Multi-arts exhibit exploring nature of Rwandan genocide and others at Project Artaud March 21, 2006

Giving voice to women survivors of genocide through art and dance

Local dancer / choreographer Anne Bluethenthal and the nonprofit WE-ACTx have teamed with Rwandan survivors groups and local artists to present the Tubeho Project (?To Live Again? in Kinyarwanda), an oral history documentary project about women?s experiences in the genocide and their lives today. The project coincides with performances of Bluethenthal's new dance performance on the nature of genocide, Unsing the Song, March 23 -- 26 at San Francisco's Project Artaud.

The world premiere of a new traveling multimedia exhibition of survivor?s portraits and historic testimonials from the Tubeho Project, called Speaking the Unspeakable, opens in San Francisco on March 21 for a six-day run at San Francisco's Project Artaud Theatre (450 Florida Street @ 17th St.). Speaking the Unspeakable includes an original dramatic staged reading of survivor?s stories that is part of a larger program, Reflections on Genocide, produced by the ABD Productions/Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers and featuring the world premiere of Bluethenthal?s Unsing the Song.

This traveling exhibit is a historic event ? the first time Rwandan women who survived the genocidal rape and its aftermath ? HIV and AIDS ? are speaking out publicly to a global audience to bear witness. Their stories of resistance and survival are as inspiring and powerful, as they are shocking and sorrowful.

Speaking the Unspeakable was created in response to rape survivors? desire to testify about their experiences and to educate future generations about the growing link of gender based violence and the global HIV epidemic. It will make connections to the systematic use of rape in ongoing regional civil wars in Sudan, northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Speaking the Unspeakable arose from the work of three non-governmental organizations: Women?s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx), Survivors Fund (SURF) and the Rwandan-based Association of Genocide Widows (AVEGA-Est). An American educational group, Facing History as Ourselves, is also working with the Tubeho Project to educate Bay Area residents about the larger topic of genocide.

Mounting the Speaking the Unspeakable exhibit has been made possible by ABD/Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers, whose Unsing the Song, is a powerful 35-minute meditation on the universal theme of genocide. Its title derives from the testimony of a Sudanese wise woman - someone highly esteemed in Sudanese culture - who recalls how her government instructed women of her community to sing their men into battle. However, the women did not know that the army actually would be committing genocide. When the wise woman realized what was happening in Darfur, she longed to unsing her song.

Reflections on Genocide: Launch of traveling exhibition on genocide,
Speaking the Unspeakable, featuring world premiere of Anne Bluethenthal ?s Unsing the Song
Exhibit: Tuesday, March 21 ? Sunday, March 26, 10am ? 6pm
Exhibit & dance performance: Thur, March 23 -- Sat, March 25, 8pm; Sunday, March 26, 1pm
Project Artaud Theatre, 450 Florida Street @ 17th Street, San Francisco

$25 general; $20 in advance/student/senior; $10 children under12 years. Group rates are available.
Afternoon exhibit hours free and open to the public

ODC Theater Box Office, 3153 17th Street or 415-863-9834;
ticketweb.com
www.abdproductions.org