trauma, racism, antisemitism
I recently went to see "Fires in the Mirror", which is a one--person play where a single actor portrays numerous black and white Jewish witnesses to the Crown Heights riots in1991. All of the dialogue is taken from documentary interviews of real people. It was a very fine performance, but emotionally harrowing. It left me thinking about how these stories should be told, but what happens to us when we treat them as merely prestige entertainment?
trauma, racism, antisemitism
We can go see movies or plays or exhibits about the holocaust and black chattel slavery and lynchings and pogroms, and leave feeling like better people for it. For having witnessed black and Jewish pain and suffering. Giving these things ticket prices seems perverse. From having had to go on stage and discuss my own trauma, it often feels like self-harm for the artist. What is the point if the audience leaves merely satisfied at having seen a nice piece of art?