Closing Reception for Songs for Women Living With War
curated by Johanna Poethig
Pro Arts Gallery
150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
proartsgallery.org

LIPS OF LAPIS LAZULI, a piece for collective vocal sounding will be performed as a part of the closing event for this exhibition.

Songs for Women Living with War / Bahay ni Lola / House of the Grandmothers is a “living memorial” and anti-war monument that remembers women and children and the violence they suffer. This prototype public monument project was conceived by artist Johanna Poethig and inspired by writer Evelina Galang’s work with the WWII Comfort Women from the Philippines, the  “Lolas” (grandmothers).

Songs for Women Living with War is a house of many stories, a place to contemplate the effects of war on women and children. There are many war monuments but few for women. This is a memorial of transcendence, empowerment, and healing. It seeks to create a platform of understanding that these crimes against humanity do not begin and end on the battlefield. Sexual violence against women knows no time or place or nationality-it is a phenomenon endemic to our culture of war, patriarchy, and violence.