“We All Bleed Red”

“Can you hear me?”Senior Tommy Song belts out the words to the David Bowie original, bringing together all the students who sat in Mayer Auditorium that night and capturing the essence of “Space Oddity” as the well as the spirit of the event.The project—submitted pieces of art or writing conveying individuals’ experiences at Exeter—was displayed for the first time in the basement of the Academy Building last friday night. The showcase was the result of discussions with faculty, over one hundred hours of work and a gathering of student submissions that trickled in over the months. Working with other Exonians from around the world, Senior Kevin Zhen’s aim for the project was to encourage integration of the arts into the community. Another leading member of the project, senior Pranay Vemulamada said Zhen’s inspiration came in the dark throes of the night.

“We just wanted to make people feel and make people think—that was how we defined success from the start.”

     “Our hope was that people would look at our exhibits and just feel something,” Vemulamada said of the event. “Whether it was empathy or disagreement or even just reading a written piece and saying, ‘Hey, I feel like that sometimes.’ If that happened, that makes all the work worth it.”Upper Carissa Chen, who also worked on the project, agreed. “Stories are infectious,” she said, “I hope we can all share our own stories.”Outside Mayer Auditorium, stories and photographs written and taken by students are still hung. “All these people,” Zhen said, “we don’t truly know.” Hoping that these stories and performances would make something inside us more open and understanding, Kevin shared his project “We All Bleed Red.”At the opening of the event, upper Charis Edwards performed “I Could Have Danced All Night” from the play “My Fair Lady” in response to her particular identity at Exeter, for which she was met with tremendous applause. When asked why she chose to be a part in the event, she answered, “Sharing art brings us closer together and strengthens our Exeter community. Sharing art makes us vulnerable, and once we are vulnerable we listen better and love more intentionally.”Upper Meghan Chou followed Edwards’ performance with a heart wrenching poem about her struggle as a woman in Exeter, America and in the world. All in attendance were left with a line replete with finality: “I am oppressed. I am silenced. I am a woman.”After Song’s performance, lower Maria Heeter filled in her blank with the title of her poem: “What it’s like to be a poet at Exeter.” When asked about the Exeter community as a whole, she said, “I think we can always be more diverse, as for respect, we need to improve.”Once the performances were finished, attendees drifted from the auditorium to the hallway and back again to watch a “screen test” created by a class of 2015 alum. As a combination of clips from interviews with different seniors last year, it offered collective wisdom.“Carissa, Pranay and I offered the We All Bleed Red project in the spirit of Harkness and non sibi,” Zhen says. “Our hope in leading such a gallery was that students would stop to admire the artwork and something would shift inside them. We just wanted to make people feel and make people think—that was how we defined success from the start.”Upper Abigail Africa felt the project definitely accomplished this. “I really appreciate the effort that was made to include everybody in the Exeter community to show who they are, because that can often be hidden at the Harkness table. I think it was an amazing opportunity to hear some really expressive pieces of art and read and see who people are,” she said.