Tracing Memory » New York

Two Upcoming Events: New York and Guelph

n.a. — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:22:42 +0000

1. Memory: Silence, Screen, Spectacle, March 24 – 26, The New School for Social Research, New York

The clamor of the past can be almost deafening: it preoccupies us through speech, texts, screens, spaces and commemorative spectacles; it makes demands on us to settle scores, uncover the “truth” and search for justice; it begs for enshrinement in museums and memorials; and it shapes our understanding of the present and future. However noisy and ceaseless the demands and memory of the past may seem, though, in every act of remembering there is something silenced, suppressed, or forgotten. Memory’s inherent selectivity means that for every narrative, representation, image, or sound evoking the past, there is another that has become silent—deliberately forgotten, carelessly omitted, or simply neglected. The conference will explore the tension between the loud and often spectacular past and those forgotten pasts we strain to hear.

[I'll be presenting a short paper on the IRS TRC's first national gathering in Winnipeg last year.]

2. Animating the Indigenous Humanities, March 25, 2011, Transcanada Institute, Guelph Ontario

The TransCanada Institute is hosting a one-day colloquium titled “Animating the Indigenous Humanities: Portaging Disciplines, Institutions, Ecologies” with the Indigenous Humanities Group of the University of Saskatchewan on Friday, March 25th at 11:00am.

The Indigenous Humanities Group (IGH) work in transcultural and transystematic ways to nourish a new/old learning spirit into education at all levels and into every aspect of what is recognized, funded, and published as academic research. Since establishing over a decade ago, the IHG has aligned itself with critique of Eurocentrism and promotion of indigenous voice and vision. These two activities encourage decolonization in complementary ways, challenging established academic hierarchies, assumptions, practices, and outcomes, and seeking to implement forms of inquiry, dialogue, and exchange based in the adaptive traditions developed by the First Peoples of North America. More info: http://www.transcanadas.ca/

Thanks, Sachi for sending information about the Guelph event!

New York and Toronto: Two Upcoming Events

n.a. — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:31:08 +0000

I wish I could attend this event in New York:

October 18 2010, 6 – 8pm: The University Seminars on Cultural Memory and on Redress invite you to join in a discussion of the new publication, MEMORY: HISTORIES, THEORIES, DEBATES (Fordham), which explores the future of memory studies. Its editors, Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz, will present their project. Respondents Daniel Levy, Jenny James and Marita Sturken will join them in a discussion of the state of the field and its future.

Location: Room 1 on the 2nd Floor of Faculty House
(http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/map/faculty_house.html)

But at least I’ll be able to attend this event in Toronto:

imagineNATIVE is a media festival in Toronto running from October 20th until October 24th. See the program here. I’m particularly interested in seeing A Windego Tale, the closing night film.

A Windego Tale:

Against an idyllic autumn backdrop, Harold (Gary Farmer) embarks on a road trip north with his troubled grandson and recounts a story of their family’s harrowing past that began a generation earlier. In a remote northern community, Lily (Andrea Menard) returns home after a 15-year absence and reunites with her estranged mother, Doris (Jani Lauzon). When she begins to uncover the terrifying legacy of the community’s residential school and its ties to her own family, the weight of the past threatens to awaken the sinister spirit of the Windigo. With an all-star cast that includes the screen debut of acclaimed writer Lee Maracle, this gripping and potent psychological drama depicts the intergenerational scars left by residential schools in this dark chapter of Canada’s history, and the power of reconciliation and hope for the future.

Armand Garnet Ruffo (Ojibway) is a poet and professor at Carleton University, specializing in Indigenous literature. He is the author of two volumes of poetry, Opening In the Sky and At Geronimo’s Grave, winner of the 2002 Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry, as well as the acclaimed creative biography, Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney. A Windigo Tale is his directorial debut.

Upcoming Event – The Politics and Poetics of Refugees

n.a. — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:40:12 +0000

Check out the Politics and Poetics of Refugees, taking place from September 23-25, 2010 at NYU. For more information, click here.

IRS TRC and an Aboriginal principle of witnessing

n.a. — Sat, 08 May 2010 20:19:58 +0000

On Wednesday, April 27, 2010, the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission (IRS TRC) spoke at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in New York. Justice Murray Sinclair, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson spoke about the work of the Commission, its progress so far, and some of the challenges that lie ahead.

