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USF, Art2Action partner to fuel dialogue about Iraq War, Middle East

 
Chris Trakas, from left, Lubana Al Quntar, an opera singer from Syria, and Russell Andrade perform in a recent open recital for the opera Fallujah. The show was part of an art series at USF.
Chris Trakas, from left, Lubana Al Quntar, an opera singer from Syria, and Russell Andrade perform in a recent open recital for the opera Fallujah. The show was part of an art series at USF.
Published March 26, 2015

Singers opened the performance with lyrics that conjured a vision of a marine sitting on the edge of a cot in an empty room of a VA medical center. He is on 72-hour hold after his most recent suicide attempt.

Fallujah, named for one of the most infamous battles of the 11-year Iraqi conflict, is an opera based on the story of Marine Sgt. Christian Ellis and his experiences with depression, suicide and homelessness after returning home from the war.

The descriptions of graphic violence, familial relationships and the inhumanity of war seemed common for an opera, but the subject matter hit close to home for the audience of students and veterans at the University of South Florida's School of Music Concert Hall.

The March 20 open recital, or workshopping, of the opera represents just one aspect of an ongoing arts series at USF called "This Bridge: Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim Artists." It aims to highlight women, minority and Arab-American artists in an effort to create a dialogue about Americans' relationship to Middle Eastern culture, and Fallujah helps meet the goal.

After the singers made their way offstage and the audience had time to digest. Heather Raffo, the writer of Fallujah, led a discussion about the performance. The veterans and others discussed their own personal and emotional grappling in the face of the protracted war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We as a nation have not given civilians — people pro-war, against war, veterans — cathartic conversations and the war is still going on," Raffo said. "This stuff the arts needs to be doing with more support and recognition."

Dialogues and conversations have been woven into almost every event since the lead entity, Art2Action, partnered with the university last August for this series.

Andrea Assaf, the founding artistic director of Art2Action, sees art as a conduit for community discussion and engagement.

"It's not only an identity-based organization, but more importantly it's about what these artists have to say about who they are and the world we live in," Assaf said. "We explore how we can engage in innovative and groundbreaking artmaking and at the same time create community dialogue and transformation."

With a relatively large Arab and Muslim population and the James A. Haley VA Medical Center within walking distance of the campus, USF serves as a good base for the partnership.

Assaf, a director, writer and performer, is an artist in residence at USF as part of the partnership. When she isn't organizing performances and attracting underrepresented artists to Tampa Bay, she teaches classes at the university as a guest lecturer.

One part of the grant partnership between Art2Action and the university is creating a research component.

With a research background in community-based programming, Renee Brown was chosen to try to put data and numbers to the effect Art2Actions specific kind of discussion-oriented art can have on community attitudes.

Brown, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Clinical Psychology, uses traditional research to evaluate groups of students, faculty and community veterans. She breaks the groups into two categories: individuals who participate in creating art with the artists brought to campus, and people who attend performances or showings.

Though her research will continue through the grant's completion in May 2016, Brown said there is already evidence to suggest people who actively engage with artists who present a unique and sometimes opposing viewpoint of the Middle East are more likely to change their preconceptions and attitudes about Islam, Arab-Americans and gender.

"When people see a woman wearing a hijab, many people associate it with repression and other negative thoughts," she said. "We are bringing this Arab-American female artists who represent a huge range of what's considered Muslim or Arab, because we see diversity in America, but we tend not to assume that in other cultures."

The partnership has resulted in other connections to the community.

Assaf also works with a veterans drama group at the Veterans Recovery Center on Hillsborough Avenue. After visiting the group and hearing about the group's plan to make a play from returning soldiers' stories, Assaf became their drama coach and started teaching acting and writing workshops.

Raffo and the singers from Fallujah visited veterans at the recovery center and performed some of the opera for them. They've also worked with USF drama students who have been studying the opera's script this semester.

Upcoming spring events will focus on group performances, including theater and poetry.

Like Fallujah, which ends with the singers exclaiming, "Listen," these events will focus on advancing open dialogue about the Middle East.

"There's a bravery to open up to people who think differently than they do or have an experience they're afraid to hear about," she said. "If only we can listen with a different ear."

Contact Roberto Roldan at hillsnews@tampabay.com.