The Story America's News Media Missed

The annihilation of Sarajevo in the last two years has resulted in the murder of 12,000-15,000 people, the crash of all public utilities, and famine. The average weight loss per person in Sarajevo is an astonishing 40 pounds. When NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Fresh Air" aired a story last summer that a flak-jacketed Susan Sontag was in Sarajevo directing "Waiting for Gadot," it sounded, at the very least, like an odd thing for someone to be doing in that time and place. But this was actually only the latest of many acts of culture breaking out during the war.

World arts coverage has never been a strong suit of the American major news media. That's why they've pretty much missed the story called "Cultural Survival in Sarajevo." Ann Arbor is Suada Kapic's third stop on a tour of American cities to talk about what NBC doesn't.

The background to the story is that Bosnia's outstandingly diverse mix of Muslim, Serb, Jew, Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian had long made Sarajevo a haven of multicultural tolerance. One indicator: before the war there were 70,000 Muslim-Serb marriages. Not surprisingly, before the war it was also one of Europe's liveliest, most important arts capitals. (Sports news covered the city better--we know it primarily as the host of a spectacular 1992 Winter Olympics).

While water, heat, food and medical systems have been unpredictable to non-existent, art has been saving the city. The arts community is about the only functioning service in Sarajevo. Playwrights, musicians, novelists, sculptors, photographers, directors--all have come together in the war-torn city with a dedication that seems sometimes poignant, sometimes morbidly obsessive, to keep culture alive, and, in fact, to create new culture out of war.

Suada Kapic will speak on "Cultural Survival in Sarajevo," at Lane Hall Commons, Wed., March 23 at noon. The talk is free and open to the public.