Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories Part 2: Let Our Loss Be Heard Wednesday, September 18, 7:00 PM Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church 6474 Beechmont Ave, 45230
GAPP and ACRU welcome Dr. Joan Ferrante back to Anderson Township to share Part 2 of the Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories Project. This film, Let Our Loss Be Heard, is inspired the life of Margaret and Robert Garner, an enslaved couple who ran from Kentucky toward freedom into Ohio with their four children all under six years of age. The documentary, a collaborative effort of NKU students and faculty tells the story through dance driven by commentary from choreographers, the dancers, and the composers. The program is appropriate for high school students and adults. It is free and open to the public. A free will offering will be appreciated.
Registration is requested at https://mourning2.eventbrite.com
About the Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories Project from the website https://www.mourningthecreationofracialcategoriesproject.org
The Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories Project is dedicated to using the transformative powers of the arts and creative writing to mourn the creation of racial categories in the United States and to help us understand the dynamics of separation, loss and abandonment on which those categories were founded. The race concept and its categorical vision of humanity has a 400-year history. Everyone who lives, or has ever lived in the United States, has wrestled (some more than others) with that categorical vision and their place within it. Countless numbers have been tormented and tortured by that vision. The project’s goal is to add something NEW to the much-needed national conversation on race. While artistic expression cannot, by itself, erase the pain, suffering, misunderstandings and inequalities that the creation, and 400-year existence of racialized categories supports, it can encourage us to mourn. Clinical psychologist Edwin Shneidman maintains “mourning is one of the most profound human experiences that it is possible to have…The deep capacity to weep…is one of our noblest human traits.” When we can see the need to mourn the creation of racial categories, we have made the mental leap to begin the healing and reconciliation process.
The expected outcome of the project is modest – to create art and language that will move audiences to mourn with the ultimate outcome being to change people’s assumptions about who we are. We believe changing assumptions is the first step toward transforming the way we perceive race and go about interacting with different race-labeled peoples. This transformation prepares us to work through the real problems that are the legacy of racial categories.