ABSTRACT
Donald Trump's presidency has been a source of real, symbolic, and rhetorical violence that has triggered both individual and social traumas for many North Americans. On a regular basis, the President makes decisions that inflict trauma (on refugees and migrants) that perpetuate cycles of violence (against women, ethnic minorities, and transgendered people) and that raises the specter of future traumas (through climate change denial, nuclear brinksmanship, and foreign policy). In this era of “Trump trauma,” the pretensions of #NeverAgain are highlighted by a Presidential Twitter account that transmits cultural trauma, denies traumatic memory, and threatens future trauma, in the daily cultivation of affective politics. This paper explores a case study that aimed to teach university students how creative activities, and specifically those that engage cultural traumas, can function as testimonials that promote both healing and dissent in uncertain times. By challenging students to share the various ways in which the politics of the Trump era made them feel vulnerable, threatened, and anxious, this activity sought to help them find ways in which aesthetic activities could provide solidarity and mitigate the experience of trauma on both individual and collective levels.
