Sofa Issues Spring 2025
Human Recognition: Honoring What We Know to Be True
Gwen Hoeffgen in conversation with Roberta Hunte
“Resistance doesn’t have to look big. It can look like the normalization of that which is hated. It can look like simply loving people. Or putting forward a model of what care looks like in birth. And doing it in artistic ways so that people, on a feeling level, can relax and have a moment with that. Because that’s our knowing. But whether we honor it or not, that’s the question. I think that’s the thing in this life, can we honor what we know to be true?” – Roberta Hunte.
I first met Roberta Hunte during a visiting artist course, where she generously shared both her personal narratives and her powerful work centered on Black women’s reproductive care. I was immediately drawn to how Roberta told stories about maternal health experiences and the way her work engages with the body, theatre, and resilience. As someone whose own artistic practice explores how stories are carried in women’s bodies—through scars, breaks, and bends—I wanted to explore her work more. I invited Roberta into conversation to talk about the intersection of public health and embodied storytelling, particularly how data points translate into lived realities. At the time, we were only a month into a seismic political shift, and I found myself questioning how, or if, social change is made within an institutional context. What unfolded was a dialogue not only about political crises, but about the role of storytelling in creating a “human recognition”, and in building connection. Looking back, I think this conversation was exactly what I needed to think more deeply about the work I want to do– around care, loving, and storytelling as a form of resistance and social change.
Gwen Hoeffgen: I wanted to thank you for taking time out of your day to talk with me. I was incredibly emotionally moved by the work that you showed us during your visiting artist talk in our class, and I really wanted to talk to you about it.
Roberta Hunte: Thank you!
Gwen Hoeffgen: First, I wanted to know how you feel at this moment, as an artist and someone interested in social change work, with this national, but really, global crisis that we are in.
Roberta Hunte: I don’t feel good.
Gwen Hoeffgen: Yeah, me neither.
Roberta Hunte: It’s bad, and they are going full tilt. They’re eroding people’s civil rights. I don’t think the US Constitution was that strong a document to begin with, and they are doing everything they can to weaken it to just flimsy paper. So, I feel really sad, and frustrated.
Because Trump telegraphed so hard what he wanted to do, and now that we are feeling the repercussions of these hateful policies. Different people are thinking that this doesn’t feel so good. Othering is very seductive. It’s very seductive to view ourselves as separate from the suffering of others and then to allow others to suffer. It’s the idea that somehow others’ suffering isn’t as important as our own or that it’s “better them than me”. We have to realize it doesn’t work that way.
I said to some of my freshmen, what wedge issue have you tolerated? I think that is the agenda for this regime. It’s to create wedges and for people to see how much of a wedge they can get in, and divide us collectively. It’s interesting, I spoke to an immigrant student. She’s very against the anti-immigration systems that are developing. But even in that stance, she said “Well, if they get rid of the criminals, then that’s okay.”
And, and I said, “Well, they’re saying that any undocumented person is a criminal.” We cannot tolerate the demonization of groups. It is a justification for violence against people and violating rights. So I think, you know, that’s just deeply painful.
Gwen Hoeffgen: Yeah. These are manipulative tactics that have been used throughout really all of colonial history. It’s an oppression tool, in this way of “othering”. And now people pained by our systems are ready to inflict pain on other people. It’s an “I’ve had my pain, now I need you to have yours.” kind of thing.
It’s a scary time. And, I think it’s scary to be in education. It’s scary for health care. Thinking about the work you do in reproductive care. I have a friend who’s a gynecologist. And there was this moment, a couple of weeks ago, when all of their resources on the World Health Organization website just totally shut down. And she told me that those are resources that her team uses daily for women’s reproductive care. And they just completely disappeared in the blink of an eye. So not only do we now have an issue with access to healthcare, which we always have had economically, and in a gendered experience in access to reproductive healthcare, but I feel now health resources are becoming even more jeopardized.
Roberta Hunte: It is a crisis for healthcare. It’s an absolute crisis for healthcare, but what I also think is important is state and local government. We will see how my institution responds to these attacks on DEI. Trump’s words around DEI are interesting. It’s DEI and environmental justice. What is emphasized is DEI, but if advocating for environmental justice is a crime, then fighting against pipelines, fighting to maintain the national parks and prevent them from being mined is a crime. So these different people who are like, “Yeah forget DEI, who needs that?” will fall on this sword.
Gwen Hoeffgen: Wow. DEI has been more publicized for sure. But yeah. It sounds like the effects of the climate crisis will be visible soon.
Roberta Hunte: Right. Our national forests will fall. The failure to recognize the interconnectedness of our survival is dangerous. Thinking about trans and non-binary folks. You don’t erase people simply by saying they don’t exist. Because they will continue to exist as they have always existed. However, this administration can pathologize people and make it harder for people to live. More people will die simply for being themselves.
Gwen Hoeffgen: Yeah, I think it’s become normalized to create an exclusionary, unsafe environment for people to just exist as themselves. And thinking about access to hormones, and how much that will be affected, again it becomes a health issue. The danger is not just social and psychological, but also there is physical reality too. Anyway, I’m sorry to bring all of this up, but I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about the context we’re living in, because I think it’s hard to keep up motivation when voices are constantly silenced and the scale just keeps sliding in one direction. I don’t know, I feel like the momentum for social change out here is very low.
Roberta Hunte: Tell me more about this low momentum.
