Friday, 19 June 2026
9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. EDT

 

The purpose of this discussion is to explore how the arts and cultural practice can serve as a vital space for interrupting harmful narratives, fostering empathy, safeguarding histories, and sustaining more just and inclusive societies. The discussants draw on histories of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery, the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, to explore how arts and culture function as essential tools of witness, remembrance, and prevention.   The discussion is Episode 9 of the "Beyond the Long Shadow: Engaging with Difficult Histories" live discussion series.

The questions to be discussed are:

  • What inspired you to engage with this history artistically?  
  • What responsibilities do artists and cultural practitioners carry, given that cultural forms can both incite harm and resist it? 
  • What can artistic practice reveal about dehumanization that archives and official records alone cannot capture? 
  • What does memorialization look like in your practice when the history itself has been denied, erased, or attacked through hate speech? 

 

Panellists

Valika Smeulders ¨C Historian, Museum Curator
Valika Smeulders is a historian and museum curator specializing in the history and legacy of slavery and colonialism. She heads the history department at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where she played a key role in shaping the museum¡¯s landmark exhibition Slavery: Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery. The exhibition was on display at the UN Headquarters from 27 February to 30 March 2023. Her work centers on historical justice, representation, and the long term social impact of slavery. She was born on the island of Cura?ao, in the Caribbean, but lives and works in Amsterdam.

 

 

 

Nur Ben Shalom ¨C Musician, Artistic Director, Educator
Nur Ben Shalom is an Israeli clarinetist and cultural educator whose work centres on music, memory, and Holocaust remembrance. He is the founder and artistic director of Lebensmelodien (¡°Melodies of Life¡±), a project reviving music created and performed by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Lebensmelodien performs internationally at classical venues, synagogues, churches and Muslim centres around the world, and in 2025 at the observance at Â鶹APP Headquarters, New York, of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. 

 

 

 

Diog¨¨ne Ntarindwa ¨C Actor, Playwright 
Diog¨¨ne Ntarindwa, also known by his stage name Atome, is a Rwandan actor, playwright, writer, and cultural practitioner whose work addresses themes of identity, exile, memory, and the aftermath of mass violence. Born in 1977 in Burundi to Rwandan parents who were living in exile, his life and artistic career have been deeply shaped by the history of displacement and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Ntarindwa was a lead actor in Milo Rau¡¯s play Hate Radio, a reconstruction of RTLM radio, often called ¡°Radio Machete¡± where hate speech was delivered through jokes and music. 

 

 

 

Aida ?ehovi? ¨C Memory Artist
Aida ?ehovi? is a Bosnian American visual artist whose work centres on collective memory and genocide remembrance. She is the founder of ?TO TE NEMA, a nomadic monument composed of thousands of donated traditional Bosnian coffee cups filled annually in different locations around the world, as a participatory public ritual of mourning to honour the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. She lives and works in Sarajevo.

 

 

 

This discussion is moderated by Ms. Jayashri Wyatt, Chief, Human Rights and Outreach Programmes Section, Â鶹APP Department of Global Communications

Jayashri Wyatt is the Chief of Human Rights and Outreach Programmes, in the Â鶹APP Department of Global Communications. She is a seasoned communications professional with a wealth of experience in the Â鶹APP System producing high-level events, advocacy campaigns, and films for the Department of Global Communications, UNICEF, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Ms. Wyatt also has nearly a decade of experience as an educator championing women¡¯s empowerment and gender equality.