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Events to honor life of Alison Des Forges
UB will host a series of events next month in memory of Alison Des Forges, internationally known human rights advocate, one of the world’s leading experts on Rwanda and member of the UB community. Des Forges was among the victims of last year’s crash of a Continental Connection flight in Clarence Center.
The keynote event will be performances of the one-woman play “Miracle in Rwanda,” which tells the story of a Rwandan woman who survived her country’s horrifying 1994 genocide. The play, written and performed by award-winning actress Leslie Lewis Sword, will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11-13 in the Student Union Theater, North Campus.
It is based on the best-selling book, “Left to Tell,” by Immaculée Ilibagiza, which describes how Ilibagiza survived the genocide by hiding in a bathroom with seven other women for 91 days. The play has been performed by Sword to much acclaim in venues throughout the United States, Canada, India and Rwanda.
Other events include a reception on the play’s opening night and screenings of two films about the Rwandan genocide.
The reception on Feb. 11 will be hosted by the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee, which is raising funds for a scholarship and lectures in her name. The reception will begin at 6 p.m. in the Flag Room, 215 Student Union. Tickets for the reception and that night’s performance are $125 and will be available at the door, by e-mail at ALDMemorial@gmail.com or from Helene Kramer at 866-3876. Contributions also will be accepted.
Tickets for the Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 performances are $25 for general admission and $10 for students with ID. They are available at the Sub Board I ticket office, 221 Student Union; at the Sub Board online ticket office; and at a special Miracle in Rwanda Web site (click on “Tickets”).
After the Feb. 11 performance, comments will be offered by Rwandan genocide survivor Aloys Habimana, now deputy director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and by Des Forges’ husband, Roger Des Forges, UB professor of history.
Post-play comments on Feb. 12 will be offered by Monique Mujawamariya, a Rwandan survivor of the genocide and founder of the Rwandan Association for the Defense of Human Rights and Public Liberties, and Tim Longman, professor of political science and director of the African Studies Center at Boston University, who is a former Human Rights Watch researcher on Rwanda.
Claude Welch, human-rights specialist and SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the UB Department of Political Science, and Shaun Irlam, UB professor of comparative literature and a student of the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, will offer post-play commentary on Feb. 13.
The films being screened in conjunction with the play performances will be hosted by Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB Department of English, and Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, also in the UB English department.
On Feb. 12, the award-winning 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” will be shown at 4 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre. The film, which was nominated for an Academy Award, will be followed by commentary by Paul Rusesbagina, whose heroic efforts to save hundreds of Tutsis during the genocide are portrayed in the film by Don Cheadle in a performance that also was nominated for an Oscar.
On Feb. 13, the Emmy-nominated HBO film “Sometimes in April” will be screened at 5 p.m., also in the Student Union Theatre. Directed by Raoul Peck, “Sometimes in April” also is based on actual events. The drama tells the tale of two brothers—one a military man, the other a DJ—whose differing loyalties find them on opposing sides of the conflict, and whose lives would be forever changed by this tragic turn of events.
The organizer of the three-day event is DeWane Allen Harris, BA ’93.
Des Forges, who served as senior advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch for the last 20 years of her life, was an adjunct member of the UB history faculty during the 1990s and received an honorary doctorate from SUNY during UB’s 155th general commencement ceremony in 2001.
Her book, “Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda,” is a landmark account of that event and her tireless efforts to awaken the international community to the horrors of the genocide earned her much recognition, including a MacArthur Foundation Award in 1999.
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