Survivor of 2008 Unitarian church shooting pens musical meditation to help heal trauma
On July 27, 2008, a man pulled a sawed-off shotgun from a guitar case and fired randomly into a crowd of worshippers at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike. He killed two people, wounding seven more, before being tackled by church members. In the aftermath, there were 73 unfired shotgun shells scattered across the floor.
Brian Griffin − then director of religious education programming − was there.
Griffin, an award-winning writer who holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia and has taught at the University of Virginia and the University of Tennessee, hasn’t been back since. He suffers from PTSD and has a hard time walking through any church doors.
So he uses his words. Not only to help himself, but to impart to others the horror of that day.
Forrest Wentzel, a Knoxville-based musician, composer and producer, grew up as part of a tight-knit musical family that includes his parents, singers Andrew Wentzel and Karen Nickell; his aunt, KSO cellist Stacy Nickell; and cousin, music therapist and cellist/songwriter Cecilia Blair Wright.
Griffin, too, is usually at family gatherings; he and Stacy Nickell are longtime companions. So when composer Wentzel was casting about for a new project, he happened to ask his writer friend if he had anything on deck. The answer was a resounding yes.
“He basically dropped this notebook at my doorstep a few days later, with a message on Facebook: ‘check your door,’” said Wentzel.
The manuscript was “Single Lens Reflex,” a finalist in the 2018 National Poetry Series and a forthcoming book to be published by Iris Press.
“After the TVUUC shooting I realized that I might have the ability to communicate what trauma feels, looks, and sounds like, so I began trying to capture my experience in words,” said Griffin. “I hoped those words would perhaps raise awareness of trauma and hate crime in a nation that seems complacent … too willing to allow mass shootings and mass trauma to continue.”
Griffin says that as a child he was taught many of the same beliefs that the gunman − described by neighbors as a “latter-day Confederate soldier” − held dear. “I unlearned them. He didn’t. Way too many people won’t.”
On Sept. 7, “Sanctuary Walls” was presented in a preview performance at Knoxville Opera Company.
Pianist Julia Haas performed Forrest Wentzel’s gloomy, multi-textured and at times virtuosic piano score − a distillation of Wentzel’s orchestral score − which perfectly underlies the images Griffin has set down. Singers Andrew Wentzel and Karen Nickell gave voice to the dark, sometimes nonsensical, sometimes desperate thoughts that flashed through Griffin’s head at the time. Afterwards, there was a question-and-answer period.
“I want people to know what it feels like to experience something like this,” said Griffin. “Children all over this country − they might’ve not been shot with a bullet but they got one just the same. I’m one of those people. I just want somebody who thinks that’s OK to read this book, hear this piece, and change the world. Because it’s not OK.”
“Sanctuary Walls” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at the University of Tennessee College of Music Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall. Info: https://calendar.utk.edu/event/sanctuary_walls_with_forrest_wentzel
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville church shooting survivor writes meditation 'Sanctuary Walls'
