Forging Memory

Hello everyone! We are back with a new post! In March of 2019, St. Lawrence University and SUNY Potsdam had the honor of hosting Francisco Letelier, a world-renowned artist. Letelier previously visited St. Lawrence in the 1990s, in which he helped students create two murals that are hung in the ODY Library. Letelier returned to the North Country to create a mural that will be displayed in SUNY Potsdam. During his time in the North Country, Letelier participated in talks on the Chilean dictatorship and the importance of arpilleras during the this time. He also discussed his exile from Chile, the assassination of his father, and the culture he took with him. You can view these interviews here: https://www.forgingmemory.org//francisco-letelier-blackboa

Professor Katherine Hite (Vassar College) gave a keynote talk on Chile and the politics of memory at the opening of the Sewn in Protest exhibition at the Richard F. Brush Gallery this past spring (2019). To learn more about Dr. Hite's work and to watch her keynote lecture and a separate interview with her by SLU student Owen Toland, please visit this link: https://www.forgingmemory.org//memorializing-movement-lect

Please join us this Thursday, December 5th at 4PM in the Lougheed Learning Commons on SUNY Potsdam's campus for the installation of the Bridging Cultures Mural! Last spring, 15 SUNY Potsdam students and 1 St. Lawrence student helped the renowned artist Francisco Letelier paint a mural that will hang in the Lougheed Learning Commons at SUNY Potsdam. To learn more about the work that went into the mural, please visit this link: https://www.forgingmemory.org//bridging-cultures-mural-pro

Please join us for a ceremony to mark the installation of the Bridging Cultures mural and to honor team members! Thursday, December 5th, 2019 at 4 pm in the Lougheed Learning Commons lobby, SUNY Potsdam campus

For those who were unable to attend the Sewn in Protest Exhibits this past spring, or for those who would like to see the collection again, photos and text labels for each arpillera have been added to our website. Thank you to Grant Currie and St. Lawrence University for helping us to digitize the complete collection before the Arpilleras return home to Chile this winter. https://www.forgingmemory.org/arpilleras-gallery

In this interview, SUNY Potsdam Professor Dr. Oscar Sarmiento discusses life in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship. He describes "La Resistencia," a resistance movement he was a member of with his classmates to peacefully protest the dictatorship, and he highlights the valuable work of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad and the arpilleristas. His poem "Missing," pays homage to two bright and brave women, Rosa and Nieves, who were exiled from Chile in 1973. https://www.forgingmemory.org//oscar-sarmiento-interview-a