Healing Through Art

By Amrita Raja

Yesterday afternoon, members of Blacksburg's community -- professors, parents, children, community leaders and Virginia Tech students -- all filtered through the doors of the Lyric, an independent theater in downtown Blacksburg, to attend a small presentation called Community Conversations Through the Arts. It was a chance for the community to reflect on the changes they've felt individually since the shootings and to talk about the healing they're searching for as a whole.

I was grateful for one of the films, a short documentary by Jack Bennett, which is a look into the archiving of the posters, paintings, sculptures, quilts, cards and letters sent to Virginia Tech during the weeks following April 16 last year. As the anniversary approaches, I find myself seeking out friends and fellow Hokies for support, unlike last year, where my grieving was a private, isolating process. The documentary allowed me to experience the overwhelming depth of empathy from the individuals sending their condolences that I shied away from in the past.

During the presentation a fellow Virginia Tech student shared her story and asked us to share our own. So, in the spirit of yesterday afternoon's event, I offer you the beginnings of a poem:

A canvas lies incomplete,
propped against the wall behind my door.
I am reminded every time I leave
that it is not whole;
it is a fragment, a failed thought
eleven months, twenty-eight days old.

The plastic pigment is dry and cracking,
the fabric roughened by my scrubbing.
I have lost my brush, my bottles of paint are empty,
its blue-green wash a wide, daunting expanse
that my fingers graze upon every exit, every return.

By Amy L. Kovac |  April 14, 2008; 11:00 AM ET  | Category:  Amrita Raja
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