 So, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the United States Institute of Peace. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the executive vice president here, and I'm very pleased that you've joined us here on this July afternoon. This is a tribute to the panel, as I've already indicated to them, that to bring this kind of a group together on these kinds of issues, I think, is a real tribute to the importance of those issues. Arts and culture have been a part of the work that the Institute of Peace has been doing. The Institute of Peace, you will be interested to know, is 30 years old this year? 30 years old. Now, you probably didn't know this, but probably only you've heard of it in the last couple of years when you see people here and others of the USIP team that you're more familiar with, but we've been around for 30 years. Now, we haven't been in this building for 30 years. We were in other parts of the city. Some of you may have joined us, or visited us, or participated in some events at these other buildings. They weren't quite as nice as this building. We're very pleased to be here and to celebrate the 30th anniversary in this building, and we're very pleased that you could be here as well. Art and culture has been a part of our discussion for 30 years. You have seen some of the art out here, and you will hear about it. The artists are displayed in front of you here. You will hear from them here shortly, but even before that, you will have an opportunity to hear from one of our USIP stars, and it's a great opportunity for us to have Maria Steffen with us, and Maria chairs, and is the driver behind our Arts and Culture Forum here at the Institute. But she's also known, maybe even better known, as the civil resistance expert here at the Institute. You may hear a little bit about that from her. So without anything further, let me again welcome you here. Very glad to have you here, and Maria over to you to interview Steffen. Thanks very much, Bill, for that introduction, and let me join Bill in welcoming everyone to the Institute this afternoon. It's a terrific turnout. Definitely a tribute to our panelists today, and to this awesome topic of Arts, Culture, and Peacebuilding. So I want to welcome you to this panel event, an exhibition celebrating the role of visual arts in both transforming conflict and in building peace. USIP approaches peacebuilding from a variety of lenses in lots of different ways, both here in Washington and out in the field, where we run a variety of different programs and activities. The arts represent one highly creative tool that peacebuilding practitioners can use to bolster the reach and the effectiveness of their work. And these include, of course, the visual arts, literary arts, performance arts, and movement arts. USIP, through its grants work and the Arts and Culture Forum, which is a cross-institute initiative here at USIP, is increasingly using these methods to achieve our goal of preventing, mitigating, and reducing violent conflict around the world. As Michael Schenke and Lisa Scherch have written in their pivotal article, Strategic Arts-Based Peacebuilding, art is a tool that can communicate and transform the way people think and act. Arts can change the dynamics in intractable, interpersonal, inter-communal, national, and global conflicts. John Paul Letterock, another peacebuilding stalwart, writes in the moral imagination, the art and soul of building peace. This quality of providing for and expecting the unexpected is well-known in the world of artists and needs to be cultivated in the world of peacebuilders. Creativity opens us to new avenues of inquiry and provides us with new ways to think about social change. Though solid theory research and evaluation of arts-based peacebuilding are still being developed, I have certainly seen its impact out in the field. In Syria, a country and a people that are very close to my heart, some of the most amazing activists have been artists from all different sects and religions in parts of the country. Their work, animated puppet shows, vibrant graffiti, musical lyrics, dance, spoke of universal themes of freedom and dignity and inspired the nonviolent resistance that motored the revolution in its early phase. Today, against all odds, Syrian poets, painters, musicians are using art to connect the four million refugees outside to their badly wounded homeland and to the rest of the world and to promote a sense of unity and solidarity. When used in conscious, strategic, and coordinated ways, the arts can measurably contribute to peacebuilding and amplify its reach and impact. Today's conversation, moderated by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, will speak to how visual arts have been creatively and effectively incorporated in peacebuilding activities around the world. So to start with introductions, Ambassador Cynthia Schneider is a distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University, where she teaches, publishes and organizes initiatives in the field of cultural diplomacy with a focus on Western relations with the Muslim world. She also led the Brookings Center for the Middle East Art and Culture Dialogue and co-directs the Timbuktu Renaissance, which you saw a film clip of, both of which seek to leverage art in order to counter extremism and promote peace and development. Leon Shahabian is the president and executive producer of Leilina Productions Incorporated. He produces award-winning documentaries and compelling reality TV series that are consistently broadcast in prime time on leading American and Pan-Arab cable and satellite networks. Mr. Shahabian is a frequent guest lecture at leading universities and think tanks. Khaled Raush is the director of USIP's Rule of Law Center. She has a focus on criminal justice and police reform initiatives and has completed missions across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. Manuel Leon is the visual communications designer with USIP's Global Campus and is devoted to enhancing communication through different media, such as painting, advertising, film, documentaries and interactive design. He also uses his work to preserve and share his Mayan heritage. So we have a terrific lineup for you all today. It's wonderful to have this event as part of USIP's 30th anniversary. And so on behalf of the Arts and Culture Forum here at USIP, I turn the floor over to Cynthia Schneider to lead us through the discussion. Thank you. Thank you so much, Maria. It's an honor to be here and an honor to follow you. And I recommend to anyone who wasn't there to watch online the fantastic panel discussion this morning that Maria moderated on Civic Resistance and Peace Building featuring, among others, USIP's president, Nancy Lindborg. And one of the subjects that came up in that discussion weaves together. Please, those of you at the back, come sit up at the front. There's plenty of room, so feel free to come sit. Weaves together those themes of peace building, civic resistance, and arts and culture. And that was the discussion of the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which chronicles the story, the heroic story of the civil resistance in Liberia, led by women, including Lema Gabawi, the eventual Nobel Prize winner. And she of course always deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. But I think she got it because Abigail Disney and Ginny Reddicker made this film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and then took it everywhere and used