I had the opportunity to ask a question regarding something I had wondered about for some time. In the first footnote of the IRS TRC mandate, there is a reference to “the Aboriginal principle of witnessing.” I wasn’t sure what this meant, and was glad to have the opportunity to ask the Commission during the Q and A after their talk. They explained that, having inherited the mandate from the previous Commission, they too had been unsure about the meaning behind this footnote. Justice Sinclair explained that although the meaning of the footnote is debatable, Aboriginal principles of witnessing often entail a component of responsibility for maintaining the integrity and longevity of an event. In traditional ceremonies, like namings for example, the witness is called upon to remember the event, maintaining its history into the future. This principle of witnessing is particularly important for cultures that use oral traditions. In the context of the IRS TRC, the Commissioners explained that the circle of awareness will grow larger through witnessing.

The Commission went on to discuss the first national gathering in Winnipeg (June 16-19, 2010) and announced that the following gathering will take place in June 2011 in Inuvik.

Above image: Justice Sinclair (in mid-speech), between Chief Wilton Littlechild (left) and Marie Wilson (right) at the International Center for Transitional Justice.

If people have thoughts on the Aboriginal principle of witnessing, I’d love to learn more about the concepts and experiences it involves.

UPDATE: This post has been re-published up on the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) website. See it here, or check out the ICTJ’s resources on processes of transitional justice around the world.

Upcoming Event: Visual Citizenship at NYU

n.a. — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:58:36 +0000

I’m excited to attend! See the program for the conference here: Visual Citizenship: Belonging Through the Lens of Human Rights and Humanitarian Action – April 23 – 24

Art Through Reconciliation/Reconciliation Through Art – William Kentridge at MOMA

n.a. — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:57:31 +0000

“I believe that in the indeterminacy of drawing – the contingent way that images arrive in the work – lies some kind of model of how we live out lives. The activity of drawing is a way of trying to understand who we are and how we operate in the world.”

- William Kentridge

An exhibit of William Kentridge’s work is currently on display at MOMA in New York until May 17, 2010. I went to see it the other day with my friend Lauren and am now completely enamored with his work. Before visiting the exhibit, I knew a bit about the artist, mostly through his work on an amazing play called Ubu and the Truth Commission, but didn’t have a sense of his range and diversity. For the most part, Kentridge, a South African artist, deals with the realities of living in an apartheid and post-apartheid state. He engages issues of oppression, resistance, hatred, love and desire through several mediums including drawing, film, printmaking, collage, and theatrical performance. Go see it!

The image above: William Kentridge. Drawing from Stereoscope 1998-99. Charcoal, pastel, and colored pencil on paper. For more on Kentridge at MOMA click here or for a review, click here.

How Can We Remember – Lecture

n.a. — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:46:52 +0000

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 – 6pm – 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, New York, NY

Upcoming Event: Truth-Tellers

n.a. — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:59:23 +0000

“When the smoke clears, can we handle the truth?”

Full Spectrum and New York Theatre Workshop present THE TRUTH-TELLERS, a free panel discussion with five creators who dig beneath the official story to the complex, gritty underside. On February 26th, from 6:30-9:30, panelists Milagros de la Torre [artist/photographer], Alberto Ferreras [author/filmmaker/ performance artist], David Henderson [poet/author/activist], Meg McLagan [filmmaker/cultural anthropologist] and Liza Jessie Peterson [actress/poet/playwright] will discuss the ideas and experiences behind their work, and explore the larger question to us as a society, “When the smoke clears, can we handle the truth?”. The panel will be moderated by K. Neycha Herford [musician/transformational counselor/new media journalist].

This free event will begin with a screening of excerpts of The Peculiar Patriot by Liza Jessie Peterson; and Lioness by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers.

NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP - www.nytw.org

Dark Tourism and the Power of the Image

n.a. — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:23:59 +0000

I attended a talk tonight at the Center for Architecture in New York called Memorial and Meaning. The panelists, Michael Arad (who designed the World Trade Center Memorial), Frederic Schwartz (architect of several 9/11 memorials including the Westchester Memorial), and Louis Nelson (architect of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C), spoke eloquently and often emotionally about their work. But the highlight of the show came in the form of a photography exhibition that lined walls of the Centre for Architecture. The the work of Julie Dermansky, a photographer who has traveled around the world capturing images of memorials built to remember genocide and massacre in many different contexts, is both fascinating and unsettling.

The exhibit, entitled “Memorial Sites: New York to Nairobi,” contains an array of images that pointedly recount the story of atrocities committed by humankind around the world. Dermansky’s photos are often jarring: stacks of skulls in Cambodia and bloody clothes hanging on a wire in Rwanda. Others show more abstract images of human-caused tragedy: structures of steel or stone that represent loss and absence, that portray sadness and pain in conceptual form.

In her artist statement, she mentioned that there is now a term for this type of travel, for trips that take people to visit these memorial sites. “Dark tourism,” she explains, is becoming more prevalent.” A walk around the World Trade Center in New York can attest to this.

After the talk, I stayed behind to ask Dermansky a question. I thought her photos were amazing: simple in style yet burdened by the weight of their meaning. “How do these photos speak to the atrocities occurring now?” I asked. I suppose I was afraid that her project would perhaps be primarily about the past in a way that didn’t engage with the present or the future. She smiled and said, “Oh, it’s all about now. It’s about the Sudan; it’s about China.”

She explained further that current atrocities must be brought to the public eyes in different ways. People often feel overwhelmed, guilty, or don’t know what to do when faced with the enormity of international conflict and destruction. But the images she takes are a way to reference the present without pointing a finger. They allow people to ask how this violence can be prevented or stopped. It enables them to raise these questions themselves. No preaching, no blame, and perhaps a new awareness.

To see Julie Dermansky’s photos and read more about her work, visit: www.jsdart.com.

The Berlin Wall in New York

n.a. — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:25:38 +0000

A large piece of the Berlin wall resides in Lower Manhattan, not far from the site of the World Trade Center. Nearby is a Police Memorial, comprised of a short, long, stone wall engraved with the names of the police officers who had died in the line of duty. A pool of shallow water stands in front of it and a small plaque and wreath decorate its edges.

It was the Police Memorial that I saw first. It was standing against the innocuous background of the boardwalk in Battery Park City. It stood facing the absence of the World Trade Center. The piece of the Berlin Wall stood inconspicuously nearby – so inconspicuous in fact that I had trouble finding it. Eventually, I tapped on the window of the security booth located outside the World Financial Center. “I’m looking for the piece of the Berlin wall. I think it’s near here,” I said. The guard, a large man with a West African accent, pointed in the general direction of the water. “See that painted wall with the face? That’s it,” he said. As I walked away, he mumbled, “It’s just a wall, why would someone want to look at it?” and laughed to himself, puzzled.

I was glad though to have found it. The wall had been painted: on one side – a large green cartoon-ish face with deep red lips; on the other side – a more subdued but still whimsical abstract design in hushed nude tones. It represented several important moments in history: the construction of the wall after World War II, when it came down in 1989, and the years in-between where families and old friends were suddenly separated by both physical and ideological realities. There seemed to me something beautiful about this fragment of concrete. Perhaps it was in part that the wall had made its way to New York, that it stood here, not far from the Police Memorial as a reminder of a larger, global context.

As I raised my camera to take a picture, I felt the tension between viewing this site as a witness and viewing it as a tourist. The difference between the two subject positions is vast: one commands a position that is engaged, the other suggests a removed distance, an outsider observing but not acting. In snapping a photo, was I actively engaging with this history? Or merely collecting it for display alongside less emotionally and historically charged landmarks: the Empire State Building or Central Park. Leaving the question unanswered, I took the picture and continued walking south.

At this point, it had started to get dark and by the time I walked back towards the World Trade Center site, the sky had turned from light blue to pink, then to navy. I noticed people on the street, walking quickly past the site, engaged in their everyday lives. Others stopped and posed for pictures in front of the backdrop of cranes, fences and rubble. Again, I felt a sense of disruption: the tension between the everyday and the traumatic, the enormity of history, and the intersection of past and present.