Joseph Bathanti, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate and a one-time resident of Charlotte, recently contacted me about a new film project that deals with veterans from North Carolina. Titled Brothers Like These, this film tells the story of a creative writing class that Joseph taught to a group of veterans. Given that Veterans Day is just around the corner, now is a perfect time to spotlight this film and the veterans whose voices are featured in the film. I contacted Joseph and asked him for more information about the film and his work with North Carolina veterans. I also asked him to comment on the experiences of veterans from the Charlotte area. Here is what Joseph sent to me:
During my stint as North Carolina Poet Laureate, from 2012-2014, my signature project was working with returning combat veterans, all veterans, really, and their families to harvest their stories through poems, short stories, memoirs, plays, you-name-it. In 2014, I teamed with the extraordinary Dr. Bruce Kelly, now my great friend, a primary-care physician at Charles George VA Medical Center; and, in 2016, he and I co-founded the creative writing program there at the VA for Vietnam veterans with PTSD.
A very short film about that program was released in July of this year. It’s titled Brothers Like These, produced by Red Light Films & The Documentary Group and directed by Academy Award-winning director, Ross Kaufman. You can also read “The Church of Classroom B” on Thrive Global. What happened at Charles George is not about Bruce and me, but about those men, all from North Carolina mountain counties, who had literally stayed silent and tortured for half a century about their service in Vietnam, and the cruel reception they received upon return to the U.S, until they opened up on paper. I’m greatly oversimplifying the story, but as I say in “The Church of Classroom B,” I have never seen such a miraculous transformation in nearly 46 years of teaching creative writing, and the film says it all.
Thousands of men and women from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County served in the military, in a variety of capacities, during the Vietnam War, and 105 gave their lives. In the very heart of Charlotte, at Thompson Park on East 3rd Street, is the Mecklenburg County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. What’s more, I hope it goes without saying that Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are home to thousands of additional veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and, of course, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of whom struggle with PTSD and would profit from a writing program – not to mention the thousands that lost their lives in those wars. Charlotte hosts two VA clinics, and local colleges and universities all support veterans upon their reentry from the military. Johnson C. Smith University has the Veteran’s Hub; the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has a Veterans Services Office; Queens University, has a Student Veterans Association; and Central Piedmont Community College, its Military Families, and Veterans Services.
When I was just beginning my work with veterans, I wrote, out of the blue, for advice to Ron Capps, the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project in Washington, D.C. Ron, a combat veteran who has been to five wars and a fine writer himself, served 25 years in the Army and Army Reserve. He instantly replied to this perfect stranger: “Your target audience will be found in every imaginable venue in the state. You’ll find them and reach them in schools, hospitals, and Veterans Services Organizations … old folks homes, on and around military bases of course. Everywhere.” Including Charlotte. But they can often be invisible.
I commend Joseph and Bruce Kelly for providing the veterans in their class with opportunities to give voice to their experiences. As we observe Veterans Day here in Storied Charlotte, it is important to recognize that our community’s veterans and their families have powerful stories to tell and important insights to share.