Windows and Mirrors on Afghanistan open March 31

"The Children of Afghanistan"
by Camille Perrottet, New York, NY

The opening reception of the Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan, a provocative art exhibit on the human cost of war, is Saturday, March 31, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Michael and All the Angels Episcopal Church, 601 Montano Road NW, in Albuquerque.

The national exhibit includes twenty-five 3’ x 5’ murals created by U.S. and international artists to memorialize civilian casualties in Afghanistan. “These ‘windows’ on a war-torn country are also ‘mirrors’ reflecting back our own identity as a nation at war,” according to a release by event organizers.

The exhibit, which runs through April 21, will be accompanied by three additional events, all of which will be held at St. Michael’s.

The opening reception will feature Pat McCabe, a Dine artist-writer, art and performance art by local high school students under the auspices of Working Classroom, and a question-and-answer session led by Eisha Mason, a representative of the American Friends Service Committee. The Windows and Mirrors project is organized by AFSC.

A panel discussion on the Quaker theme “war is not the answer” is scheduled for Saturday, April 14, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and will include Ruth Flower with Friends Committee on National Legislation, Seamus O’Sullivan, an Albuquerque educator who worked from 2009 through 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Desi Brown, student advisor to the Peace Studies Program at the University of New Mexico.

Artists and poets against the war will take the stage Friday, April 20, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. A peace vigil and a closing ceremony are set for Saturday, April 21, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Additional details are, or will soon be, available at the exhibit website.