it everywhere to demonstrate the power of civic actors in peace building. And that spread the word about their work. And Maria was just telling me that she has seen that film never in English, many times in Arabic, because it was shown so many times to Syrian activists and how much it spoke to them. So that example raises several key issues I think that helped frame our discussion today. And that is the universality of arts and culture. We always talk about a picture is worth a thousand words, music is the global language. And I think behind all of that is the power of storytelling. And what gets behind that is the power of emotion. And this is a kind of word we don't talk about a lot in Washington, right? Because we're very serious and do policy. But here is the dirty little secret. It is actually emotion that directs our decision making. This is a neurological fact, this is not my crazy idea. So there is a reason that these tools are so powerful. It is stories that engage us in an empathetic way that cause us to change our preconceived ideas. And give us the strength to move forward in a different direction. So that's a kind of general overview. Let me give you just some thoughts that relate more specifically to this intersection with policy. First of all, I'd like to quote something that the Nigerian novelist playwright Woli Soyinka said. Art humanizes, politics demonizes. And just think about that. Think of how much time we spend particularly here, but in many places, dividing, dividing, dividing and putting one against the other. And art on the contrast allows us to humanize these political conflicts, which guess what? Are caused by human beings. So that does make a certain amount of sense. Another idea is the idea, and you'll hear about this, of leveraging local voices. Traditionally and very effectively in the Cold War period, the United States used arts and culture by sending American artists, writers, musicians, jazz musicians, most famously abroad. And that worked very effectively. But I would suggest to you that in today's era of social media and 24-7 communication, what is much more effective and has a stronger impact is to leverage the local voices, give them a platform, help them reach their audiences, because that's what will resonate. And you'll hear many examples of that. And then finally, I'll just leave you with one thought. I spend my life promoting, trying to get people to think about the power of culture in diplomacy and international affairs. That is often, not always, I have a wonderful home at the Brookings Institution, but that is often met with blank stares. It's like, no, no, we're doing serious things here, we don't have time for culture. I would just ask you to think about who does recognize the power of culture. And that is the violent extremists all around the world and throughout history, whether they are related to Islam or not. The Khmer Rouge did this also. But what do they do? They target culture. They target cultural heritage and they target living culture. And I would suggest to you that's because culture is the root of identity. And if you want to control people, you have to undercut their roots and their identity. So if they can recognize the power of culture, you know, maybe we should also. So let me now turn to our very distinguished and very diverse panel, beginning with Colette Rausch. Colette, I'm not going to reintroduce you. I'm going to ask you to go ahead with one of your many projects and then I may follow up with questions on another. And let me just tell you, I've submitted these poor panelists to a rigorous regime of five minutes apiece. And then we're going to be sure to allow questions from you. I'm going to be very mindful of that. So I'm going to keep it within my five minutes. And I'm going to talk about three intertwined themes. And it is storytelling, shrapnel, and sculpture. And they all fit together. We talked a little bit about storytelling and the critical nature of it. And there's a project that we worked at the US Institute of Peace for about seven years. And it was a speaking their peace book project. And it was an endeavor to try to get beyond, as Cynthia mentioned, the politics, the technical nature, the policy, the think tank, the things that we do really well in Washington and go beneath that to the human. This human story, narratives, personal narratives of individuals. And in the long tradition of storytelling, we wanted to bring stories of people from different conflict zones. So over the years, we went to 11 different conflict zones where we were already working. And in the evenings and mornings, reached out to people, whether they're taxi drivers, mothers, insurgents, ministers. And in our spare time, interviewed them and asked them basic questions. What happened during the conflict? What motivated you? What do you want for your future? And it took those stories and compiled them in a book and took photographs in the process to convey their personalities and the scene in which they were being interviewed and the power of that. And to let them speak in their own way about what was going on and that they had their own wisdom. And it was through that process that I was in Libya and Benghazi, it was a few months after the Qaddafi regime fell and after he had been killed. And we were in Benghazi with the workshop on how to deal with past abuses through what was called the Transitional Justice System. And we went to a museum. It was this beautiful old Italian era villa in Benghazi that overlooked the water. And we walked inside and there were photographs all over of many of the people who had been killed. It was a martyr's museum. And they were stood up. I know we have a member from the cultural office at the Embassy in Libya. And they set up in Zawiyah, Mizrad and Benghazi Tripoli. They had martyr museums to honor those who had been killed. But also I came across a welder and he was welding together pieces of material and we wanted to interview him. And instead he asked us that we interview a young Libyan woman who was an artist to tell his story and the story of the museum and what this medal was that he was putting together. So what I wanted to do, and that's where the shrapnel comes in. I wanted to just read a little bit from her story. And this welder, his name was Ali and we learned that during the revolution he had been making weapons out of everything that they, homemade weapons that they could put together with weapon material and metal. And then at the same time, because he was an artist at heart and under the regime he was not able to really use his art but now he could, he was welding for a different future. A welding art and things like that. And this is part of Ali's, it's Don Quixote and Don Quixote. This is part of Ali's art that he welded. And those who are weapon aficionados, this is part of a 50 caliber which was a very common piece of weapon that you could roll out in the back of a truck. So that was part of it. So there's different pieces of weapon, different parts of tanks that he took together. And it was just this explosion of items all through that he had done when you walked into your overwhelmed with sculptures of dancing cows and all sorts of ballerinas and everything. So I just want in closing to read from Saul's story where she had come from Libya from France during the revolution to try to help in whatever way she could. She said, when she was talking about what was going on in the museum, she said, everything was made from burned weapons. Ali