Remembering Empathy: An ArtIStory Project

The University of Richmond’s Modlin Center for the Arts welcomed Marc Bamuthi Joseph for a multi-year residency in 2023, following the powerful performance of his multimedia work The Just and the Blind on campus in 2021.

After conversations with Richmond historians, artists, and thought leaders, supported by both the Modlin Center and the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, Bamuthi created Remembering Empathy: An ArtIStory Project and introduced 6 themes of investigation for the project:

Memory

What the water remembers first...what the land remembers most... 

Folklore 

6 things I saw with my own eyes and still couldn’t believe...

History

What is the responsibility of the librarians before the libraries are burned down

Truth

Why I am ashamed...why I am sustained...why I am unhealed...

Facts 

We hold these truths to be selfless evidence

Erasure

Please notice, before I leave you rest...

As a way to formally investigate these themes, the project invited community members, faculty, staff, and students to join group conversations with Bamuthi. Through this process of deep inquiry, he created a libretto that explores the six themes as a pathway to collective healing and imagination.

Remembering Empathy joins Bamuthi's libretto with composer Tamar-kali’s soulful symphonic score and will be performed by the Richmond Symphony under the direction of Valentina Peleggi April 9-10, 2027. This world premiere of Remembering Empathy is co-commissioned by the Modlin Center and the Richmond Symphony.

The project will continue to engage with community members, faculty, staff, and students through 2028. If you're interested in learning more, please email engage@richmond.edu.