I meet people. They tell me their stories. Mostly elders who no longer care if and how their stories will be judged. It seems more important to talk about things that, for too long, were shushed away, met with disbelief or indifference. Tabooed.
Rarely is the construction of “whiteness” considered explicitly. Why is this? Why aren’t we talking about the ways in which this construction happens? What are the consequences of living with such a construct? What are the demands of loyalty to a “we?” What is the price we pay for our collective memory?
Courage is needed. So is a willingness to listen without fearing a loss of identity. A triumph over superficial encounters is called for. A stop to the numbing efforts of indifference.
The work shown here is part of the Wetrocities collection. It’s about shared memory and love. About daring. About love and daring together, how they meet in the halls of collective memory.
People tell me stories.
This is the fictionalized collection of what I’ve heard.
Beldan Sezen is a visual storyteller, Wetrocities her latest work. Beldan was awarded the Three-in-One Chapbook Contest Prize for her graphic short stories “Fear City,” “Girls,” and “Demons.” Her graphic-murder mystery, Zakkum, was installed at the Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden. Institutional collectors of her recent books include The New York Public Library, Stanford University, and the Library of Congress. Watch Beldan’s animated short ‘From the Diaries of Two Breasts’ here, or visit her website for more. Beldan is represented by Booklyn, and lives in Brooklyn.