transformed them into candlesticks, musicians, an orchestra, a woman and her baby, fisherman, a bicycle. And now that Gaddafi is dead, Ali's work is more joyful. He started to do dancers, tango dancers, everything is dancing. This used to be a missile, now it's a shark. It's very symbolic. He never cleans the material. It's burned, it's cut, it's broken. It's a very important message for the wounded, the people who lost family members, the people who got depressed because they were very young and they lost a leg. He wanted to give them the message that even if you are broken, your life is not over. I met the families of the martyrs. I had a grandfather crying saying he has lost 12 of his sons. I felt so tired, so exhausted. Then I came here to this exhibition and met Ali and I saw weapons and tanks. I was so tired of it, so I asked if I could paint one of the military cars. They said yes, so I painted it pink and she started to laugh. Then I painted flowers on it. What I did during the revolution was paint a car that was a war car pink. I didn't realize it, but painting truly helped me a lot. It was my therapy. This place is my therapy. When I painted the car, I saw the smiles of the children and the people and felt the positive energy from the people. In honor of Salwa, when we went to the museum, there was a pink car with flowers sitting out there. I'm wearing pink for Salwa. Going back to what art can do as far as conveying emotion, how it can help people transform their own trauma, how it can be a symbol of resistance as Ali had done, and how there's just many different stories through art that we wouldn't think about but the power of the objects. Thank you so much, Collette. I'm going to follow up with a question about another subject. I just want to, if you don't mind who I just wanted to draw attention to, the cultural attaché who's here from the Libyan Embassy. She's, of course, trained for her job as a cultural attaché through her profession, that is, as a dentist. And I say that just to point out it's so easy to forget. What do you hear about Libya? Oh, well, you know, what a mess. Everybody's fighting. Is there a government? Everybody's fighting. No, there are still people such as Huweda and her boss, who is a cousin of the famous activist Salwa Bugaisis, who was murdered about a month ago. Huweda Bugaisis, your ambassador, who have given up their lives and are doing everything they can, whatever it is that they're called on to do, to try to pull their country together. And it is their stories, and the stories that you bring out, that we need to focus on. That is the, you know, that's the hope of this country. But there are many different things you can talk about, and I want to give the audience just a little bit of a sense of what else they might be able to ask you about. So I wondered if you could just give a brief sketch of two other things that you spoke to me about, and if you'd rather bring in something else, that's fine. Two, number one, in Yemen, and we have two people who've worked in Yemen here on this panel, so we can talk about that with Leon. Also, the art tent in Change Square in Yemen, and maybe just a little bit about the Ritalblos to bring up our other theme, which is Latin America. Sure, I'll be very brief on Yemen because I will leave it to my colleague who's a very deep expert in Yemen and art. When we first went to Yemen, it was the day before the peace discussion or agreement with the global agreement took place, and at the time, Change Square was still going on, and Change Square was a number of tents and banners of activists and those who were pushing for a change in the regime from allegations of corruption and totalitarianism. And so this was this nonviolent resistance, but like many things, unfortunately, things became violent. Some of the protesters had been killed. Yemen was pushed to the brink of a civil war, and now we're there. But this was a number of years ago when they were still working for a positive change. And we're walking through Change Square where it had become where people were talking, you know, chewing cot, which was a very communal type of activity for people to debate issues. I came across the tent that was an art square, and there were a number of paintings there that people were able to express things that they had gone through, and children were painting. So it was used on one hand as a way for therapy, but on the other hand, as you had mentioned, a way of showing spirit and wanting change. And so artists who may have worked in a solitary fashion were now coming to the Change Square as a way of communion and change. So it was transformations in different ways. And then the other example was when we were in Peru doing interviews for the book. We went to Ayacucho, and Ayacucho was in the Highlands where many of the atrocities had been perpetrated, because that was where the hotbed, that area of the shiny path insurgency. So there was a lot of deaths and killings there. And we went into the Memory Museum. We saw retablos, and this is an original type retablo. Retablo literally means behind the altar, or behind, and it's usually of a religious depiction. And you'll see it in, if you go travel through Spain or Latin America, it's all very different in Mexico. And usually it's of a religious scene. You'll see them sometimes very large, life sometimes small, but oftentimes they're little traveling altars in a way. So this is what you will often find in Peru, where they're lively happiness, happy scenes of a village. But what we saw in the, it was the amazing resilience and the power of the artists. They transformed these traditional retablos into depicting scenes of what was going on through the atrocities. So you would see very difficult scenes, very graphic scenes where they would have the clay figures suffering, hangings, or dismemberment, or beatings, or things that they had experienced. And these were shown as a way to show what they were experiencing. And it was just very powerful in that way. And the creativeness at the faces, and you felt like you were being transported and experiencing, much like a photograph that you think is, of course, you could be transported by human beings, but to be transformed by clay figures was really an amazing thing. Thank you so much for bringing these examples of the work that is really, really wonderful. And of course I'm now going to turn to Leon and we'll see a little example of one of his films. But there are, as you've heard the photographs outside, if you haven't had a chance to see them, as well as a couple of paintings by Manuel. And I want also to remind everyone that the Twitter hashtag for this event is hashtag pics for peace. That is P-I-C-S for the word for F-O-R peace. So please feel free to live tweet as long as it's good. And about the event, otherwise we'll know. And so, I don't know, we're very open here and transparent. So, are we ready to show Leon's film? We're now going to turn to my friend from a long time, Leon Jehabian, who has been doing wonderful work with Lealina Productions. And they are a fantastic example of leveraging local voices. They not only tell local stories, but they air them on NBC, the most widespread channel in the Middle East. So as opposed to spending a gazillion dollars constructing a channel that not very many people will watch, they went to the place that people were already watching and produced material of such quality and interest that NBC has consistently shown their documentary. So it's really