{"id":2604,"date":"2019-10-03T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T14:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2604"},"modified":"2019-10-02T10:33:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T14:33:12","slug":"inspire-tula-goenka-su-professor-and-breast-cancer-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2604","title":{"rendered":"INSPIRE: Tula Goenka, SU professor and breast cancer survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Jenson<\/p>\n

Photos by Maureen Tricase\/Capture Your Moments<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula Goenka was 44 when she got her breast diagnosis. It was 2006, and Tula, a professor in the Television, Radio and Film department at Syracuse University, said there wasn\u2019t a lot of online support \u2014 social media had not yet taken off \u2014 and there weren\u2019t nearly as many support groups as there are today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very singular experience for me, I think,\u201d Tula said. \u201cYou know, you just sort of had it and then you sort of went on with your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But a cancer diagnosis is never really that simple, and Tula\u2019s experience was no exception. After a diagnosis, Tula explained, things move quite quickly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just been told you have breast cancer, and then you\u2019re like, \u2018What?!\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd then it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, what kind of breast cancer?\u2019 And then it\u2019s, \u2018OK, we\u2019ll just take out the lump.\u2019 And that\u2019s all they were going to do with me\u2014 they were just going to take out the lump. \u2018You\u2019ve got the best type of breast cancer\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s what they told me \u2014 \u2018and you\u2019ll be fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After Tula\u2019s lumpectomy, however, the doctors couldn\u2019t get clean margins, so they couldn\u2019t be certain they had removed all of the cancer. That, coupled with the fact that her tumor was estrogen-based and could come back at any time, was enough for Tula to make the decision to have a double mastectomy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Life marched on for Tula. A year after her surgery, she and her husband divorced. Her two children, who were quite young when Tula was diagnosed, grew up. But Tula did not put her cancer experience behind her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt changed my life completely, as it does anyone who\u2019s been through it,\u201d Tula said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Around 2009, Tula said she walked into the lobby of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse and saw a poster advertising an upcoming speaking event featuring Christie Hefner, then chairwoman and chief executive officer of Playboy Enterprises and daughter of the magazine\u2019s founder, Hugh Hefner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula is passionate about women\u2019s rights, and many in the Newhouse community were curious as to how she would handle this visit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent people \u2014 faculty, staff, and students came to me and said, \u2018Are you going to protest?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula neither attended nor protested the event, but it did impact her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really got me thinking at that point,\u201d Tula said. \u201cWould Playboy<\/em> ever put a woman who\u2019s had breast cancer surgery and silicone implants because of it on the centerfold? Most of the Playmates have silicone implants, but they don\u2019t have them for the reason that I have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula realized she could use her background in television, radio, and film to do something impactful for breast cancer survivors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a very fortunate place \u2014 I\u2019m an activist,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a filmmaker very much involved in justice and human rights issues, so now I can use my body and the bodies of others to tell the story of breast cancer survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula is telling that story through the Look Now Project: Facing Breast Cancer<\/a>, a photography exhibition and multimedia installation. Last year, Tula launched the exhibition at the Point of Contact Gallery on West Fayette Street, where she presented portraits of 44 participants, including herself, who have survived or are living with breast cancer. Twenty-five of the participants, including two men, were willing to take two photographs that hung next to each other in the exhibit. In one portrait, they were fully clothed. The other was a photograph of their torso, their bare chests exposed. The other participants\u2019 chests were also photographed, but Tula honored their request to remain anonymous. Cindy Bell, herself a breast cancer survivor, served as the project photographer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did was reclaim the centerfold,\u201d Tula said. \u201cBecause we have 44 people who\u2019ve been through breast cancer on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The exhibit, Tula said, was just one part of a multi-layered project. This October, she has moved on to phase two, a documentary theatre piece called Tit Bits<\/em>, where a panel of people \u2014 breast cancer survivors and their families, as well as renowned plastic surgeons who specialize in breast reconstruction, will tell their stories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula is working on the project with writer Nancy Keefe Rhodes, with whom Tula has previously worked, including on the catalog for Look Now<\/em>, and Kyle Bass, the associate artistic director of Syracuse Stage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tula said she had always wanted to do a performance piece, something along the lines of Eve Ensler\u2019s Vagina Monologues.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>She said society has sexualized women\u2019s breasts, and her piece is about reclaiming the word \u201ctits,\u201d one of the seven words that\u2019s forbidden on broadcast television, but she also wants to help answer one important question: What does it mean to have had breast cancer?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI really just want to break the silence of breast cancer,\u201d Tula said, \u201cand have people understand what a patient goes through, and for somebody who\u2019s going through it, to provide support for them and make them aware of the different choices they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tit Bits will be held in the<\/em> Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3 on Syracuse University\u2019s campus on October 24 and 25 from 7-9 p.m., and on October 26 <\/em>from 2-4 p.m. It is free to the public.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Jenson Photos by Maureen Tricase\/Capture Your Moments   Tula Goenka was 44 when she got her breast diagnosis. It was 2006, and Tula, a professor in the Television, Radio and Film department at Syracuse University, said there wasn\u2019t a lot of online support \u2014 social media had not yet taken off \u2014 and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,126],"tags":[739,157,968,215,969,967],"class_list":["post-2604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-health","tag-breast-cancer","tag-inspire","tag-survivor-edition","tag-syracuse-university","tag-tit-bits","tag-tula-goenka"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/fullsizeoutput-ea9e.jpeg?fit=3464%2C2351&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3326,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3326","url_meta":{"origin":2604,"position":0},"title":"Cover Story – Amber vs. Cancer: Strength and perseverance mark Amber Howland\u2019s battle against cancer","author":"Alyssa Dearborn","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Norah Machia As a young breast cancer survivor, Amber M. 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