One of the largest and most comprehensive symposiums on the Vietnam War will open in several venues on the University of New Mexico campus Friday, Oct. 15.
“Vietnam: Voices and Visions Unfiltered” presents a public history of the Vietnam war, from all sides, through combat art, photography, personal correspondence, a speakers’ series, public panel discussions, films, courses and more. Several elements of this symposium will run through mid-January 2005.
Vietnam veteran and Albuquerque resident Brian McKinsey has devoted the last three years to pulling this project together as a way to give people additional insight and knowledge about the nature of the war and its effects on everyone involved during those troubled times more than 30 years past. “People didn’t want to talk about the war back then. I didn’t acknowledge my own service until just a few years ago,” says McKinsey. “Now I realize that many of us in the Vietnam generation are ready to come to grips with that time. And new generations are hungry for information that goes beyond the rhetoric found in history books.”
McKinsey secured partial funding for his project with grants from the New Mexico Humanities Council as well as corporate and private contributions.
This project features several components on the UNM campus. “Vietnam Visions,” at both the University Art Museum and Jonson Gallery, features art from the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago – the only museum in the world with a permanent collection that focuses on the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of its combatants. “Vietnam Visions” opens Oct. 15, 2004 and runs through mid-January 2005.
“Vietnam Voices,” at the Center for Southwest Research gallery in Zimmerman Library, features letters written home from soldiers serving in Vietnam. The letters were submitted by veterans or their families in a call for letters sent throughout New Mexico. McKinsey says that reading through the letters he sent home from Vietnam nearly 35 years ago reawakened his feelings and fears about the war that had long been dormant.
“Letters home truly chronicle the day-to-day history of the war that soldiers wanted to share with their families and friends back home,” he says.
“Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side,” exhibited at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, comes from the National Geographic Society’s Explorer Hall Museum and features photographs taken by North Vietnamese combat photographers who documented their country at war with the French and Americans. Until recently, these photographs had never been published outside Vietnam. “Another Vietnam” opens Oct. 15 and runs through mid-January 2005.
“The Wall That Heals” is an outdoor exhibit featuring a half-scale replica of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. This exhibit travels between cities throughout the country, and as part of “Vietnam: Voices and Visions Unfiltered,” it will be on display Nov. 19-22, 2004 at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque.
The “Vietnam: Voices and Visions Unfiltered” project will also bring to campus speakers like George C. Herring, author of America’s Longest War, and journalist Joe Galloway, co-author with Hal Moore of We Were Soldiers Once …And Young, the story of the 1965 battle of the Ia Drang Valley on which the recent Mel Gibson movie, “We Were Soldiers” is based.
In addition, the University Bookstore will host a series of author tours and book signings, along with an exhibit throughout much of the symposium. The exhibit will feature selected books, artifacts and maps, photographs and a guide to “suggested reading” on the Vietnam War. Local Vietnam veterans will also be scheduled to speak to the public about their experiences in Vietnam and upon returning home.
For more information visit: Vietnam Voices and Visions
Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989
Posted by scarr at October 11, 2004 10:30 AM