Coming Home To Us: A Trilogy Of Love, Loss, and Healing
Marjorie Van Halteren, an ex-pat from Detroit and New York City, lives in a village in northern France. I live in Brooklyn, NY.
A love of audio theater brought us together - Marjorie directed, and I acted - in a play performed and produced at the National Audio Theater Festivals, in Missouri, but Käthe Kollwitz and the themes of war and loss brought us together as independent audio artists under the logo of Entre Deux Amies. The life and art of Käthe Kollwitz always fascinated me. When my husband was killed aboard Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, I knew the incomparable loss she suffered when her son was killed in 1914, during the opening weeks of World War One. For the rest of her life, Käthe Kollwitz used her art in the service of her grief and opposition to war. Two of her sculptures, Die trauernden Eltern (The Grieving Parents), stand in the German Soldiers cemetery near Vladslo, Belgium, where her son is buried. Marjorie lives thirty minutes from those statues and we went to visit them together. We envisioned a trilogy that explores the impact of violence and loss on the earth itself, as well as in our lives, and the ways in which we heal. |
Listen to samples of Coming Home To Us
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Unquiet Graves, Mothers and Sons, Yesterday and Forever, were all broadcast on Public Radio
Unquiet Graves: Discovering Flanders From The Ground Up
Marjorie’s personal discoveries about the land where she has chosen to make her home. It was created partly as a response to the fear and grief on September 11, 2001 in New York City.
Mothers and Sons
Our sonic bridge between these two worlds. Käthe Kollwitz, a German sculptor created The Grieving Parents to honor the memory of her son who died in World War One; Suse Lowenstein, a German American sculptor, created Dark Elegy to honor the memory of her son who died on Pan Am 103. The two women speak across time and space to each other and to us.
Yesterday and Forever... recollecting Lockerbie
Within two years after I became a widow, I began recording five other women whose husbands had also been killed on Pan Am Flight 103. We helped each other begin to heal by listening to each other’s stories.
Songs For The Falling Angel
A collaboration between composer Karen Wimhurst and poet Douglas Lipton as a memorial for the victims of Lockerbie. Performed in Scotland 1991. This is the first complete performance available on CD.
The Grieving Parents Of Käthe Kollwitz
My first audio collaboration with Marjorie Van Halteren.
Helen Engelhardt
Marjorie’s personal discoveries about the land where she has chosen to make her home. It was created partly as a response to the fear and grief on September 11, 2001 in New York City.
Mothers and Sons
Our sonic bridge between these two worlds. Käthe Kollwitz, a German sculptor created The Grieving Parents to honor the memory of her son who died in World War One; Suse Lowenstein, a German American sculptor, created Dark Elegy to honor the memory of her son who died on Pan Am 103. The two women speak across time and space to each other and to us.
Yesterday and Forever... recollecting Lockerbie
Within two years after I became a widow, I began recording five other women whose husbands had also been killed on Pan Am Flight 103. We helped each other begin to heal by listening to each other’s stories.
Songs For The Falling Angel
A collaboration between composer Karen Wimhurst and poet Douglas Lipton as a memorial for the victims of Lockerbie. Performed in Scotland 1991. This is the first complete performance available on CD.
The Grieving Parents Of Käthe Kollwitz
My first audio collaboration with Marjorie Van Halteren.
Helen Engelhardt