extraordinary what they've done. Do you want to introduce a little bit what we're going to see first? First off, happy anniversary to the Institute of Peace. As the president of a small nonprofit, I'm jealous of your community power. But also, it's not easy folks to keep a nonprofit going for 30 years. Interests shift in this town. There's always another more interesting entity that can be funded. So kudos to everyone in this room who wakes up every day and says, how am I going to help peace today? All right. I can't say anything more about what I do that Ambassador Snyder has not said. You're only as good as the last thing you've done. The last thing we've done was received so well that I'm not going to talk about it. I'm going to tell you about the next show that we're hoping to make. And Bismarck, who left his heart, said a few decades ago, a lot of decades ago, that no person should ever see sausage and legislation being made. Because it will turn you off from both. Now that I butchered the quotes attributed to him, I would add that no person should see TV shows being made because he would never want to watch television. So, having said that, we're going to show you exactly how difficult it is to come up with an idea and make it into a reality. This is a four-minute and change trailer. Think of it as a proof of concept. We're only going to show you the first two minutes, which is the problem state, just to say everything is terrible. And that's why we need to make this film. We're not going to show you the dental mall because we don't have that kind of time and it's more interesting to get you to chime in and for us to hear from other folks. So, we're going to show you how bad things were and then we're going to stop it there. And there you go. I see a taxi service stopping in the middle of the street. He unloaded the people going to work. I did not understand what was happening. Could I shoot or not? Our group had signed a ceasefire, but they failed to inform us. It shows, I think, how easy it is to kill innocents. The guy who was with me was called Ibrahim. All of this guy left. It's a question because it is related with what I'm hiding. The anniversary of the USIP's founding. It's also the 40th anniversary of the start of the 11th Civil War and the 25th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. So, these folks who are now middle aged, who are teenagers once, and they are seeing a lot of teenagers in Lebanon who are interested in spreading the Syrian war in Lebanon and all they want to do is stop the next Civil War and that's the movie. Should we find enough funding to pull it off? So, just to encapsulate that, if I understand you correctly, Leon, the goal of the film is to leverage these voices of these people who have experienced the tragedy of war firsthand and to be able to share that with young people who haven't and are attracted to what they're hearing about the current war and perhaps interested in joining and making and even bringing it to Lebanon. Absolutely. General Schwarzkopf, the night before the war started, showed his officers and his HQ, the folks that would be there every day with him, a documentary on the Civil War. This is 1991. It just finished it. And he said, gentlemen, this is what we are about to embark on. So, it's the same concept with one difference. Most Civil Wars have reconciliations, have a Desmond Tutu, or we hope they do. In the case of Lebanon, they skipped those and went to reconstruction and, you know, we're at USIP, so to talk in policy terms, you're talking about a post-conflict country that's extremely pre-conflict right now. And the folks that are in the film, so the folks that are in the film wake up every day and try to make peace with themselves so they can look themselves in the mirror. Now, they don't have the training of the quality that USIP provides to help people deal with these issues and talk to these issues and say, training of experts, you know, they don't have a toolkit. So these folks wake up and they work with nonprofits that have nothing to do with peace and conflict resolution. You know, they feed the hungry, et cetera, et cetera. And what we want to do is say, thank you for everything you're doing so that you can make peace with yourself. But you have something that the youngsters don't have. We need to get you to their schools, to their clubs so you can talk to them in a way no one else can. I lost my future, my loved ones, educational opportunities. Don't listen to politicians. Don't listen to your teachers. Listen to me. I used to be just like you, not too long ago. Let me just follow up with one other question because you have a photograph in the display of another film and there are many. We can talk about your cartoon series, Van and Izzy, which was a huge hit in the Middle East, your documentary about the people who suffered from terrorist tragedies, including September 11th and getting them to talk to each other, which was tremendously helpful in getting them to open up. I want to focus on this film that's featured in the photograph, Yemen Nets. I wonder if you could talk a little Yemen yes, Yemen yes. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about... All right, I'll keep it short because this guy has a story, ladies and gentlemen. So Yemen, it's in the news. But guess what? Life goes on even in the middle of a war. Yeah, it may be short and brutish and you know, you can read Hobbes, et cetera, but you still have to wake up every day, go to school, suffer its electricity cuts, and it's a bunch of teenage girls who said, we can't study when the power is out. So let's come up with a way to harness the sun and the very close to the equator to have a good supply of electricity when the power is out. Not that there's a war. They've cornered the market. They are not only allowed to study at night because they are harnessing the power of the sun, but they have their fridges going when everyone else including hospitals are out of power and they're 15, 16, 17 year olds. All we did was take a camera and film them doing the amazing thing that they do. And our broadcaster, NBC as was previously mentioned, they have an interesting tagline. They say, we see hope everywhere. So we wanted to go to the poorest Arab country, the one that is dealing both with, you know, the strongest chapter of Al-Qaeda and the Houthis and a shooting civil war and foreign invasion or, it's not the right word, I don't know what the right word is, I'm just a filmmaker, but what can you do as a human being when there is no government to depend on, when there are no job opportunities after you graduate? You're going to have to watch this film to find out. Very good. I think you're going to have a lot of people looking for that film right away and I just would add that such an inspiring story about Yemen and that's not the only place that's taking place. There's a wonderful documentary by Jahan Nujam who did The Square about the Egyptian Revolution called Solar Mamas, again, about another extraordinary woman who brought solar power to her village and this idea has really caught on because it's also a theme in the current television series, Tyrant, which I encourage all of you to watch if you want to see a television portrayal of ISIS and what's going on in the Middle East now. As a fiction drama, it's quite well done. So this is something that's going on in a lot of places and it's very inspiring and fantastic that you've made a film about it. So now we're going to turn from the Arab world and the