Winter 2001-2002
Images of the indescribable
Some things just can't be put into words. But senior art major Andrea Kopacek has found that "dealing with something gigantic has helped me find a voice and a direction in my art and an urgency that I didn't have before."
Among the images Kopacek is exhibiting in Nash Gallery for her senior project is "50 Stars," 50 digital composite images that relate to her changed perceptions of the world and its now-ubiquitous flags. At a candlelight vigil on Northrop Plaza, Kopacek found herself among hundreds of other students, embraced by a caring and searching community. That event has helped her cope, she says, and has furthered her understanding of the world since the attacks.
"September 11 woke us up out of our sheltered lives; we can't afford not to know what's going on in the world-now I read the news and talk about it more," says Kopacek. "It's been easy for people in my generation to not notice until now what's going on because we've not had anything big before. The world has changed so much it's hard to imagine what was important to us before this."
Before September 11, art classes complemented Kopacek's job in web design. Art was a sideline, not a living. Now she is considering applying to the University's M.F.A. program. "I see value in how art helps me to express things that can't be expressed another way and makes me feel I can do something about all this," she says. "If I am creating art, I am at least trying to say something about it."
Encouragement
Photo by Diana Watters
After high school, political science major Bob Cook traveled, lived abroad, and wrote caucus briefs for the DFL. Now a 23-year-old freshman, Cook is glad to be at the University.
"Both outside and inside academia, I've noticed everyone is more subdued, speech is constricted," he says. "But on campus it's better. Universities are the last bastions where you are able to speak your mind, and the symposiums are very informative.
"My political theory class really changed gears," he says, noting that September 11 presented a real-world case study in political theory. He also noticed what was to become a pattern for the weeks to come, a growing sense of community among students. "What struck me was every single student stayed after class to talk," he says. "Conversations were sometimes heated, but always respectful."
A cautious connection
Photo by Diana Watters
Historically, during times of national crisis dissent is muted, if not actively discouraged. For Calcutta-born Ela Rausch, a senior in American studies and sociology, activism seems to have lost some of its momentum since September 11 even at the University.
"September 11 comes up in everything," says Rausch, who is especially concerned about anti-terror policies that might impinge on civil liberties. "When we [students of color] think about ways that our personal liberties may become restricted, it's always compounded for us."
Photo by Diana Watters
That's also a concern for first-year student Helay Hassas and her sister, Husay Hassas, who attended a campus forum in which their father, Borhanuddin Hassas, a former history professor in Kabul, took the stage with other Afghani scholars and business leaders to explain Afghanistan's history to a rapt crowd.
Born in Kabul, the Hassas sisters, now of Apple Valley, Minn., speak fluent English, Pashto, and German. "When people ask me where I'm from, some look scared and surprised," says Helay. "People have not seen Afghanis much, and the images on TV are totally different from the people that live here."
"We are careful what we say-we might offend somebody," adds Husay. But, says Helay, "The U helps people understand Islam and how the Taliban came to power." On September 12, the subject in Helay's German literature class was sympathy and empathy. And her English composition class discussed tolerance. "This is good," she says. "I hope we keep talking about those things."
A defining moment
Photo by Diana Watters
The September attacks gave B.F.A. acting program freshman Jonas Goslow, 18, a big case of homesickness for San Francisco. It also jolted his focus and changed, he says, "the whole feeling of life."
"All of my professors use examples of how this event causes change in society," he says. "I find it's also become a well of emotion to draw from for my own acting. It's a tool for learning in acting: we see how these things affect us and the world."
It's a tool for music making as well.
Mallets flashing up and down the glossy marimba keys, Kyle Swan is playing a duet in the University Percussion Ensemble "For people 25 or younger, this is the first time something this large has happened," says Swan, a graduate student in music from Green Bay, Wisc.
"We don't have a Pearl Harbor. I remember the Challenger explosion and the Gulf War, but this is the first defining moment for people my age. If I want to put the kind of emotion generated by September 11 into a particular work, I can call on it at a moment's notice. I can never forget what it felt like."
The power of learning
On September 12, Jeff Kimpton, director of the School of Music, brought three pieces of music into his freshman seminar: a Ghanaean funeral chant, a Japanese work, and an elegaic American piece. In formalizing feelings of sorrow, these pieces might also provide relief, he felt. And besides, they demonstrated vividly the seminar's subject-the role of music in society.
Photo by Diana Watters
"We welcome music as escape, a way of connecting intellectually and emotionally, as a catalyst for thoughts and feelings, " says Kimpton. Following September 11, he notes, the School of Music provided music for several civic memorial occasions, including the memorial service on the State Capitol steps, a ceremony at the Vikings game, and a 500-musician concert at Ted Mann Concert Hall.
"Things have changed forever. We are not as secure, we are dealing with a clash of beliefs and cultures that calls for massive amounts of information to understand others," says Kimpton. "If ever there was a time to need more teaching and information about international politics or human relations to understand and develop a tolerant society here at home, this is it.
"All the ills of the world-ignorance, apathy, hunger, intolerance, disease, persecution, and genocide-can be eradicated only through education. September 11 tells me we have a long way to go, that education is more critical than ever."