Kevin Valentine, a Columbia graduate student in interdisciplinary arts and media, has been awarded a grant through Critical Encounters. The grant honors a project he is working on, Widows: Lines in the Sand, in which Valentine will draw 3 million lines over the course of the next year to raise awareness of widows in Iraq.

On Nov. 7,  Valentine teamed up with Core Project, a movement-based, interdisciplinary arts collective founded by Columbia alumni Matthew Pierce and Erin Rehberg. Others that participated were Bodyrewired, a group started by graduate students in interdisciplinary arts and media and Jabur Alturfee, an Iraqi humanitarian and human rights worker and refugee at the 31st Street Beach, drew lines in the sand to represent the widows in Iraq. Valentine plans to raise $3 million within the next year, and will be showcasing the line drawing in a number of locations.

Valentine is currently working on his thesis that will be completed in spring 2010, which focuses on raising money to help support three million widows in Iraq. Although the idea coincides with his thesis, he plans to make this an ongoing project and does not plan to be completed by this spring. He is currently trying to figure out how to raise the money.

“I’m trying to figure out if I have to be not-for-profit or if I can collect from another charity,” Valentine said. “One thing that seems really strong is to use pledge sheets to maybe get people at school or work involved, but it’s all unfolding now.”

Each of the lines display the large number of people affected by the war, which is not often brought to attention by the general media. Valentine said the number three million symbolizes the number of widows in Iraq that have been affected by the Iraq War. Valentine provides participants in the project with sticks to draw the lines and has them sign, date and write the number of lines they drew with the particular stick. Pierce, of Core Project, said  he had wanted to be a part of this project after Valentine told him what he planned on doing.

“Kevin had shown documentation from a couple of his previous performances and so we were aware of the subject material, but we hadn’t performed before, so it was a new experience for us in this project,” Pierce said. “I felt it was a very powerful experience for us and felt particularly like the viewers of the performance were really intrigued and moved. They responded positively, which was great to be a part of that.”

Pierce also said that the Core Project works with companies both internationally and nationally and hopes that Valentine’s project could function on a global level in the future.

Valentine said that while the number of widows in Iraq has not been recorded consistently,  he chooses to use the number three million.

“The United Nations estimates three-fourths of a million, but three million was the number used by [Nawal Al-Samarai],Iraq’s Minister for Women’s Affairs, when she resigned in February,” Valentine said.

Al-Samarai resigned in February 2009 in a protest to bring awareness to the fact that the Iraqi government had cut her funds to $18,000 per year to support women’s rights in Iraq. However, she rescinded her resignation when groups such as Oxfam and the United Nations asked her to remain in her position.

Alturfee has worked with women in Iraq teaching them to use sewing machines, and hopes that this project along with similar ones, will help the women in his country build sustainable lives. He said when he began to draw the lines in the sand, he started to remember the faces of some of the women that he spoke with before he moved to America.

“Before I came here, I promised some families that in the future people will help them,” Alturfee said. “After this, I believe I can be faithful and go back and help them in any way. I told [Valentine that] maybe [Americans] in the war can help with what the women need now and what they will need in the future.”

Valentine plans to bring this project on campus in the future. His thesis project will include an installation of chalk lines drawn over a month’s time on the walls, ceiling, and floor of the space.  As far as prospect plans for  the project, he  wants  to  include  the  tools  used  in  a future exhibition.

“We have the names of every person that died in Vietnam, but how many widows were there? That’s the same with Iraq,” Valentine said. “We know how many people we killed, but we forget about the widows and move on. These widows can’t eat or feed their children. There’s no medication or water. We’re trying to make

a difference.”