Back to search

Living Memorial for Women and War

Three academic departments at Cal State Monterey Bay have joined forces to present a “Living Memorial,” a series of public art installations, performances and discussions called “Songs for Women Living with War.”

The Visual and Public Art, Global Studies and Humanities and Communication programs are collaborating on the semester-long project.

“I picked this theme because there are so many public memorials that commemorate wars, victors – primarily men. Though women suffer so much in conflict, there are hardly any public sites that acknowledge this,” said Johanna Poethig, who teaches in the Visual and Public Art Department.

“The inspiration was the work of writer M. Evelina Galang, who has documented the testimonies of the World War II comfort women in the Philippines,” Professor Poethig said. “This issue is still relevant in that the comfort women in South Korea and the Philippines want an apology from the Japanese government, which they still have not received to their satisfaction.” The consequences of poverty, conflict and sexual violence and how to organize against it and create works of art and creative actions will be explored at these events:

• Feb. 23, 6-8 p.m., University Center living room on Sixth Avenue</em

Panel discussion with Gwyn Kirk of Women for Genuine Security; Deborah Pembrook of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking; and Bonita Rivera of the United Farm Workers These feminist activists will localize this issue, and refer to"war" as many kinds of conflicts, intersecting with crime, poverty, imperialism and sexual violence. Organizational strategies to address sexual assault in military zones and as trafficked women will be discussed.

March 15, 6-8 p.m., University Center living room</em

“Amidst Three Empires: The Philippines Under Spain, the United States and Japan, 1565-1945," a presentation by Vicente Rafael, a professor of history and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington.

March 17, 6-8 p.m., University Center living room

Presentation by visiting artist/scholar Lila Ramos Shahani. She has many roles – journalist, head of communications for the Human Development and Poverty Cabinet Cluster of the Republic of the Philippines, and spokesperson for the Advocacy and Communications Group of the Inter-Agency Council against Human Trafficking.

April 5, 6-9 p.m., Black Box Theater

Reading by M. Evelina Galang of her work including LOLA’S HOUSE: WOMEN LIVING WITH WAR, stories of the surviving Filipina WWII “comfort women.” The program includes presentation of the public art installation Songs for Women Living with War.

For more information, contact Professor Poethig at jpoethig@csumb.edu.

Published Feb. 19, 2016