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Visualizing Human Rights anti-conference fosters 'oneness'

The beat dropped and the words “dignity” and “restoration” reverberated throughout the Nelson Mandela Auditorium.

Attendees of the fifth annual Visualizing Human Rights anti-conference gathered Saturday to learn about local and global struggles for human rights — focusing on the Congolese term “pamoja.”

“You can’t describe it in words. It’s like community, oneness, solidarity, love — that’s what it means,” said Pierce Freelon, a UNC music professor and co-founder of ARTVSM, a beat-making program.

Bevin Tighe, program assistant for the Center of Global Initiatives, said the event strives to stray from the failing statistical portrayal of human rights.

“Basically, the idea is what is the most opposite of just bombarding people with facts and figures,” Tighe said.

Saturday’s event featured numerous art installations from local artists and presentations from UNC professors.

Dick Gordon, host of WUNC’s “The Story,” interviewed Petna Ndaliko and Cherie Rivers Ndaliko.

The Ndalikos are co-directors of Yole!Africa, a cultural center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that provides arts education for youth.

Yole!Africa allows for self expression through children’s talents, and Cherie Ndaliko said the constant demand for the center indicates its success.

“It’s something that we continue to do because people show up,” she said.

ARTVSM has collaborated with Yole!Africa to bring a beat-making lab to the Congo.

Freelon and UNC music performance assistant Stephen Levitin, also known as Apple Juice Kid, traveled to Goma, Congo, during the summer to teach kids how to create beats.

“We wanted to train a small group well enough so they would be able to train their peers,” Freelon said.

“It’s a really vibrant community center that Yole! has built, and we were really honored to work with them.”

Because of their experience in the Congo, Freelon and Levitin have partnered with PBS Digital Media to create more beat-making labs in various countries.

Also at the conference, Stacey Kirby, conservation technician at the North Carolina Museum of Art, performed her interactive art installation “VALIDnation.”

Kirby asked participants to fill out a form with information about their lifestyle choices. When the participants completed the form, Kirby marked it with a red “VALID” stamp.

She said she put together this project to teach people about the problematic language in North Carolina’s Amendment One, which banned gay marriage when it was passed in May.

“I decided to pull some language out of the amendment … to kind of point out what the amendment was actually about and what it was restricting,” Kirby said.

As an opponent of the legislation, Kirby said she wanted to stress that everybody’s lifestyles should be accepted.

“Everyone’s lifestyle, everyone’s relationship, what they’re interested in, and who they are as people, and who they are in a community — they’re legitimate.”

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The conference strayed from the typical academic conference, in which presenters end up reading straight from their academic papers, Tighe said.

“With this, the focus really was on the arts engagement and the things that inspire people,” Tighe said.

“We were really focused on giving people a taste of stories.”

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.