We invite you to join us at the opening celebration for this year’s interactive oral history exhibit, which will mix online and in-person, synchronous and asynchronous. As in the past few years, most of our students have created virtual exhibits, which will go live at 5PM on April 29. From 7-8PM on April 29 we will have an open house-style online event where you can congratulate students and chat with them informally about their work. In the weeks following this opening, each student will be holding at least one live event, ranging from listening parties to soundwalks, in-person and online. Stay tuned for registration details for these. You can register now for the April 29 opening - registered participants will receive the link to the exhibits by 5PM on the 29th.
Our students are creating this year’s exhibit in a moment of cautious venturing out. In New York City, spring is coming, and withdrawing, and coming back. We are now allowed to take our masks off in class, but many are keeping them on. We noticed that, in this moment, our work engages with the dynamics of inside and outside.
How much of our internal realities can we, or should we, share externally through oral history processes? How can oral history help us to understand and to cross boundaries - political, social, material, linguistic?
In this year’s exhibit you can hear about
People with experience tattooing in prison, who carry that experience out with them on their bodies
Penpal networks that connect people on the outside with incarcerated people
Chinese public intellectuals trying to explain American politics to people in China, and getting pushed out of the Chinese internet for it
NYC families who lost their loved ones to Covid, and then lost their bodies to Hart Island
Student workers organizing on campus, and connecting to workers in the outside world
Queer activists in Florida, where crossing county lines can mean gaining and losing legal rights
Falling into, and out of love in a pandemic
Getting to know rural Cuba through the lives of one extended family
A teenager surviving air raids in Japan during WWII
How a Chinese girl that dropped out of middle school later became a doctor
And think about
What would go into an archive of your life?
How can we create a shared understanding of what hearing means, to allow for dialogue?
Can artificial intelligence guess what is in your head?
How can the visual arts help us understand others’ memories?
Can we document the paths we did not take in life?
How do people stay connected to places they have left behind?