|
 
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Looking Back: 9/11 Across America An Acoustic Exhibit Presenting American Voices in the Aftermath of Attack September 11–14, 2002  Listen to the exhibit (37:24 minutes) 56k connections: QuickTime (streaming) Windows Media Player (streaming) Real Media (streaming) DSL connections: QuickTime (streaming) Windows Media Player (streaming) Download Podcast: mp3 file (4.3 MB) On September 12, 2001, the day after devastating terrorist attacks shook the country, conversations at the American Folklife Center recalled Alan Lomax's response to another historic breach of U.S. territory. On December 8, 1941, Lomax—then in charge of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song—called on a team of historians and folklorists to collect American reactions to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Sixty years later, the American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C., put out a similar call for fieldworkers to document on audiotape "the immediate reactions of average Americans in your own communities to yesterday's attacks [and] how their lives have been changed." Folklorists, students, public librarians, and many others responded with about five hundred hours of recordings. From these tapes, the Center for Documentary Studies has produced Looking Back, an acoustic exhibition reflecting Americans' thoughts and emotions in the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. These voices—from California, Iowa, Minnesota, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, and other places—didn't make the evening news; they express sentiments from quieter vantage points, showing the deep impact of the tragedy on everyday life across America. In contrast to visual images from September 11, the Looking Back acoustic exhibit relies upon the more immediate experience of sound to connect us directly with other people as we share the spontaneity and poignancy of their reactions. In addition to CDS, and venues in Oregon and Arizona, Looking Back will also be presented in the Orientation Theatre of the Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., from September 7 to October 26. As more individuals have a chance to participate in the exhibition, we increase the collective impact of this American reflection on what happened and how we've dealt with the repercussions. Looking Back: 9/11 Across America, a project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, is produced by Sarah Chasnovitz and Elana Hadler Perl. Archival recordings are courtesy of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Additional support is provided by the Michael and Laura Brader-Araje Foundation. Some of the voices in Looking Back can also be heard on Days of Infamy: December 7 and 9/11, a one-hour documentary radio program produced by Elana Hadler Perl of the Center for Documentary Studies and John Biewen of American RadioWorks, the national documentary project of Minnesota Public Radio and NPR News. Days of Infamy is being distributed to public radio stations across the country. The Center for Documentary Studies, founded in 1989 as an affiliate of Duke University, connects the arts and humanities to fieldwork, drawing upon photography, filmmaking, oral history, folklore, and writing as catalysts for education and change. CDS achieves this work through academic courses, research, oral history and other fieldwork, gallery and traveling exhibitions, annual awards, book publishing, documentary radio programs, community-based projects, and public events. In 1976 Congress created the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress "to preserve and present American folklife." The center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music. The center and its collections have grown to encompass all aspects of folklore and folklife from this country and around the world. Voices on Looking Back Blake Alley, Steuben, Maine Carol Barber, Fort Dodge, Iowa Kenneth Barker, Rock Rapids, Iowa Rebekah Barlow, Poway, California Lu Barron, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Keith Brown, Oviedo, Florida Walid Chaaban, Apopka, Florida Patti Chapman, Poway, California Anita Chawla, Takoma Park, Maryland Adam Cole, Keosauqua, Iowa Maureen Delaney, Iowa City, Iowa Meghan Duffie, Madison, Wisconsin Quanita Farmakis, Daytona Beach, Florida Jane A. Gibb, Fort Dodge, Iowa Adam L. Gospodarek, Madison, Wisconsin Greg Hamby, Norwich, Connecticut Andrea Harris, Altamonte Springs, Florida Lillie Haws, Brooklyn, New York Aaron Hill, Baltimore, Maryland Claas Kaeseler, San Diego, California Sue Kloss, South Lake Tahoe, California Ran Kong, Greensboro, North Carolina Bill Kyriagis, Plymouth, Minnesota Caroline Lederer, New York, New York Janice Lin, Winter Park, Florida Billy Jo McAfee, South Lake Tahoe, California Lori Messerschmitt, Sayville, New York Adeel Mirza, Madison, Wisconsin Katrina Moore, Naples, Italy Mike Newton, Urbandale, Iowa Bic Ha Olson, South Lake Tahoe, California Gabby Perez, Hesperia, California Sandra Perez, San Diego, California Deanna Rhiner, Fort Dodge, Iowa Peter V. Z. Roudebush, Fort Dodge, Iowa Susan Schulken, Takoma Park, Maryland Max Stein, South Lake Tahoe, California Reanna Stout, Orlando, Florida Christa Thomas, Orlando, Florida Rory Turner, Baltimore, Maryland Unidentified boy, Farmington, Iowa Bryent Vessey, Naples, Italy Zeno Vourliotis, Rockford, Illinois Laura Walth, Des Moines, Iowa Tristan Wassem, Bonaparte, Iowa Neil Waters, Poway, California Jeff Williams, Takoma Park, Maryland Yasmine Williams, Naples, Italy Rebecca Wills, West Des Moines, Iowa Kimberly Yamada, (no address available), California
banner image: Partial view of the Lyndhurst Gallery, one of four exhibition spaces at CDS. Photograph by Chris Sims. top |
|
Contact Us | Sign Up for E-mail Newsletter | Press Center | Site Map | Terms of Use | CDS Web Site Trouble-Shooting Guide
All photographs, texts, videos, and other artwork appearing on this Web site are copyright by the artist.