The Institute for Race, Justice and Civic Engagement
Professor Dr. Vincent Intondi, Director
In Cooperation with The Cultural Arts Center
Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus
7995 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD
The Hiroshima Children’s Drawings from All Souls Church, Unitarian
Featured at the Exhibition:
Shadows and Ashes: The Peril of Nuclear Weapons
An important art exhibition opens on April 15 at the Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College, continuing through May 31. The opening reception, to which you are cordially invited, begins at 7 pm on April 17. Please try to attend!
After a highly regarded exhibition of the Hiroshima Children’s Drawings (HCD) at The Katzen Center in 2015, this show was organized by Princeton University in 2017, where the All Souls Church Hiroshima Children’s Drawings were a centerpiece of the exhibition. Then they were featured at Cornell University (Rev. Rob’s alma mater) in 2018. Now they are “back home” where our All Souls Church Family can participate in the events, discussions, and film screenings associated with this program at Montgomery College’s Institute for Race, Justice and Civic Engagement.
We are very excited that we have been able to organize this exhibition for the public, and we hope that many people will come by to see it. Plan to be one of those people! Here’s information about the exhibit:
Shadows and Ashes: The Peril of Nuclear Weapons
Featuring works by: photographer Gary Schoichet; the Hiroshima Children’s Drawings by then children survivors of Hiroshima; ceramic masks by multimedia artist Marion Held; the poetry of John Canaday; and the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University.
The traveling exhibition from Princeton University, “Shadows and Ashes: The Peril of Nuclear Weapons,” sponsored by Montgomery College’s Institute for Race, Justice, and Civic Engagement, Peace Action Montgomery, and Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland will be on view at the venue: Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center located at 7995 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. Throughout the run of show, through May 31st, the exhibition will be accompanied by various events, including films, lectures, and discussion.
The installation will open on April 17, 2019, with an opening reception on 7:00-9:00 p.m. This exhibition of art and science examines the role of nuclear weapons in our society and reflects on their results. By combining artwork and scientific information, it opens conversations on the practical and the philosophical implications of humans’ continued efforts to create and to dismantle nuclear weapons. Further, discussions will engage all of us in thinking about our own personal agency in activism in the interest of our progeny, our environment, our economy, and our society.
This multi-faceted exploration of the implications of nuclear weapons includes photographs, drawings, masks, and technical information. Photographer Gary Schoichet provides portraits and reflective comments of Hiroshima survivors, as well as documentary photographs of the historic 1982 Anti-Nuclear Rally in New York City. All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., contributes the now world-famous Hiroshima Children’s Drawings (HCD) in crayon, pencil, and water colors from 1947 painted and drawn by young survivors of the atrocities wrought on them during that terrible war. An award-winning documentary film “Pictures From A Hiroshima Schoolyard” will be shown, along with other films. In commemoration of the human catastrophe in Japan, multimedia artist Marion Held presents visual language in ceramic masks as a response to her exploration of the site of the bombing at Hiroshima.
On the evening of Monday, April 29th, Planning Committee member Mel Hardy will lead a film screening and a panel discussion on All Souls Church and its history with the HCD, to include the work done by the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee, The A. Powell Davies Fund, and its relationship with the filmmakers Brian Reichhardt and Shizumi Shigeto Manale. This panel will address the Theological and Aesthetic Imperatives of Nuclear Weapons Abolition.
Dr. Vincent Intondi will present two lectures based on his continuing research and scholarship. Amongst others of his writings, he is the author of the comprehensive work “African Americans Against The Bomb”.
We will be posting related events as they are finalized throughout the time of the exhibition on our partner’s Web site, www.peaceactionmc.org/. Check back often so that you don’t miss anything.
For information on exhibit hours and parking, visit www.mcblogs/montgomerycollege.edu/cac
For more information, contact ASC Congregant Mel Hardy at 202.630.4635
