from Lantern Books. Available June 2010!

LINK

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Maybe a Poem

By: Vivien Sansour

I thought maybe a poem would save me

From wishful thinking

From escapism

From a bomb dropping on my life

Two stories told in two stories falling

We did not have to go to Jenin to see

Men rolled over by 80-ton tanks

Women forced to be naked and a young girl warrior

No we did not have to go to Jenin

But someone suggested that perhaps these people driving those tanks

Were clones

No way humans

A heart missing

An old man sobbing and I am packing

Going to Jenin and no poem will save me

From life stories that will force me to see the smallness of my scope

From loneliness self imposed

From cold days passing ever so slowly

No poem is going to save me from thoughts drilling my skull:

You belong here, you don’t belong here

You belong there and you don’t belong there

You are Palestinian

You are not Palestinian

You are woman

You are not woman

You are a diamond and you are a shit

No poem has come running through wheat fields to rescue me from my last collapse      and my next escape

I will fly away from here

Like I did ten years ago

I did it once I can do it again

And I pack my bags going to….

Leaving Jenin

Going to….

Yet another beginning

Until…..

We are now in the midst of the storm

Stories about myself don’t go away when I write

They don’t abandon me when I complain

Stories about who I am

You are lazy

You are good for nothing

You never finish

You never stick to it

You you you you quitter when the going gets tough

And that savior poem is still in the waiting

Like Godot she never comes

And like the things I end

She carries a beginning

And I understand

A poem is waiting for me to come,

Perhaps I can save her

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February 23-25, 2010

Hector Aristizabal recently performed ‘Nightwind’ at Anderson University, Indiana. The performance was followed by two workshops: ‘Awaken Your Imagination’, open to all, and ‘Transformational Teaching’, with students and faculty members from Anderson University.

Here is what Marion Osborne Berky had to say about Hector’s visit:

Dear Hector,

Students are still talking about your work with them last week.  One student in class this morning said, “I miss Hector.”  You did have a profound influence on a number of folks here.  You stretched some, you encouraged and invigorated others, and you challenged all of them to work out of their passions.  Thank you!

Marian Osborne Berky

Anderson University Peace and Conflict Transformation Program

For more information about this visit, please click on this link: Anderson

“In the Fall of 2009, U.S. and Colombian officials signed an agreement granting the U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for ten years.

SOA Watch is extremely concerned about the drastic increase of U.S. militarization in Latin America. The bases agreement operates from the same failed military mindset that has given rise to the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC). The purpose of the bases and the purpose of the SOA/ WHINSEC are the same: to ensure U.S. control over the region through military means.

Already, the SOA/ WHINSEC is deploying “Mobile Training Teams” to Colombia and other Latin American countries, that train hundreds of soldiers annually. Over 10,000 soldiers of the Colombian military (the military with the worst human rights record in the Americas) have received SOA/ WHINSEC training and used the lessons learned in their brutal war that has left thousands dead and millions displaced.”

In their article ‘Seven Bases’, Diane Lefer and Hector Aristizabal look at the history of each of these bases as well as conditions in the surrounding communities and Colombia as a whole. Below is an excerpt – please click on this LINK to read the full article. After the excerpt is a 21-minute video about the agreement

Seven Bases

by Diane Lefer and Hector Aristizábal

U.S. and Colombian officials signed an agreement granting the U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for ten years. The United States thereby increased its ties to the military known for the worst human rights abuses in the Western Hemisphere and is a troubling indication of what can be expected of the Obama Administration and its promise of change. Does this agreement (signed in the fall of 2009) really change anything? We take a look at the history of each of these bases as well as conditions in the surrounding communities and the nation as a whole.

#1: Tolemaida

This base, located in Melgar, Cundinamarca, has been sending students to the School of the Americas for Army Ranger training for more than 50 years. The US military and its contractors already have a long association with the base where they have enjoyed immunity from prosecution for such crimes as the rape and sexual abuse of Colombian girls as young as twelve (documented by video), and the trafficking for profit of arms to illegal paramilitary groups. The new agreement will allow unparalleled access by the US armed forces and will apparently continue diplomatic immunity for US personnel, both military and civilian. In Bogotá, just 43 miles to the northeast, more than 1,000 people arrive each day as they flee violence aimed at stealing their small rural landholdings usually for the benefit of paramilitary bosses, narcotraffickers, transnational corporations and their government allies. The US-supported Colombian military has done nothing to protect approximately 4 million internally displaced people, 75 percent of whom are women and children, left homeless and impoverished.While US policy is to fund the war on drugs and the war on the FARC, the cocaine trade provides employment and income to more than one million Colombians and the armed conflict is one of the nation’s largest sources of work. In Colombia, a minority of the population has steady employment. Most of the potential workforce consists of the unemployed, those who’ve given up looking for work or who participate in the informal economy of day laborers, street vendors, armed insurgents, and criminals. Workers lucky enough to have steady employment for a 48-hour week at the minimum wage do not earn enough to purchase a basic market basket of goods for a family of four. The Colombian Ministry of Defense has estimated that more than 4,600 FARC members and more than 1,300 ELN members are minors and that most guerrilla fighters had joined the guerrilla ranks as children. Witness for Peace learned of a school in Bogotá where 80 children dropped out in a single semester to join the FARC, motivated not by ideology but because their families couldn’t afford to feed them. Education and employment opportunities will have more impact on the civil conflict and the cocaine trade than more weapons, more military training, and more war.

