There is No Place Like Home, Especially if You Have One

What: A Woman’s Perspective on Home

When: March 8, 1:00-5:00 pm

Where: Hjemkomst Center, Moorhead

A Woman’s Perspective on Home—a four-month long banquet of art events and exhibitions—presents an afternoon of readings and performances sure to expand anyone’s notions of home. African, Asian, and Western ideas associated with the social, physical, and spiritual structures of dwellings will be presented through original musical composition, dance, and oral presentation.

The event is sponsored, in part, by the women’s studies program at MSUM and takes place in conjunction with International Women’s Day.

The word home offers connotations of comfort, refuge and warmth. It also conjures images of homelessness and refugee camps—places where too many of the world’s population exist in sub-standard conditions. A Woman’s Perspective on Home, while a celebratory series of events which lauds places where creature-comforts are queen, is also a call to consider those who are without four walls.

The participants’ talents are exceedingly wide-ranging. Darin Henze will perform an original musical composition in response to this year’s theme while Marcia Retzer will read from her poignant essay “Coming Home.” Phyllis Emmel will perform her poetry work, “Jail as Home,” and Giavanna Maria Buonaratti will entertain with interpretive dance. And this is just the beginning.

Many others will showcase their artistic performances as well, including Maxine Moe’s portrayal of the biblical Susanna. Add to that the visual art exhibitions, which are part of the celebration, and the 2009 “Woman’s Perspective” becomes a feast of artistic interpretations of a most worthy subject. Gallery presentations include MSUM student artworks on homelessness, plus a display of log cabin quilts, along with an array of fine art. Refreshments are provided by Green Market Catering.

Nicole’s Fine Pastry hosts a related exhibition of heart warming and heart wrenching prints of original photographs, titled “Returning Home,” by photographer, writer, filmmaker, and humanitarian Debra Dawson. Her photo series depicts mostly Sudanese children and adults. Dawson is adept at capturing telling expressions of weariness, worry, loss, and yes—happiness—on the faces of her subjects.

She often situates an overblown portrait as a startling focal point in her compositions, which become portals into the souls of the sitters. In some of the works it feels as though the person photographed is taking the measure of the soul of the viewer, too. These are sensitivity-inducing and remarkably memorable images.

Along with Joseph Akol Makeer, one of Sudan’s “lost boys,” Dawson traveled to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya and to Duk Payuel, South Sudan, where she and a film crew captured images for the documentary “African Soul, American Heart.” This film is available, as are Dawson’s photographs, at http://www.debradawson.com or http://www.africansoulamericanheart.org.

Other upcoming “home” events include an exhibition of paintings by Milton and Molly Yergen (opening reception April 3 from 4-6 p.m. at Nicole’s), plus art shows at One Oak Place and the Creative Arts Studio. Classes on belly dancing, feng shui, quilting, drumming, yoga, and more are also offered.

The Fargo-Moorhead communities owe a debt of gratitude to Vicky Jo Bogart for continuing to direct this annual extravaganza that puts women’s lives in the forefront of our collective consciousness. For a complete schedule of happenings and to inquire about classes, please visit awp.handworks.org.