Middle East to Latin America and it is wonderful to have a real live artist among us and not those of us who can't do teach category and it's nothing better than someone who's not an artist talking about artists. I'm very glad to have you with us, Manuel. And I'm so glad that you brought props also. And so I would love for you to talk about your work and maybe with an orientation towards the subject that you and I talked about today, the relationship between art and identity in your context in Guatemala. Perfect. Well, thanks. First of all, I have to say that it's such a honor to be working at an institute that is celebrating its 30th anniversary as me the entire year. So I'm doing it because it was beyond my expectations. So yeah, so I am from Guatemala. I moved to the United States four years ago and I have been lucky enough to find the opportunity to work with such a fantastic group of experts in different topics and building. So having said that, well, what I'm bringing here to you is my struggle on identity. When I communicate to you saying, I am from Guatemala, I moved to the U.S., all those tags are bringing very different meanings for the context that you are. So as my colleagues were saying, what do you do when you belong to a government that doesn't exactly represent who you are? You know, life has to keep going. You have to keep going on dealing with the reality that you have been given. So what is my reality? I'm not going to take my conversation that far to the time when the two worlds connected, but that is one of the topics that I do challenge myself from day to day, because before being Guatemalan, I am Maya Quiche, one of the groups of the Native Americans of this continent. So that civilization doesn't exist anymore according to some studies, but I just happened to realize that when I was in college and I was trying to identify myself like moving from a small town to the city, I had to face the issues that I was not exactly part of the Guatemala identity group, because being Guatemalan is something that most of the people from the city can relate to, but not exactly people who are from the countryside like me. So when I migrated from my home from a small town to the city, I realized that instead of going outside to look for answers, I had to look back to the heart of my community. So that's when I decided to start using my art to communicate that I do have an identity. I do have something to say that is not exactly the same way of thinking that the Western world has imposed in the community that I am from a way of thinking. And it just happened that not all of us are exactly ready for that change. We are still holding some of our traditions. What I'm wearing here today is a piece of the traditional custom of my hometown. So this is a ceremonial headrest, which the main uses in Chichicastanango, where I am from. So this is a little bit of the issue that I'm bringing here to you, and that's why you see some of the art that is Maya in the exhibit. And that's just one part of who I am in my background. The other side is that I have been lucky to have the opportunity to work with the United States Institute of Peace Global Campus, an online learning platform that provides education and training in different topics in conflict management and peace building. I have found this project very, very interesting because I want to be part of this project that creates accessibility for people around the world, maybe some of my friends, maybe my parents, or some people that don't have the opportunity to travel or even to go to college in your own countries, may find some opportunities to get this kind of knowledge online. So this is a little bit of my role, of what I do, of who I am. Yes, so I guess... I wonder if I could follow up just with a quick question, Manuel, about the art that you have exhibited outside it. You explained to me that it has Maya motifs, but it's in a very modern medium, so could you tell me how those two come together and who's your audience and how it is received? Yes, so my audience in both, for the Maya art, are the new generations, the young people. I want to be that bridge that I wasn't able to have when I was growing up. When I was growing up I was told we are Guatemalans. It basically started to teach us Guatemalan history from the colonization and after that, before that it's as if nothing had existed. So I want to be that bridge for the young generations. What I'm creating is using stencil on canvas, spray paintings, because those are mediums of art that are popular for the young generations. That's a very beautiful way of putting it, to be the bridge that you didn't have when you were growing up. Thank you. I would now love to turn the discussion over to you and we're very happy to take questions that address any of the subjects that we have raised here. Or you may have questions on other subjects. I have a feeling that our group here can probably answer topics on many topics. Or you may want to address issues that you see in the country that you're from where art is working or is not working or could be used in ways that perhaps people haven't thought of yet. We welcome comments as well as questions. Are we using microphones or what are we using? We're going up here. Would you like to speak? Please introduce yourself briefly first. My name is Todd Wiggins. I'm a videographer, obviously. I've spent a lot of time at art galleries and so it's always great to meet a creative person. I wanted to ask any of you. I think all of you have a product. You as well, Cynthia. You have a product that can be sold, if you will. So do you ever think about the commercial, the pure commercialism of your product versus the altruistic or the societal aspect of it? Do you think about profit at all? That is interesting. I'll answer last. Go ahead, other people. I think mine is very simple because this book was all the royalties go to the U.S. Institute of Peace. So it made it easier. You might think about it, but you don't get it. Yeah, I don't think about it. But actually, to be honest, that was very liberating because then I knew that I could carry the voices and be the bridge. As you talk about, four people who may not be able to have their voices heard because of where they're living or where they come from, so most people who were interviewed wanted to be heard and they wanted maybe to help other people who have been in conflict situations and that was something very meaningful to me and I think it had a commercial purpose. I think that would have been in the back of my mind the whole time worrying about that and I'm afraid that would have, I don't know, might have ruined the spirit, so to speak. So I was very grateful to SIP for that and the publisher, which was an independent publisher, a small independent publisher who allowed us to use photographs because when other publishers were saying, well, we can't, it costs too much and we'd have to sell it for this, this small independent publisher roaring for his press said we'll publish it and we'll publish all of the photographs of the people because I felt like it was the photographs of the people that were critical to their stories. You are allowed to do things with photographs. I think that, as an artist, you gave that question quite a lot. I think that it is a fair question that I myself would ask a fellow artist if I met because I think that my answer for that would be that that is not my main goal while I create art. If I have to charge a month of money in case I create a