Paintings Meet Poems at AU Museum

November 10th was one of those evenings no one could have predicted. We planned, arranged, and publicized. But even I was not prepared for the beauty of the evening. The launch reading for Cut Loose the Body: An Anthology of Poetry on Torture and Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib exceeded our hopes. Nearly 200 people packed the third floor of the American University Museum. The chairs were filled, people stood around the walls, sat on the floor, and draped themselves over railings. Botero’s beautiful and haunting paintings of Abu Ghraib surrounded us, like stained-glass windows ringing tonight’s sanctuary of poetry.

Jack Rasmussen, the director the AU Museum welcomed us and then introduced Rose Marie Berger and me. We thanked Jack for his remarkable vision and generosity, which made the exhibit and book possible. We thanked Rachel Friedmann, the assistant director of the AU Museum, who did the layout of the book. We thanked the poets and others whose generosity helped the project forward. Finally, we thanked guests from the Torture Abolition Support Survivors’ Coalition who joined us.

The room could not have held more people, we gave away nearly 180 copies of Cut Loose the Body. And so it was time. The large crowd sat silent and ready as the poetry began. Rose Berger and I, as co-editors, introduced the poets. Kyle Dargan, whose poem “Habeas Corpus” gave us the book’s title read first. Kyle’s gentle demeanor brought forth his crisp and gorgeous poems. He read about the moment when “a body can shiver no more.”

Consuelo Hernandez read her poems in English and Spanish, reminding us all that her "southern country is bleeding."

Tala A. Rameh, an MFA student at AU read her powerful poems, remembering the unknown Iraqi civilians who have been killed, a mother remembering her lost son.

Then our own legendary E. Ethelbert Miller held the large audience spellbound with several rich poems, “Fruit” among others. He concluded with hope in the midst of severity with his poem about the triumph of love: “like Douglass loved reading … like Martin loved Jesus.”

Then we heard from AU’s Myra Sklarew, whose poetry speaks so gently yet clearly, of the truth of suffering and of our too frequently “learned hatred.”

D. Nurkse from Sarah Lawrence College read passionately of a man being sealed in a wall for not believing the “right” things and of a priest tortured to death during the Inquisition.

Finally, Sinan Antoon, pictured below on the left, brought us vivid poetic snapshots of his native Baghdad. The audience remained rapt as he unfolded the image of a mother weaving a shroud for “the dead man / still in her womb.”
We concluded the reading with some words from the book’s Preface by Sr. Dianna Ortiz, urging us all to read the poems, as the poems themselves reveal the lies of her own torturers, that no one would believe, or understand, or care what happened to her.

I think we all sensed we had seen and heard something remarkable this night. As the program concluded, the poets signed books, stood for photos, greeted friends, and the room was filled with hugs and laughter again.

What a marvelous night for art and for poetry. If you were present, I hope you remember it as fondly as I do. If you were not there, I hope you find your way to a copy of the book, so it can stir you as it did so many of us. Feel free to contact us with comments or questions: Rose Marie Berger (rberger@sojo.net) or Joseph Ross (writingalife@yahoo.com)

Joseph Ross, Co-Editor
Cut Loose the Body