Events
The Caesar Exhibit
Friday 7/23 • 6:00pm • A talk with Omar Alshogre
Fat City Gallery • 529 E Cooper Ave, Aspen
“My story seems to many to be brutally colorful, but the relevance does not lie in the extent of the trauma but how you yourself are affected mentally”
On Friday, Omar Alshogre will be delivering his testimony. He is a public speaker from Syria, a detention and torture survivor, and a Georgetown University student presently residing in Washington, D.C. Omar departed Syria at the age of 20 after being detained and imprisoned for taking part in anti-Assad marches and demonstrations.
Omar was ultimately smuggled out of prison at the age of 20 with the aid of his mother. Omar is presently the Director of Detainee Affairs and oversees the Syrian Emergency Task Force's efforts to lobby for the release of detainees.
During his stay in the United States, Omar visited with the White House, the Holocaust Museum, a number of members of Congress, HRW, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, as well as giving talks at Brown, Princeton, and other American universities. He's also a significant witness in every national prosecution attempt to hold the Assad regime responsible for war crimes.
Saturday 7/24 • 6:00pm • The Caesar Exhibit
Fat City Gallery • 529 E Cooper Ave, Aspen
On Saturday, in collaboration with the Syrian Emergency Taskforce, the gallery will be hosting the Caesar exhibit, a series of images that depict the torture in the Syrian Detention Center. Caesar was a Syrian military photographer who was drafted by the Assad government to photograph individuals who were killed in detention centers in early 2011. He began collecting photographic evidence of civilian fatalities. When Caesar's life grew too dangerous, he departed Syria and smuggled an SD card with 55,000 photographs now known as the Caesar file.
The exhibit will start with a panel discussion with Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force and Omar Alshogre, director of detainee affairs.
Mr. Moustafa spent a few years on Capitol Hill as a staffer for Congressman Vic Snyder and Senator Blanche Lincoln before joining SETF in the fall of 2011 to assist the fight for the pro -democracy movement in Syria. After the panel, the exhibit will be accessible to the public with private tours led by both the speakers to get a better understanding of the photographs, their stories and their significance in the SETF’s fight.
For more information about the Syrian Emergency Task Force, visit the following link: www.syriantaskforce.org
Sunday 7/25 • 7:00pm • Screening of “Red Lines”
Fat City Gallery • 529 E Cooper Ave, Aspen