Description
Book SynopsisExplores the possibility of art as therapeutic, capable of implementation by mental health practitioners crafting mental health policy in Rwanda. This anthology of scholarly, personal, and hybrid essays was inspired by scholar and activist Chantal Kalisa (1965-2015).
Trade Review“I recommend that everyone read this fascinating book. In remembering professor Chantal Kalisa, the contributors of
Art from Trauma bring hope for the future to victims coping with traumatic experiences of extreme violence or genocide. Providing victims a platform for sharing memories and experiences is one way of mourning and may lead to healing.”—Edouard Kayihura, author of
Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story and Why It Matters Today “This astute biographical, methodological, and theoretical book presents Chantal Kalisa as a figure both of history and of memory—of history in relating her life to her career in order to highlight compelling narratives on scholarship, activism, and responsibility; and of memory in extending her powerful interpretive works into other forays. . . . The hatred and violence that Kalisa observed in francophone Africa is replaced in this significant book with hope, along with the enduring capacity to reimagine a better future.”—Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin
“
Art from Trauma is an expansive narrative about violence and trauma as well as a courageous and insightful inquiry into various forms of traumatic events and the healing power of different forms of art. Featuring scholars from various and multidisciplinary perspectives, it is also a work of memory and mourning that challenges the unspeakable through the power of language and art in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.”—Aimable Twagilimana, professor of English and Fulbright Scholar, SUNY Buffalo State
“A deeply rich and inspiring volume, this book offers a worthy tribute to Chantal Kalisa’s important work and responds to the pressing need for creativity in the processes of remembrance, justice, and reconciliation in Rwanda and beyond.”—Catherine Gilbert, author of
From Surviving to Living: Voice, Trauma, and Witness in Rwandan Women’s WritingTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Foreword, by Patricia A. Simpson
Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Rangira Béa Gallimore and Gerise Herndon
Part I. In Memoriam: Lessons Learned from Chantal Kalisa
1. Baby Steps
Margaret Jacobs
2. Speaking Nearby Genocide
Gerise Herndon
3. Chantal’s Voice: A Guiding Light
Natalia Ledford
4. Bittersweet Realities: Field Research, Human Rights, and Questioning Intentions
Laura Roost and Ryan Lowry, with Patrice McMahon
5. Memory, Language, and Healing
Isabel Velázquez
Part II. Performing Arts and Healing from the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
6. Theater and the Rwandan Genocide
Chantal Kalisa
7. Ingoma Nshya: Forbidden Fruit Brings Healing and Empowerment to Rwandan Female Drummers
Rangira Béa Gallimore
Part III. Visualizing Violence, Silence, and Trauma
8. The Films of Kivu Ruhorahoza: Staging a New Sense of Direction?
Odile Cazenave and Patricia-Pia Célérier
9. Héla Ammar: Art and Beyond
Anna Rocca
10. Filming with Orphans of the Genocide: A Transformative Dialogue through a Double-Lens Approach
Alexandre Dauge-Roth
11. Art for Teaching and Art for Surviving: From the Holocaust to Healing
Eileen M. Angelini and Heather E. Connell
Part IV. Narrating Atrocities and Dealing with Trauma
12. Gender-Based Violence in Monique Ilboudo’s Fiction
Nicki Hitchcott
13. Narrating Itsembabwoko and the Quest for Empathy
Josias Semujanga
14. “Lay Down Body, Lay Down”: Mitigating Transgenerational Trauma through Spirituality in Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Magic City
Kalenda Eaton
Part V. Scripting Self and Healing in Women’s Narratives
15. Womenʼs Friendship in Exile: Healing in the Epistolary Correspondence between Zenobia Camprubí and Pilar de Zubiaurre
Iker González-Allende
16. Preserving Memories, Celebrating Lives: War, Motherhood, and Grief in Scholastique Mukasonga’s La femme aux pieds nus
Marzia Caporale
List of Contributors
Index
