2014 – Israel & Ferguson

The One Truthiness began in response to my first trip to Israel.

I had long avoided Israel. I found the topic impossible to engage. Depending on with whom I was speaking, Israel was either completely Right or completely Wrong, both sides brooking no dissent or discussion. Nonetheless, growing up Jewish in America, it was the issue, the archetype of an irreconcilable and intractable problem.

Yet, in 2014 I had an opportunity I could not pass up — a small-group tour, designed and led by a family friend. I was particularly struck by two things. (1) As a nation, Israel is so young that everyone we met remembered the origin story of their community. They were actively involved in designing their civic structures. (2) We visited a number of bi-national communities — Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews consciously living together “in conflict,” developing processes to hold the discomfort and complexities, neither ignoring the irreconcilable differences, nor allowing them to tear the community apart — in particular the village of Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom and their School for Peace.

I was struck by their stamina, vision, vulnerability, and courage. The problems of the Middle East are multi-generational and existential. When you are fighting for your life, how can you put down the sword? Equally, how do you keep building a solution when there is little likelihood you will see it come to pass in your lifetime?

I came home to the Ferguson protests in my own community — America’s own multi-generational racial conflict where my fellow citizens are gunned down in the streets and live in terror, where the killers act with impunity, where people shout about Right and Wrong, Community and Responsibility, and yet people keep dying. 

How I saw there from here changed how I saw here from there.

Since then, America and the world have become even more divided and partisan. Many of us feel our values are being so disrespected that we can no longer consider compromise. It’s just too much. So, we draw lines in the sand and stop listening, and this project becomes even more important.

The One Truthiness

During the Ferguson protests, I was hearing conflicting perceptions of what was happening. On the one hand, my activist friends were shutting down highways and performing public actions with the hope and expectation of calling attention to the problem and creating social change. On the other hand, I saw people affected by the protests who did not remotely get what they were supposed to understand. “Why are they protesting in Oakland? It didn’t happen in Oakland.”

As an artist, I make portraits. I represent invisible human dynamics to illuminate patterns beneath the surface. In this context, I saw how we each have our own truth — our own “normal” experience of what actions result in success or failure in the world, of even what success and failure mean. And we judge ourselves and others accordingly.

What would happen if we could see each other’s realities? See how what works for me doesn’t work for you (and vice versa). See our own assumptions illuminated.

What did Officer Darren Wilson see when he saw Michael Brown? What did Michael Brown see? What did the eyewitnesses see? What did the community see? What did you see?

The One Truthiness was designed to

• bridge the gaps between our values and our perceptions of ourselves and others

• portray community with its complexity and conflicting realities

• reflect the good intentions and misunderstandings that bring us into conflict

• create transformative change by immersing people in an artistic representation of their own community

— Charlie Levin

Special thanks to Barbara Ridberg for introducing me to the following bi-national communities — the village of Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom, their School for Peace, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, the Jerusalem International YMCA, and a walking tour of Jaffa led by both a Jewish and Palestinian guide, telling the stories of a place through two frames of reference.