American Foreign Policy Discussions at Penn co-sponsored a photography exhibition, discussion and performances Monday evening in the Philomathean Society Gallery in College Hall.
Philadelphia photojournalist Linda Panetta's exhibition, "Faces of Iraq and Afghanistan," documents the people and conditions in Afghanistan in 2003 and Iraq in both 2003 and 2004.
AFPD member and Wharton junior Aileen Nowlan claimed that AFPD planned the event in response to concern about a lack of discussion on campus about Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We chose to have an art event, because we want people to be questioning for themselves," Nowlan said. "We hope the students will leave this event with a sense of the importance of the situation facing the people in Iraq and Afghanistan and questioning what they as engaged students will do about it."
Panetta accompanied several family members of 9/11 victims as they visited people in the midst of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her photos documented stories of individuals and families injured by landmines and cluster bombs, involved in protests and squatting in makeshift camps. The images focused on the faces of grieving, smiling and struggling Iraqis and Afghans.
After briefly describing the photographs and their contexts, Panetta turned the floor over to Penn's African Rhythms and the Excelano Project.
Nowlan noted that AFPD chose to feature the Excelano Project because they have "a very inclusive relationship with the audience, and some of the work they do is about current events."
She also noted both groups' energy and celebratory nature, stating, "We wanted it to be a positive space."
After the performances, visitors looked at photographs, discussed the exhibition and munched on food provided by Bitar's, Bucks County Coffee and the White Dog Cafe.
Excerpts from a documentary on Iraq that will be premiering in Philadelphia in May played on a TV, and in adjacent rooms, some audience members asked questions of former Armed Forces members who served in Iraq.
Nowlan said she was pleased with the turnout for the event, which was roughly 100 students and community members.
"I think it is a sign of how much people have been wanting this question to be raised," Nowlan said.
College and Wharton senior Samir Najam found the event to be overwhelmingly emotional.
"The lack of humanity makes you feel sick," Najam said of the subject matter captured in the photographs.
Philadelphia resident Shingoo Cho found the event "very intense" and the photographs "very intimate."
While the presentation offered a lot of material and forum for discussion, Excelano Project member and College senior Carlos Gomez perhaps expressed the evening's sentiment best in his spoken poetry performance.
"Tonight, we will keep on singing and drumming, dancing and speaking for our dead," he said.