Gwen Hoeffgen: Well, I don’t know. I think as an art student, it just feels like there is not a lot we can do that will change things. Or maybe, I think that the norm has been to just accept it and go on like “business as usual”. It doesn’t feel good. It’s like wait, I’m going to work and going to class while there is an act of violence being committed? And, I want to create some sort of social change, but how? And who is going to listen? Also, this is the second time that Trump has won. I feel like the first time there was a lot of energy and movement towards resistance and fighting it. And yeah, the second time I don’t feel that’s in the air as much. I really don’t. It feels like people have been hit while they’re down. That’s what it feels like in some sense. It feels low and different to me. But maybe that energy shift is fear-based.
Roberta Hunte: It’s hella fear-based. Hella, hella fear-based, shocking, and confusing. Particularly in the way Trump stacked the courts. He was doing it in public. And people didn’t organize as strongly against that as they needed to. He created a wall of protection around himself. And also only a certain number of folks really pay attention to what’s happening politically. Artists are incredibly important right now. Whether they are speaking actively against what is happening or whether we are simply telling different stories, it is incredibly important work. For yourself and your compañeros, what are the stories that you need to tell? And how do you get those out? Because what I see in this upcoming generation is that they’re overworked, right? They’re working really hard, harder than their parents had to work, to survive. Even though I worked hard– I was working two part-time jobs and doing my master’s– I made myself sick. But I was still able to buy a house for $127,000.00 and I still was able to finish my master’s at PSU with about $4,000 in debt. And that reality can be very hard to come by right now. So I think students need to understand that they’re being cheated. But, they have to find the right targets.
Gwen Hoeffgen: There is a fight going on, and yeah, that happens when people are angry about reality. There are people at the top and people and the bottom, and maybe when we can’t reach the top, we just start fighting the people down here with us. I think within what I see, it’s that people want to fight institutions, but sometimes I think you have to use it. But I do think a lot of it is economics. It’s transactional– Like I think people sometimes are using school as a transaction. Because we’re paying for the school, and it’s putting us in debt, maybe there’s this idea that the degree should be given to us for that. Because that’s the type of capitalized system that we live in. I’m sacrificing something financially for something in return. But also, what will that get you? Specifically in art.
Roberta Hunte: It’s part of achieving what you want. And no one who’s created anything gets away without working hard. But working hard can’t be what we fight. But I also say that as somebody who works hard and doesn’t really know how to not work hard. I often look at people with this kind of confusion. But one realization I had while I was sleeping the other night was this: As long as my university can fight for me, I can stay at my university. But if my university is not going to fight for my right and ability to do what I do, then I need to find a different place that will allow me to do what I need to do. Because voices like mine are critically important to resistance. And resistance doesn’t have to look big. It can look like the normalization of that which is hated. It can look like simply loving people. Or putting forward a model of what care looks like in birth. And doing it in artistic ways so that people, on a feeling level, can relax and have a moment with that. Because that’s our knowing. But whether we honor it or not, that’s the question. I think that’s the thing in this life, can we honor what we know to be true?
Gwen Hoeffgen: Hm. What you said about “relaxing” is interesting to me. Because it’s tense right now. And when we’re talking, I think an audience can’t hear it when they’re defensive, or already rigid in some way. But putting an example out and allowing it to sink on an emotional level is the goal. I’ve been thinking about how health data relates to your work on reproductive care. I’ve been thinking about how data points don’t stick with people on an emotional level, but people’s stories do. Can you talk about how maybe you utilize that kind of practice in your work? Why is it important to have people tell their stories rather than seeing statistics about them?
Roberta Hunte: Yesterday I was at a hearing for the early childhood behavioral health subcommittee of the Senate. And we were advocating for a bill, 691, 692, 693. These are related to the Momnibus. And so I’m at this event and I think about maybe 30 people testified or so, and they were testifying about substance use disorder and the need for doulas. And what was so real for me in that experience was folks had so much to say. There was so much wisdom in the room. The things that people said were more compelling than the mess I see on TV. It was searing. I felt in the room the human recognition of each other. That hearing was art.
Gwen: Thank you for telling me that story. It’s so simply put, but says everything. I know you have to go soon, but I wanted to quickly also ask about how you transitioned from studying conflict into the work that you do now.
Roberta Hunte: I still work in conflict. This is just a structural conflict. But I work very much in conflict. That’s all I work in, honestly.
Gwen: Thank you so much for your time, Roberta! I’m so happy we got to talk. Hopefully, I will see you again sometime soon.
Roberta Hunte: Yes, of course, bye friend!
Roberta Suzette Hunte is a health equity researcher, facilitator, professor and cultural worker. She is an associate professor in the School of Social where she teaches courses on reproductive justice and social justice. She is a maternal health researcher and uses theatre and film to share her research with a wider audience. In 2013 she co-wrote and produced the play “My Walk Has Never Been Average” with playwright Bonnie Ratner. The play is based on her research on black tradeswomen’s experiences. Other playwriting and production credits are We Are Brave (2016), Push: Black mamas changing the culture of birth (2025). She co-produced the short film Sista in the Brotherhood (2016).
Gwen Hoeffgen is a visual and social practice artist who currently investigates the physicality of emotional experiences, and how those experiences live within the body waiting to be released. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in psychology, she worked as a social worker in the mental health, addiction, and cognitive health fields, and then received her MA in Drawing at Paris College of Art. Currently, as an Art and Social Practice MFA student at Portland State University, she use mediums of painting, drawing, photography, sound, and conversation to explore how we find stories within pieces, creases, breaks, and bends.