PLAYING OUT OF THE SILENCE
CARLOS AVILA PIZZUTO
 |
| Juhi Adhikari |
Is this my body? I ask silently
I'm not always the owner of your heartbeat
They touch it, smile, get excited and leave me
Alone on an island of numb fear
Ideas that arise, feelings that crowd…
Is this my body?
From his flesh I hide in silence
In the confusion I hide the rage
In the mist I hide my desires
Are these my desires?
-Girl- another girl tells me
-I sang cheerful by the river and I was happy
Singing by the river makes me happy too
I look at her and she looks at me, eyes of
happy girls
We played together to sing by the river
-Girl- another girl tells me
-I was so lonely, my father didn't see it, it's
sad
Alone, invisible, sad... Sad me too
I look at her and she looks at me, eyes of sad
girls
We play together to look at each other and be
visible
-Girl- a third girl tells me
- Is this my body? In the confusion I hide my
rage
Confused girls with hidden rage
I look at her and she looks at me, her eyes are
my eyes
We play together to be sisters
-Girl- I tell another girl a secret
My body… they touch it with a smile, they get
excited and leave me
A tear runs down her face, too...
The five of us play together, we dance, we look
at each other
And playing and dancing, this body is very
mine.
CONTEXT: From July 24 to 31, 2022, around 50
people from 15 countries participated in an intensive peace education
experience IIPE Mexico 2022 (International Institute for Peace Education) and
during that week we participated in presentations, reflection groups, work
groups, ceremonies, and workshops. One of the workshops I took was called “The
Arts and Dialogue: Girls Sharing Their Issues”, a workshop that was facilitated
by Juhi Adhikari, a young educator and activist for the dignity of girls in
Nepal. She and the people she works with bring games and art to schools that
allow girls to express what they cannot tell anyone in an environment of much
control and oppression for girls. Adhikari invited us to imagine that we are
girls, that we have been harassed and that no adult is available to listen to
us... Then she invited us to play and share our joys, our preferences, our traumas,
and our secrets.
With gratitude to my friend and teacher Juhi
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