nonprofit, an organization, I think that that is fair because I want to be autosustainable because I have other goals that I want to achieve. My art is created with educational purposes and I think that if I'm going to spend 70% of my time creating art with a bigger goal, I think that, well, how am I going to achieve if I don't charge for what I do? You have some thoughts on this, Leon? I do. I'll try to be brief. Look, there's nothing wrong with a nonprofit making a profit as long as you're reinvested in your next show. My problem is that the market is not yet ready. We make shows in the Arab world about Arabs. Now, the advertising revenue in that part of the world is so minuscule that it's considered a throwaway market by Hollywood. I will give you the 32nd answer to this. If I have a show, let's say I'm MGM and you are an Arab broadcaster and you say, I want that show, my in-house lawyers will charge more against their salary than your market allows you to pay for a full day. So that's the market we're in. The cost to reach each viewer in the Arab world is tiny. In fact, all of Arab advertising, typical human being gets 1,500 pings a day of advertising. Think of all the advertising you may see throughout the day. The cost to reach an Arab per year that's 1,500 times 365 is 30 bucks. So broadcasters aren't making money. They're in it for something other than making a profit. Content providers are not making money. By way of example, Israel, with a population of less than 8 million, has a healthy, robust market. The way that we have here, the way that China does, for example, and theirs, with a population of less than 8 million, is light years ahead of the total Arab commercial space that is 22 countries and 330 million people. So we look forward for this problem to be taken care of so that we don't have to send as many solicitations for folks going, I know you don't understand the language and your grandchildren may watch this show, but trust me, this is good. Can we get a few dollars from you? Well, or you could discover oil or gas. I think that would also solve your problems. But I'd love to answer your question in a slightly different way with regards to the Timbuktu Renaissance Project, which small plug here I hope some or all of you will stay and watch again with the sound on and also Leon's film on these two screens after we finish. And what the Timbuktu Renaissance Project is doing, it's a non-profit association based in Mali run by myself and another American, Chris Shields, and two Malians, Mani Ansar, who founded the famous Festival des Er, Music Festival in Timbuktu, and Salif Niyang, a agricultural entrepreneur from Mali. What we are trying to do, working in close partnership with the Mali and government, in particular the Minister of Culture there, is to promote peace, unity, and economic development in Mali following the extremist occupation through a focus on culture. So we are very focused on actually the potential of culture to generate revenue. That is essential, in fact, for that country to rebound. And it is a place, Mali, you may or may not know that Mali and music is the root of blues and rock and roll. Many rock musicians have made a pilgrimage to this festival. It's known around the world. It has tremendous commercial value both in terms of sales of music and also concert sales. The culture is what drew people to that country in tourism. That is still a little tricky in the north, but it's very safe in the southern part of the country. So we see culture as an absolutely essential element in regenerating the economy there, which is ultimately the only way that they will keep extremism at bay and thrive. So the connection between culture and revenue is very direct and very important in Mali. I'm not making money off it, but our project will be a success if the Malians are. Yes, Hanna, do you want to stand? Well, I don't have to see you. Everyone else can see you. Hi, I'm Hanna with the Institute of Peace, but I actually have a question from Sarah who's joining us online and viewing from Canada. Colette and Leon, you both spoke about the restorative work of art in a post-conflict society. And Sarah's question is, what are some ways that art can be used within peace processes, such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions? Well, look, there are so many ways to use it. I'm only going to speak about my work for the film that we saw two minutes of the trailer of the film. What I want to do is come up with photo boots, not the app on your phones, but real photo boots, and skin them in a way that it's a safe space and put them out throughout Lebanon. You go in, you close the curtain, you watch a few minutes from the film, and it says, would you like to share your experience from the war? Huge yes, tiny no. Or, if you're not sure, it may play 45 seconds from someone saying, during the war I was a victim, so-and-so from my family is still missing, is a disappeared person. If you have any ways, if you know anything, here's how you can reach me, or during the war I was a perpetrator, I did the following, I felt terrible about it, and, you know, I'm human, forgive me, you know. And then you can say yes, I want to share, you can say I wasn't born during the war, here's what I heard, and what we want to do is, once a week, go to all of these photo boots, collect the footage, edit it, and put some of it on social media and get an actual truth and reconciliation. Some of the folks that are in the film, it's interesting, one guy every year says, I have the locations of some graves that are mass graves. I want to share that information, but I don't want to be the only one. So those from the other sides are welcome to sit down and let's disclose all of the locations so that people can have closure. So that's just one specific example. I'm not as creative as others on the panel, but I'd like to just give a couple of examples. That is creative, and I'll say two things. There are a few traditional methods, but I think the world is wide open, so to speak, to figure out new ways, and I think we keep going back to the same old ways of doing it, and one traditional way, and these are valid, but I think it really needs a new area to reconsider how we move past, how we use art, how we heal, how we move forward. But some of the traditional ways are, for example, documentaries that we mentioned. USIP produced one called Confronting the Truth, and it's been used as a tool all over. We brought it to Libya, it's in Arabic, it's in Bosnian, all different languages, and it goes through three different Truth Commission experiences and listens to the people. Experts standing up and saying, you need a Truth Commission, you need this, telling people what to do, it's a facilitated discussion. Manal Omar, my colleague, when the revolution was still going on in Libya and met with civil society youth groups, women's groups, showed the film and used a facilitated discussion. What does this mean for you? Because it's too many times people coming in and telling people what methods they need to use instead of trying to figure out what will work in that context. We're using this facilitated discussion rather than a dictate. Another thing are memory museums. You see the Holocaust Museum in the United States. In Aikucho, it was this memory museum where everything from clothes to the retablos that I mentioned, to paintings, to recreations, they brought in artists to create postcards, children who use postcards of their memories of the war. That's another