ARTS AGENDA . Arts Agenda Picks

Just Do It

DARFUR/DARFUR


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jul 18, 2007

Exhibit runs Tue.-Mon., July 24-30, 8:45 p.m.-midnight, free; film screening, Sat., July 28, 7:30 p.m., $5; symposium, Mon., July 30, 7 p.m., free, National Constitution Center, Independence Mall, 215-409-6700, www.constitutioncenter.org

At least 200,000 people (and perhaps twice that number) are dead from ethnically motivated murders in the Darfur region of western Sudan. More than 2 million are living as refugees. "DARFUR/DARFUR," a collection of photographs documenting this horror, will be projected onto the outer walls of the National Constitution Center every night from next Tuesday to the following Monday. Shot by former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle and seven international photojournalists, the images are meant to convey a sense of how drastically daily life in Darfur has been altered by the constant violence. Some capture government and rebel attacks on villages; others examine the culture of the refugee camps. By the end of the year, the photographs will have been displayed on walls in high-traffic areas in 24 cities. The show's organizers (including the Save Darfur Coalition and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C.) hope it will raise awareness of the Darfur genocide and encourage people to pressure their elected representatives to act forcefully against it.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Constitution Center will host an advanced screening of The Devil Came on Horseback, a film that examines the genocide from the perspective of Steidle, who first traveled to Darfur as an official military observer. Frustrated by the international community's refusal to intercede in mass murder, Steidle resigned and returned home to help raise awareness of the crisis.

And, to close out the week, a symposium called "How Democracies Confront Genocide" will feature a panel discussion led by John Hefferman, genocide prevention initiative director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, addressing genocide and constitutionalism. On this topic, Americans certainly seem to need a reminder. While the disastrous Iraq invasion has re-established a rightful public wariness of all military interventions, active genocide is the one circumstance when intervention should be our first, not our last, resort.