Human rights exhibition at FedEx Global Education Center brings focus to art, theatre

Visitors faced a wall of tragic statistics about human rights violations at the FedEx Global Education Center on Saturday morning.

But by that afternoon, the testament to injustice had become a work of art.

This collaborative art project was just one activity offered at the Center for Global Initiatives’ Visualizing Human Rights Anti-Conference, a forum aimed to address worldwide human rights issues in nontraditional ways.

“It’s a different sort of activism,” said Bevin Tighe, program assistant at the FedEx Center. “It’s about connecting people to human rights through the arts, instead of through an overly legalistic approach.”
Dick Gordon, host of American Public Media’s weekday radio program, The Story, greeted the nearly 200 in attendance with an interview with John Conroy.

Conroy, a journalist for the Chicago Reader, investigated allegations of torture practices in Chicago’s police system throughout the ‘90s.

Conroy stressed that those who commit torture rarely take responsibility for their actions, instead blaming their superiors for ordering them to perform the cruelties.

“Because no one claims responsibility, torture becomes this ugly monster with so many heads,” he said. “It infuriated me. I just couldn’t understand why people couldn’t understand this.”

Attendees were invited to contribute to a collective art project. Facts about human rights violations littered a free standing structure, but were quickly replaced by puzzle pieces of artistic interpretation.

Upon completion, the wall displayed a colorful and festive landscape. The image was designed by UNC art professor Beth Grabowski and her students.

“We decided that this was a project that would involve everyone at the conference,” said Grabowski. “This wall is overwhelming, but if everyone works on it together, we can manage it.

“It’s a metaphor for working for human rights,” she said.

One workshop featured members of Hidden Voices, a local nonprofit theater group that aims to tell the stories of the underrepresented.

Four of the women from Hidden Voices shared stories about domestic abuse, chronic poverty and drug addiction during homelessness as part of the project “Home Is Not One Story.”

One woman shared a story about fleeing her house and abusive husband with her children in tow.

“My daughter was crying, because she had a mama doll and a baby doll, and she left the baby doll inside,” she said. “But I was too scared to go back and get it.

“It was like she was leaving her own baby behind,” she said.

Lynden Harris, founder and director of Hidden Voices, moderated the workshop.

“These women are so engaging, and they all have very different backgrounds,” she said. “We want to show the many faces of homelessness.”

When the day ended, participants had received a chance to learn about activism through many forms of art.

“Often when we talk about human rights, we forget about the human element,” said Niklaus Steiner, director of the Center for Global Initiatives. “Artists do a great job of addressing that.

“They really do what our slogan says — they put a human face on human rights.”

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.