type of more traditional. The third one I'll say are memorials. As I mentioned, the martyrs, a museum in Libya, and also there was one in Yemen that I was taken through of the photographs. Culturally it was very difficult for some of us because you're seeing these very graphic photos, but culturally that was very important in Yemen. It was important in Libya so we needed to honor that. It wasn't the nice little pretty photos from their college graduations, but it was of the death, and so that was one way. But it's these memorials or art, you'll see big sculptures that people can come around or pawns, reflection pawns. I know there's a lot of talk after 9-11 of how will that monument be and a friend of mine who came up with the idea for the Vietnam Memorial. He was a lawyer like me, so some of us could be creative. All my family are artists. I'm the one who became a lawyer. But he had the idea for the memorial for the Vietnam Memorial with the names. So anyway, there's lots of different ways. It just has to be very open to the community as a form of healing and not imposed externally. Manuel, did you have any comment on that? I guess that creative takes how to use art for the advance of peace building. I think that I was having this discussion with Dominic, who leads the Global Campus initiative, and we're talking about it. Do you create art? It is that art that you create with us, you know, with this platform, with this online platform. Not exactly. I would call it intentional art. Because I have an intention while I create these artistic tools and infographic. Well, I don't do the animations, but we have a team dedicated to the animations while some of the structures give their lectures. I think that that's artistic. It is that art, maybe, but I think that it's intentional art because somebody has an intention what creates it. And I would just answer with one quick example from Molly of the concerts organized by my colleague, Manny Ansar, which was a caravan for peace for two years now. And Molly, the challenge is the division between the north and the south, the Tuaregs in the north and the rest of the population in the south and the desire for the Tuaregs to be separate. And he organizes these concerts that go across the country and have musicians from all over the country and combine northern and southern musicians singing and musicians actually modeling unity. So a musician like Kyra Arby from Timbuktu would sing a song in the dialect from Segu in the south and she would say, I am also from Segu, we are all from the same country, we are all together. So, you know, quite literally embodying a unified country and music is the life blood of that country, so this reaches thousands of thousands of people. I think we have time probably for one more question if there is one from the audience comes alive, that's okay. Why don't we take I can take all three questions together and then we can answer them, I think it's the best way to do it. Thank you, Robert Thomason. I'm an independent web publisher, very fascinating comments. My question is about freedom of expression and the challenge to it in the zones where you work. I'm just hoping that you can speak a little bit to your experience if you've had it of overcoming challenges to freedom through censorship, any intimidation and or have you been able to carve out a very good space for yourself where that's not an issue? Okay, let's just combine that perhaps there was a question in the last row and then also here. So one question, one issue of freedom of expression or censorship. Hi, my name is Rajan, I'm a graffiti artist in DC a very similar question. Have you all ever worked on an art project that maybe through compromise and your client had maybe turned into propaganda? Good question. And one other question here. Hi. My name is Li. My question is a little bit related to the previous question about using arts in peace building and I was wondering if either the panelists have worked before or considered using arts as bringing different cultures together. For example, I was working with an organization in Israel last summer that used photography and sports to bring Israeli and Palestinian youth together and I was wondering if you would work on that more of an active way of bringing different cultures together. So three great questions. Thank you and I will turn to the panel and let you can answer all or one as you like. We had one question on the issue of freedom of expression and censorship. If you encountered that and then the idea of you are commissioned to do something and are you have one idea of what it's going to be but then it evolves into propaganda, maybe not what you had in mind and then bringing diverse or even people in conflict together. Khaled, do you want to go first? I wouldn't say so much active censorship more that as an author when we did the book I had to be very mindful of being a peace builder so even talking about how I describe the conflicts in the beginning there's no such thing as pure neutrality but how do I do it in a way that I'm not creating problems with the people I'm working in the country or often times when we're peace builders in the country you're pro this, pro that because it's often divided just like the U.S. Democrat or Republican and everyone wants to put you in camps and so you're trying to as I say peace building is done from the middle so how do you work with all groups so it's not so much as more self-censorship but in a way of being careful how do you get the story out honestly but do it effectively so you're not marginalized that they think you're trying to do propaganda that's one part of it and the other part is a lot of people we interviewed because of the sensitivity what was going on especially in Libya and a couple other countries they couldn't have their idea, Iraq because of what's going on there now and some of the interviews were done just six months ago, they had to not have their name or identity so it's a form of censorship because they feel they'll be killed so I don't know if that's exactly your question but it was a powerful censorship and just on graffiti, I can't really answer your question but I love graffiti and I was so blown away by the graffiti that we saw in Libya and I actually thought about this before a lot of the photos in Libya and Yemen I was just so blown away by what I saw there and there was a graffiti artist there in Benghazi who was actually killed because he was so powerful in what he was doing leading up to the revolution because it was so powerful and calling for change, he was killed so I wanted to get a lot of photos and leave it in another exhibition I'd love to do it just on the graffiti that we saw in Yemen and Libya Just to jump in on that because Egypt's one of their most famous graffiti artists again what is now living in New York our benefit Egypt's loss because the current CC government made it impossible for him to stay there interestingly he survived the first Scaff government and the Morsi government he's the one who did the famous piece of graffiti of the army tank with the little person standing in front of it that kept being erased and he kept going back and putting it on again but he's now living in New York because it's not safe for him to live in Egypt anymore so fortunately he killed him but I guess I would like to touch on these two topics talking a little bit about a short film that I made in 2010 this short film touches on topics of religion and cultural imposition so these topics are strong so