Submitted by Susan Grahame
Photo by Neil Grahame
One of the highlights of this year's December Celebration will be the
presentation of "Breaking Bread". a performance piece based on the words and
music from the theme song of Field of Flowers. Field of Flowers is a
Heartwood video being created to stimulate critical thinking about the issue
of domestic violence, and provide understanding and hope for a solution.
Artistic Director Jude Binder will be joined by Kathy Ames, Gina Burns,
Casey Harris, Jennifer Law and Haley Smith for this performance. The music
for the song "Breaking Bread" is by Ethel Caffie-Austin, internationally
recognized gospel performer, choir director and teacher. Lyrics are by Jude
Binder. The song "Breaking Bread" is sung by the Field of Flowers choir. The
choir recorded the song in June, at the West Virginia Cultural Center, as
part of the filming of the video. This 26-member choir, includes Heartwood
board of directors, students and community members, as well as professional
artists from throughout West Virginia. Heartwood and community choir members
include Harry Beall, Robert Burns, Saylah Creelfox, Stephanie Curry, Kendra
Curry, Cheryl Richards, Misty Richards, Haley Smith, Maria Termini, Frank
Venezia, Brenda Wilson, Jennifer Mullinex, Elaine Wine and Ilene Evans.
The production of Field of Flowers began in 1996, as a collaborative effort
by Heartwood and the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The
Coalition asked Heartwood to help create a tool that would depict the issue
of domestic violence, through the prism of art. This major public awareness
piece is currently in the final stages of production, with a goal to have
the video unveiled on the stage of the West Virginia Cultural Center in June
2003.
Binder has worked on Field of Flowers as writer, illustrator, dancer,
producer, director and co-editor. To begin her research for this project,
she visited shelters across West Virginia, listening to victims, abusers,
and counselors and becoming educated about domestic violence. She has used
what she learned to create a work, showing the underlying dynamics of abuse,
but which also shows a glimpse of a possible solution.
Jude Binder and Ira Bernstein in dance from Field of Flowers
Nine other professional artists have joined in the making of the video
including Ethel Caffie-Austin; Gideon Kendall, New York based illustrator;
Ira Bernstein, internationally recognized percussive dance artist; Ilene
Evans, West Virginia based storyteller and teacher; West Virginia actor
Michael Martin; Virginia based actor and teacher, Joel Baird; photographer
and Heartwood faculty member, Neil Grahame; and film-maker John Nakashima of
Morgantown, working with Chip Hitchcock and Larry Dowling.
When the work is completed, Binder intends to travel to shelters throughout
the state showing the video to shelter directors, their clients, volunteers,
and survivors of domestic violence. This video will carry a message of hope
and self-empowerment. Domestic advocates will be able to use Field of Flower
for a wide range of seminar and workshops. It will be made available to
professionals in the social service community, the legal and law enforcement
community, the medical community, the church and school communities and
civic and advocacy groups. It is the ultimate hope that Field of Flowers
will help make the general public sensitive to the real issues of domestic
violence, and to help move people towards action for justice, with the
realization that justice in the world begins at home.
Funding for Field of Flowers is made possible by the West Virginia
Commission on the Arts, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the National Endowment For The Arts,
the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, the Appalachian Community Fund
and many individual donations of money, time and talent.
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