Video about the agreement

Featuring Liz Grover, Hector Aristizabal and other guests.

At the age of 22, Liz Grover bought a one-way ticket to Afghanistan with only $100 in her pocket and no job lined up. Within 2 weeks, she landed a job as a journalist, and later hired by the United Nations to facilitate the country’s first democratic election in 2005. Hear about her amazing journey, and learn more about the Afghan people and culture.

Joining her will be Hector Aristizabal, who last year spent 3-weeks in Afghanistan working with Afghan human rights activists, victims of war, women, orphans, mental health providers, educators, and artists. Hector, a native of Colombia, is a dynamic speaker, educator and artist. Using his passion for the arts as method for resolving conflict, he has traveled extensively throughout the world to bring healing in war-torn countries.

Find out how you can work together with AFSC to end the U.S. militarization of Afghanistan and promote alternate, nonviolent ways to rebuild the country. The series is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so please arrive early. The speaker series will take place during Downtown LA’s Artwalk, so consider planning an evening in the area. Parking is available at Joe’s parking, $8.

Address:

American Friends Service Committee office

634 S. Spring St., Los Angeles

Date/Time: Thursday, Feb. 11th, 7pm-8pm

Website link: http://www.afsc.org/losangeles/

Upcoming Workshops

Awaken Your Imagination!
Theatre Workshop With
Hector Aristizabal

Join us for
Awaken Your Imagination, an experiential workshop for anyone seeking personal or social change. Using experimental techniques based on Theatre of the Oppressed, drumming, dance, storytelling, council circle and more, we will co-create a space that invites the freedom of imagination and the possibility of joy. We invite you to join us in the very serious work of change through play.

TO REGISTER, CONTACT: Sophie Thomas
EMAIL: thomassophie@hotmail.com
TEL: 323-388-7523
COST: $80

Flyer
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Anderson, Indiana

“Nightwind” performance, followed by workshop.

Date: Tuesday, February 23, at 10 am
Location: Reardon Auditorium on the campus of Anderson University.

Tentative second performance/workshop for Wednesday evening (to be confirmed).

For additional information please contact: moberky@anderson.edu or call 765 641-4559.

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Ohio Workshops

OSU/Columbus, Ohio
April 29th-May 1st 2010

Tentative Schedule
“Nightwind,” a solo play about torture, written by
Diane Lefer and Hector Aristizabal
Thursday, April 29, Blank Hall, OSU

Theater of the Oppressed: Lecture/workshop with Hector Aristizabal
Friday, April 30, Blank Auditorium, OSU

Theater of Imagination:
An All-Day Workshop with Hector Aristizabal,
May 1 at the Wild Goose Creative, Columbus Ohio (Produced by Burning Feather)

AHRDO website launch – Afghanistan

Our friends in Afghanistan have created a powerful web site documenting their work using Theater of the Oppressed Techniques, Play Back theater and other applied / interactive theater techniques as a tool for community empowerment and sustainable social change. Hector Aristizabal from ImagionAction, Marc Weimblatt from the Mandala Center for Change and Karin Gisler from Play Back Theater Zurich visited  Kabul, Herat and other small towns and villages. Hector performed Nightwind and led participatory theater workshops, trainings, and performances with a variety of groups including victims of war and genocide, women, orphans, mental health providers, teachers, university students, community activists, and professional actors. These intense trainings are part of a sustainable effort by AHRDO and other human rights organizations to use creativity as a tool for social justice. Please visit AHRDO by clicking on the link below.

Link to AHRDO -  Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization

AFSC Speaker Series

As part of AFSC Los Angeles’ monthly “Friends” Peace Dialogue series, Hector Aristizabal will be speaking on Thursday, February 11th, at 7pm. Featuring Hector, Liz Grover, and other guests, “this series is dedicated to promoting peace and nonviolence through positive communication.” Hector will be speaking about his recent travels to Afghanistan.

Location:
American Friends Service Committee
634 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles

This series is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so please arrive early.

KPFK Interview with Hector Aristizabal

Hector was interviewed by Eisha Mason for KPFK,
January 11th, 2010. Click here INTERVIEW to listen to the interview.

