PETER FRANTZ
Social Justice Projects - An assortment of projects below
“Abuse- The Prison Within”
who sits behind these bars
this cage
looking out, there is a square
small vision
on the box that lets a view past the door
dreams, futures are there
but approach is clumsy
like dragging a weight
tension pulls you back, it is your mind
those places forever scorched
by the perversion of others
visited upon the unwilling
sometimes the door is open
but the bars remain close by
it is a sad thing, this wedge
that divides humanity
between the whole and the scarred
for in the end it does not touch just one
but all that come into its presence
feel the unease deep in their self
they cannot name it
it is a prison
whose walls you scale over and over
you can climb out,
but the door is always open to return
you wish that it were locked
to keep you out
but the key that opens is all the emotions
of an imperfect day
and a weariness that comes
from endless escapes.
PFrantz
THE LYRICS
ANNA TOTH
FOR THE PANZI PROJECT
Peace Should Not Be This Fragile: A Portrait of Panzi
(this music speaks to the enduring tragedy of
sexual abuse and the struggle to overcome it)
I Must Return
Verse 1:
Know my time is limited
I can’t stay here for long
My bones, my breath, my mind are chained
Imprisoned even though I did no wrong
Temporary freedom
A larger price than gift
Healed above the surface
Below the scars surround the life I live
But will you sit with me for just a moment
I don’t believe that you can understand
The heart of who I used to be was stolen
What’s left is left to pace around an island
if I’m freed I must return.
Verse 2:
Go I’ll catch up later
I can’t go on like this
Maybe in the future
I’ll find the heart I missed.
Will you sit with me for just a moment?
I don’t believe that you can understand
The heart of who I used to be was stolen
What’s left is left to pace around an island
if I’m freed I must return...
instrumental
Could you wait with me for one more moment?
And hold my hand before you say goodbye
These patterns keep repeating
Everything is fleeting, but I try
if I’m freed I must return.
Artist Statement: The Panzi Projects
Peter Frantz, primary artist and curator
“Peace Should not be this Fragile: A Portrait of Panzi”
Graffiti Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Opening night for the exhibit- an exhibit based on a seemingly eternal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the heart of Africa. We are presenting a vignette of life amidst the uncertainty of endless struggle, in a land of honorable people. People whose fate seems bound to be determined by the few who are governed by an empty moral soul. In the east of that troubled land sits Panzi Hospital and its director, Dr Denis Mukwege.
At its heart, the exhibit is about the women and children of Panzi. We see them and tell their stories. A chronicle of the times presented by professional artists from across the country, along with student-artists from the Churchill and RB Russell High schools. The context of history - past, present and future, is all around us.
‘Doomed to repeat’ is too linear for me. The horror is not in the past, the bright future is not somewhere in the distance. We live in the swirl of time’s singularity on a constant basis. It is a moment and forever, all at once.
We look for salvation; perhaps we should look more to response. In the end it is always about response: to what you see, hear and live - right now. Response from parents, whose children-artists opened their eyes. Teachers who saw their lessons come alive. Lifelong artists who looked for portraits in the images from Panzi, and saw inextinguishable hope. And sorrow.
Art created by young men and women, who opened their hearts, creating a narrative of peace that spoke to history, but was painted with colors from the emotions of now. They looked into the dark, and they were surprised. And changed.
Perhaps we all were.
This is happening at the Graffiti Gallery - a wonderful place, with wonderful, caring, people, where the past, the present and future have no boundaries.
Peter Frantz
