I think all forms of personal expression present meaningful ways for us to confront and process moments of trauma and tragedy. Most children of the early 1960s, for example, did not have access to counseling and were forced to internalize their grief. Some turned to music, art, and literature to tap into and release that sorrow. Tragedy and loss of any kind provide opportunities for contemplation and hopefully, renewal, whether one seeks meaning in a meaningless act of violence or to do justice to a horrific event by creating something beautiful in stark contrast.

Stephen Fagin

Stephen Fagin is Curator of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Since joining the staff in 2000, he has managed the institution's ongoing Oral History Project and contributed to collections, exhibitions, education and programming initiatives. The author of "Assassination and Commemoration" (2013, 2019) and an American History magazine biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, Fagin holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and the University of Oklahoma.

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