Romanticizing Violence and Conflict
Moderator
Karen Brown, Director of Corporate Communications, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield; former News Director and Anchor, WMUR-TV
Karen Brown is the director of corporate communications for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire. She joined the company in 2001 and is responsible for media and community relations for the company’s New Hampshire operations.
Prior to joining Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Ms. Brown served as news director and primary anchor for WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire. In that role, she was regarded as an expert on the New Hampshire presidential primary, moderating several debates with the presidential candidates. She also appeared on network television and radio to offer analysis of Campaign 2000.
Karen Brown has a lengthy record of civic and nonprofit volunteerism. She currently serves as the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield representative to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Corporate Fund, is a member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Governor’s Council on Physical Activity. In the past, she has served on the board of directors for Kids Voting—Manchester, the American Cancer Society and Keep Kids S.A.F.E., a public awareness campaign dealing with child safety and parenting issues. Karen Brown worked with the Muscular Dystrophy Association serving as the NH telethon co-host for six years. Her commitment to volunteerism was spotlighted in 1997 when she served as a New Hampshire delegate to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future, an event chaired by Colin Powell.
Karen Brown brought her professional skill and personal involvement with young people to this discussion. We are grateful to have had her as our moderator.
Discussion Leaders
Denise Ferran, Artist; Director of Education, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Denise Ferran is the director of education at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she was involved in the planning and implementation of its exhibition programme since 1989 and initiated the artist-in-residence programme in 1990.
A practicing artist since 1963, Denise Ferran has had a number of solo and group exhibitions in Ireland and the US. She was awarded the Ulster Academy Silver Medal in 1974 and the Ulster Watercolour Prize in 1991.
Denise Ferran is a member of the Association of Art and Design Education in Northern Ireland. She served as chair of the Irish Heritage Education Network and as chair of the Education Group of the Irish Museum’s Association. She is also a member of the Academic Council for the Burren College of Art. As a Northern Ireland Committee Member of the UK Heritage Lottery Fund, Ms. Ferran has been responsible for awarding over 25 million pounds to local heritage projects during the past four years. Ms. Ferran was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2001 and is currently affiliated to Boston College pursuing research on Elizabeth Leech, a painter from Boston and first wife of the Irish painter,W.J. Leech.
We are privileged to have had Denise Ferran with us this evening as we examined how public art, particularly public art that romanticizes violent actions, becomes part of a community’s experience and belief systems.
Aqeela Sherrills, Founder and Executive Director, Community Self-Determination Institute; Negotiator, Bloods/Crips gang truce, Los Angeles
Aqeela Sherrills is a national leader in the movement for peace and nonviolence among inner city youth and gangs. After losing 13 of his friends in the gang wars of Los Angeles, Aqeela Sherrills and his brother Daude were inspired to bring the neighborhood gangs together in a “peace treaty” between the Crips and the Bloods—a treaty that has held ever since. Football great Jim Brown and Mr. Sherrills founded Amer-I-Can which was a curriculum for the development of self-esteem, teaching individuals motivation and the processes of goal-setting and decision-making. Mr. Sherrills traveled around the country for three years, developing the program and organizing peace treaties in different cities, then went back home to LA to focus on the peace process there. He and his brother subsequently created the Community Self-Determination Institute. They are redefining what peace is and what it looks like for people in the community of Watts. Aqeela Sherrills states that the key is that individuals consistently come back to resolve their conflicts to take the next few steps towards peace.
Through faith and perseverance, Aqeela Sherrills has helped turn the hatred around to create a lasting peace. Global Citizens Circle thanks him for inspiring all of us to make a difference in our own communities.
Peter Stringham, MD, Pediatrics Primary Care, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center; Assistant Professor, Clinical Pediatrics, Boston University Medical School
Peter Stringham is a family practitioner who has worked in the pediatric and adolescent department of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center since 1975. The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center is one of the largest community health centers on the East Coast and serves an ethically and culturally diverse community. Dr. Stringham is also an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
After medical school at Columbia and an internship at Harlem Hospital, Dr. Stringham worked in the Indian Health Service in New Mexico and at Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center.
Dr. Stringham has published many articles and frequently speaks to medical professionals about violence prevention in a pediatric practice. He regularly posts articles and advice on the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center website addressing teen issues such as dating violence, peer pressure, guns and self-violence. He also maintains a violence prevention website as a resource for professionals and parents.
Dr. Stringham continues to find ways to educate, communicate and heal in his community and beyond. We appreciate his participation this evening. His dedication and creative effort give all of us an example of working against violence in our society.
Media
Murals: Romanticizing the Violence
Produced by Van McLeod, Dawn Wivell and Ron Wyman
The documentary, Murals: Romanticizing the Violence, examines the example of Northern Ireland where the story of struggle,rage and violence, anguish and poignant loss, is played out on hundreds of murals seen daily on walls in both Protestant and Catholic communities—murals depicting the violence that has occurred and immortalizing as heroes to the cause those who have lost their lives in the conflict.
The documentary prompts a discussion of how public art, particularly public art that romanticizes violent actions, becomes part of a community’s experience and belief systems. It explores the challenges in Northern Ireland, but in a broader sense serves as a jumping off point for our Global Citizens Circle discussion which will examine the difficulty people have getting past the images of conflict that are built into their culture and the affect they have on the youth as they grow up in these communities surrounded by these images. Other difficult issues that the film will raise for discussion are:
- When, if ever, do cultures romanticize peace through public art, and why is this process seemingly more unusual?
- What messages do artists believe they convey and what messages do people living with them receive?
- What does an increasingly globalized media mean for culturally specific representations of violence or peace?
- What ethical frameworks can help us to consider the role of violence in our own lives and its impact on communities?
The proceedings of this evening’s program were filmed by New Hampshire Public Television.
