Creating Space: Be)Holding Love & Loss

“Be)Holding was a true and humane service to our community,” said Erica Cavanagh, Professor of English. This past fall, Michael Trocchia, instructor of [hilosophy and Collections coordinator for the JMU Libraries, orchestrated “Be)Holding Love & Loss,” an ambitious interdisciplinary arts and humanities events series on grief. The series, which ran from September through November, included exhibits, readings, talks and performances. Trocchia designed the event to foster intercommunal connection through conversation and art.

"I wanted to create a program with several entry points into a sustained consideration of grief, to provide ways in which the arts and humanities open up our experiences and understanding of love and loss,” Trocchia added. “It was important to have a number of opportunities and settings for the community to participate and engage in, to create an extended and collective reflection on the theme.”

Pursuing that vision meant mobilizing an enormously wide-ranging group of scholars and artists, writers and thespians, and dancers and social scientists from JMU, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and across Harrisonburg. “What Michael and his collaborators pulled off in organizing this thoughtful interdisciplinary series is stunning,” added Cavanagh.

Events held on campus included a public conversation between Trocchia and Jesse Ball, internationally acclaimed author of Autoportrait, Silence Once Begun and many other creative works, about how loss and grief — particularly after losing both his father and brother as a young man — have shaped his work.

The offerings also included grief-inspired exhibitions. Furious Flower Poetry Center (FFPC) invited Trocchia to curate its first broadside exhibit of the semester, and JMU Libraries assembled a book and media display composed of fiction, nonfiction, podcasts and music recommended by series participants, including some of Jessie Ball’s books. During an event at the Golden Pony, Artist Julia Merkel (‘92), Preservation Officer for JMU Libraries, exhibited Absense/Presence, a book sculpture created in response to the loss of her son.

Merkel’s exhibit was part of several downtown events that approached the topic in different modes, such as poetry readings and musical performances during a standing-room-only gathering at the Pale Fire Brewing Co. A panel of JMU faculty moderated by Trocchia later convened at the Golden Pony to discuss representations of grief in literary, religious and ancient philosophical texts, as well as in modern-day psychological research and curatorial practice.

Grief, panelists suggested, can help create meaning and authenticity in life. It can be personal but also global; through a presentation by Dean of Libraries and Professor of English Bethany Nowviskie, the conversation touched on the experience of ecological grief, an expression of climate-related loss. “Michael’s series was truly a community event, showcasing the best of the humanities,” Nowviskie shared. “It brought an all-ages crowd together across disciplines and fields and encompassed all types of media and expression.”

Another event held at the Harrisonburg Dance Cooperative (HDC) addressed the embodiment of grief — that is, how we hold, work through and express grief in the body — by bringing together both therapeutic and performative perspectives. Speakers included Jennifer Matthaei Cottrell, Certified Yoga Therapist; Anna Morris (‘12), Licensed Dance Therapist; and Rubén Graciani, Dean of JMU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and Professor of Dance (CVPA). The speaking portion of the evening was followed by a dance performance choreographed by Ellie de Waal, an instructor in EMU’s Theatre Program.

The series culminated in November with the downtown stage production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, directed by Trocchia and produced by Alison Trocchia, the Program Coordinator for Valley Scholars at JMU. Ruhl’s contemporary adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth renders from Eurydice’s perspective the well-known story that centers on Orpheus’ grief. The cast and crew included JMU students, staff, and faculty, as well as members of the Harrisonburg community and EMU faculty.

For Trocchia, “Whether someone came to one event, attended some of them or all, my hope is people were moved and deeply enriched by these series’ conversations, pieces, and performances."

This work enjoyed support from across JMU and the Harrisonburg community: the Office of Creative Propulsion, JMU Libraries, Ethical Reasoning in Action, General Education, Department of Philosophy of Religion, Creative Writing, CVPA, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, Friendly City Food Cooperative, The Golden Pony, Harrisonburg Homes at Kline May, Asbury United Methodist Church and the EMU Theatre Program.

“The Be)Holding series helped us explore what’s universal about grief,” Nowviskie added, “and what’s particular to each experience of loss. I’m so grateful to Michael for his vision in organizing it.”