what I had the challenges that I had as the writer and as the director were facing how to communicate to the people that I was going to talk about this that I was going to present this I remember that we were going to shoot the scenes inside the church I'm talking about a not very pleasant scene so I was struggling with so much tension because in context in Guatemala you don't question religion or Catholicism and if you do you are doing something that is wrong so I remember shooting these really quick I did only one take of that scene because I was so nervous that I knew that I could have been kicked out of the church or just having a more difficult situation on that on the propaganda part I think that my biggest fear when I create my art is not that it turns into a propaganda piece of art but that it turns into a folklorism piece of art that because I do have such a big amount of respect for what I create that somebody is going to start using that as a piece to bring tourism that's my biggest fear interesting just to point out everything is different I'm hoping that the Malian culture will bring tourism and you're hoping there won't be use for that yes the last part could you refresh your mind on yes exactly so this short film has an open ending and the open ending the main goal is to have people start talking about this identity thing because in order for us to become a better society and my understanding is to have these discussions talk to each other what do you think, why don't you think about it and it is really hard because we just passed a 36 years civil war in Guatemala where it was pretty strong so censorship was not exactly done it was done by the main powers at the moment during the war but after that the society or parents didn't allow us to speak about strong issues you compromise every single day and when you watch your film all you see are the compromises if I do something that will make the donor happy I may not be happy with myself as a filmmaker, the person who's in the film may feel that I've changed the essence of what they said to fit into a diagram that project officer or program officer or whatever family foundation they're calling it these days would want the world to fit in but if I'm staying too true to what the broadcaster wants then I may never work again as a filmmaker so you have to find a happy medium between what you would like to do because life is too short to make propaganda so you have something you have a story that you want to tell so you're waking up every day and you're calling people and saying guys I really think you should invest in this next film then you have folks that will be in that film be it local heroes or folks that you think will become a local hero they're just too young to realize it so you have their future in your hands you're talking about countries where it's very easy to get a phone call one day and asylum away from being in New York so there's compromises no propaganda others may do it and they may have less white hair than me and that's fine there's a market for that but you have to be able to also compromise when the person whose story you're bringing to the screen has a lot of things that they would not like to show you know faces speak and this most amazing woman who works with small kids in Pakistan who are failed suicide bombers because their parents sold them her face is the whole story she said you can't use my face so in the film when we were editing it we called her Ms. Casper and that's the treatment that we gave her so how credible is someone who is looking at a camera but you can't see them and they're speaking you know as a filmmaker you have to compromise otherwise what is the film worth getting that woman killed so very very very well put I may just take the moderator's privilege and end with a couple of examples I was going to say I have a region we haven't talked about Southeast Asia you brought in Pakistan I'll follow up with that and end on Afghanistan in terms of bringing people together I'm bringing together I'll reference the work of my friend Shahid Nadim the leading playwright in Pakistan with his Ajoka theater he does historical plays where he tries to bring to light and communicate and he held his performances are free so this is a very grass roots kind of theater which has a very strong tradition in Pakistan and he tells the story of famous Sufi figures in the history of the region I can't really say the history of Pakistan it's only 1947 but the history of the region that is Pakistan such as Dara Dara Shiko the son of Shah Jahan and his play of Dara actually was just the first Southeast Asian play ever shown at the London National Theater but this is a shared history this is the history of Pakistan also the history of India two countries whose governments would have them they had odds with each other but where the people feel a great affinity for each other so Shahid's plays of Dara or Bule Shah about another Sufi mystic are very popular in Pakistan they're equally popular in India and they really bring the two people together he has also a very effective way of evading censorship he does satirical plays too one of them is called Burqa Vaganza which makes it's a musical comedy that makes fun of being covered in every sense not just wearing covering but covering things that you're doing as well and in this play everyone is wearing a Burqa men, women, everybody and it's very popular in Pakistan but the authorities don't like it at all so it was banned he wasn't allowed to perform it anymore and so instead what he did was to notice that there was going to be another one of his plays performed, the audience came in and the police were there watching once it looked like it was going to be a historical play they left and then they pulled everything down and instantly did Burqa Vaganza they only got away with that once then they got onto it but it worked then and then I'll end on a slightly more serious note referencing the potential role of the United States in preventing censorship and enforcing freedom of expression using the example of Afghanistan where thanks to a significant amount of funding from the United States and others there is a flourishing independent media landscape you all may not know this but there are more than 75 independent media channels in Afghanistan both radio and television and it's a very free environment you can really criticize the government you can do a lot but the authorities are the greatest threat so some of the media stations find themselves being attacked and people being kidnapped things like that but it is a thriving media landscape and I think it is something that the international powers can do other than boots on the ground something you can do through the pressure of your international aid is to pressure the government to open climate and not to clamp down because it is something that really empowers the citizenry and is a critical element to building a democracy so that's a place where I think the US can have a role I think we need to end there so you can have a chance to see the exhibition outside and you're welcome to come ask our panelists other questions and also please fill out your surveys which you have on your seats I think and let us know what you are they on seats they're being passed out please fill out the surveys let us know them know what you think and thank you so much for coming it's really an honor to be a part of the 30th anniversary of this great institution and please watch the films again thank you