Looking Back: 9/11 Across America
An Acoustic Exhibition of American Voices in the Aftermath
of Attack
September 11–18, 2002
Arizona State Museum, north building
On September 12, 2001, the day after devastating
terrorist attacks shook the country, the American Folklife Center (Washington,
DC) put out a call for fieldworkers to document on audiotape the immediate
reactions of average Americans in average communities. Folklorists, students,
public librarians, and others responded and the result is nearly 500 hours
of recordings.
From these tapes, the Center for Documentary Studies, an affiliate
of Duke University, has produced an acoustic exhibition reflecting how/what
Americans across the country thought and felt in the immediate aftermath.
These are voices that didn't make the evening news programs. These are
sentiments that address the event's impact, from the perhaps quieter
vantage point of physical distance but with no less poignancy and echoes
of distress.
Read Excerpts from the Exhibit and Share Your
Reactions Online
Duke
University Audio Exhibit
- hear the exhibit online!
American
Folklife Center September 11, 2001 Documentary Project
Photo by Jannelle Weakly
To open the ASM exhibition, in memory of those who lost their lives one year
before, Daniel Preston (Tohono O'odham) offered an American Indian blessing.
Following the blessing, the Manuel Intertribal Dance Group, led by Cecil
Manuel (Akimel O'odham), sang a flag song and a victory song, and performed
the Hoop, Eagle and Women's Fancy Shawl Dances on the front lawn of the
museum's north building.
The museum augmented the acoustic presentation with a small but dazzling
display of Plains and Western Apache beadwork with U.S. flag motifs,
dating from 1890-1970. Though it may seem incongruous, native artists
have long produced works incorporating the American flag. "This
past year we've seen a proliferation of the flag in basketry, jewelry,
weavings, sculpture and paintings," says ethnographic curator Diane
Dittemore. "Just as all Americans have felt the need to, native
artists are expressing their patriotism to assist in assuaging our collective
grief over last year's unspeakable tragedy."
Beaded Lakota Child's Vest, c.1890
ASM # E-1512
Photo by Andrew Higgins
In 1976 Congress created the American Folklife Center (http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife) 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.
The Center for Documentary Studies (http://cds.aas.duke.edu),
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.
Photos by Marnie Sharp unless otherwise indicated