Under Pressure

Link to Poster

Youth Justice Coalition

Juvenile In/Justice? In California, young people–primarily youth of color–are tried as adults and face sentences as harsh as life without the possibility of parole. Kids are pushed out of school. Cutting class leads to criminal arrest warrants. These are just some of the issues being addressed by the Youth Justice Coalition, an extraordinary grassroots activist organization, its membership and leadership made up exclusively of young people who have been, or are currently under arrest, on probation, in detention, in prison, or on parole or whose parents/guardians, brothers, or sisters have been incarcerated for long periods of their lives. More than 100 youth a week are engaged in leadership development, organizing and advocacy through the YJC’s chapters or legal education workshops.
ImaginAction artists and interns are now working with YJC members to develop Forum Theatre pieces to involve the community in exploring strategies for change. This would be an excellent opportunity for those interested in learning the application of Imaginaction’s methods. If interested, please contact Hector at: haristizabal60@earthlink.net

For more information about the YJC, click on the link: YJC

The 16th Annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) Conference

As a member of the Board of Directors of PTO I want to invite you to participate in this upcoming event:
The 16th Annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference
“Flex and Flexibility: When to bend? When to stretch? When to engage?”
Austin, Texas, June 3-6, 2010
(with pre and post-conference workshops TBA)
Hosted by: University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance and the PTO Austin 2010 Organizing Committee
Information about accommodations, keynote guests, a pre-conference workshop with Julian Boal, and post-conference workshops will follow on the website very soon!
http://www.ptoweb.org/cfp.html

The Blessing Next to the Wound

Hector Aristizábal and Diane Lefer
Published by Lantern Books
Available June 2010

LINK to book page at Lantern Books

This June, Lantern Books will publish The Blessing Next to the Wound by Hector and Diane Lefer, the story of his surviving civil war and torture in Colombia, his exile in the US, and accounts of seeking healing for himself and others through activism and art.

Hector and Diane are also contributors to the forthcoming anthology, Peace Movements Worldwide (Greenwood/Praeger) due for publication April 30th, 2010, and have been invited to write about ImaginAction’s theory and practice for an anthology about new approaches inspired by Boal.

Vivien Sansour

Vivien Sansour will be working in Jenin, Palestine collecting the stories of the organic olive oil producers of Canaan Fair Trade. She is also working with director Naomi Newman on a solo piece based on personal stories, dreams, and poetry.

Stolen Pomegranates
By: Vivien Sansour

Longing
Lonely
Missing el loz
Longing wanting
Tofah
Pomegranates stolen from my neighbor’s garden
Juice running like sugar water
Pomegranates and mishmish

Have you had mishmish before? I asked him
He never tasted mishmish baladi
Homegrown apricot
Grapes dangling in drive ways
With people sitting on small chairs
Separated only by a cup of tea
And a glass of lemonada

It is afternoon
It is really el asir- the time of day you cannot name in English
I walk into Aziza’s drive way
I have come carrying the olives from our harvest
Press these for me please
Pickle these for my father he wants to have olives from his trees this year

I pack them firmly
Two bottles of oil
I must find a way to get them to him
This year he wants to smell his land from the bottle
I put them back
No way will they get through
Liquids are dangerous carried by an Arab
Liquids like oil and blood and memory

Memory is our greatest friend and our worst enemy
I wish to forget
Then I wish to always remember
I save pieces of an old dress
A stone
And then I cry for forgetfulness
Never want to forget the smell of the press
Figs in August
And the seedlings of fakous
Straight from Beit Sahour

I wish I could forget
And so I remember in details
He gave me a stone
From El Lid he said
His mother’s hometown
She walked three days and three nights
No luggage
No gold
Just this stone
He gave it to me so I may never forget
And then he left
My hand clenching on the stone
I wish to forget
And I wish to always remember
A kind of love that lingers
And leaves you
Longing
Lonely
And missing the stolen pomegranates

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FACEBOOK

For details and registration information, click on the link: AFSC Workshop

Hector Aristizabal on KPFK – 11th January, 2010

Vivien Sansour on Raising Sand Radio – 18th October, 2009

Coming Soon

Beneath the Blindfold is a human rights documentary that tells the personal stories of four torture survivors from around the world. It is hoped that through the voices of these survivors, torture will not remain an abstract practice, but will become a part of our everyday conscious.

Co-directed by independent filmmakers Ines Sommer and Kathy Berger, Beneath the Blindfold follows these courageous survivors in their daily lives, allowing viewers to witness the long-term impact that torture has had on them individually, as well as on their families and communities.  Beneath the Blindfold sensitively paints a holistic portrait of the survivors’ experiences, their path to healing, and life after torture.

For more information, please click on the link below:

Beneath the Blindfold