In the morning, the group went to visit the Gisozi Memorial Center here in Kigali. (See photo.)
This memorial has a room where family members have hung photos of someone or someones that they have lost in the genocide. Photos clipped to string all along the sides of the walls. The room an octagon. Museum lighting. This room has a great impact on me – its as if people are inviting us into their personal remembering. This interests me as a form of memorializing… a room full of strangers’ faces in faded photos…two years ago Richard points to one - a group of people sitting on anonymous front steps. “These are my brothers and sisters.” Richard works at Gisozi. He films testimony. I don’t know what to feel or say about these people in the picture, but I trust that he has lost something great. There is an implied hand pointing to each of these photos. Hundreds. And what is my job here?
Final day of Centre by Centre. In the afternoon, we had play readings. Katori Hall, a NY playwright traveling with us, reads a monologue from a piece she wants to write about the Rwandan genocide. Myself, Darius, Zak – a stage hand and playwright in SF- some students from CalArts and playwrights, performers and producers from Rwanda sit in a circle of chairs on the wooden stage in Ishyo. Katori is very nervous about this reading. A monologue of a woman whose husband turned over his sister-in-law and her children to the interahamwe and how she loves him. It is beautifully written with guilt floating over everyone like a low clouds that could rain at any moment. The conversation centers mostly about whether as a Westerner we should be writing about genocide. Most of the Rwandans concur that yes, it is difficult from Rwanda to write about genocide because there is no distance, and there should be plays written about genocide and anyone could imagine aspects of the situation. I think there is more to say when we get to know each other better.
Final performances. Christina Frias, a CalArts student does a lively and personal piece about Mexican/American identity. I perform an excerpt of Angel of History by Carolyn Forche with Darius Mannino, Dana Gourrier and Noam – whose last name I don’t know… It’s a meditation on atrocity and empathy in the 20th century.
The Belarus Free Theater came too and showed a demo of their work. In a small room, people with extraordinary energy taking simple playful images – a woman with a red balloon, some men hammering boards of wood in rhythm to a folksong – and perverting them – the balloon becomes a pregnancy that is popped, the men perform a folkdance of “hammering” their hands. While statistics of life in Belarus are projected on the wall– sometimes mundane or marvelous and mostly a testament to the toll of 15 years of political dictatorship.
The Belarus Free Theater has been performing underground since 2005 in Minsk. risking and receiving imprisonment to provide a voice of dissent in an oppressive regime.
Also, Theater Factory came and presented. They are a theatrical cross between Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show. They lampoon weekly news stories or popular culture events. They have a huge following in Uganda and now also a weekly TV show.
And that’s the modest and promising beginning of the Centre by Centre festival.
And there are the lights of Kigali in the inverted night sky. We have a late dinner. A paved street with a sidewalk. Commercial buildings with pillars. A night guard. The city silent. A man sleeps in a cardboard box by the side of the restaurant. Young people go by in tucked in button down shirts. The cement swept clean. Tomorrow is our last day in Kigali.
Today is made possible by the gracious and generous support of Casey Kurti. Casey, my love and gratitude…
*Image by Christina Frias
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