Northern Illinois University
Pick Museum of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology

Storytelling: Hmong American Voices

On Display at Aurora Public Library February 2 – 25, 2018

Originally developed by Northern Illinois University’s Pick Museum of Anthropology and co-curated by a Hmong Community Advisory Council, Storytelling: Hmong American Voices explores what it means to be Hmong American. Through objects and personal stories, this exhibit immerses visitors in the history and material culture of Hmong American communities living in northern Illinois, and throughout the Midwest. Visitors will be able to view traditional clothing, Hmong textiles, and silverwork jewelry, and learn about concepts of family, spirituality and memory. How has Hmong life changed since refugees first entered the United States in the 1970s? What does it mean to be Hmong American today?

Explore this exhibition through the month of February 2018 at the Aurora Public Library Santori Branch and take a glimpse into this unique community. A special opening reception featuring refreshments and live music will be held on Friday, February 2, 2018 at 5:30PM in the atrium of the Aurora Public Library. This event is free and open to the public. This traveling exhibition is generously supported by the Pick Museum of Anthropology, Dunham Fund and the Aurora Public Library.

---

In/Visibility: Hmong America and the Art of Storytelling

On Display at Waubonsee Community College Aurora Campus Library March 2 - Saturday, April 14, 2018

Based on the Pick Museum of Anthropology’s 2015 exhibition, Storytelling: Hmong American Voices, and curated in collaboration with a Hmong Community Advisory Council, In/Visibility: Hmong America and the Art of Storytelling explores Hmong American identity, the politics of displacement and what it means to belong. Featuring first-person reflections, textiles, and artwork by Aurora native and Waubonsee Community College alumna, J. Tshab Her, this exhibit considers how Hmong life has changed since refugees first entered the United States in the 1970s and what it means to be Hmong American today.

Northern Illinois University’s Pick Museum of Anthropology and the Waubonsee Community College Aurora Campus Library invite you to the Exhibition Opening Reception of In/Visibility: Hmong America and the Art of Storytelling. Please join us at the downtown Aurora campus library on Friday, March 2, 2018 beginning at 6PM to hear welcome remarks and sample Hmong cuisine. Featured artist, J. Tshab Her and Pick Museum staff will give a guided tour beginning at 6:30PM.

This event is free and open to the public. This exhibition will be on view at the Waubonsee Community College downtown Aurora library from Friday, March 2, 2018 through Saturday, April 14, 2018, and is generously supported by the Dunham Fund, the Pick Museum of Anthropology and Waubonsee Community College.

---

Fragments: Haiti Four Years After the Earthquake

Haiti’s earthquake was one of the world’s deadliest disasters, claiming as many as 316,000 lives. Media images highlighted the exceptional, macabre and gruesome. These accounts dehumanized Haiti and Haitian people and focused disproportionate attention on the good intentions and generosity of foreigners. International media attention helped raise $5.6 billion in official funds and $2 billion in private donations for the first two years following the earthquake.

What happened? Where did the money go? Four years following the earthquake, international media coverage on Haiti has diminished quite significantly. Living conditions have only improved slightly and are still among the worst in the world with 280,000 people still living under tents in scores of camps. This installation is titled Fragments to acknowledge the often disparate lived realities now in relative shadows.

Exhibit topics will include NGO aid relief, everyday life in a Haitian Shantytown, forced evictions, Haitian activism, local artistry, food sovereignty, education and healthcare. Based on the work of Anthropologist and guest curator, Mark Schuller, Ph.D. and a decade of research in Haiti, this exhibition features the life histories and living conditions of several Haitian people living “under the tents.” Exhibit elements include a wind-and-sun battered tent, a do-it-yourself construction of a shantytown dwelling and a cot to represent the over 8,000 victims of cholera, a disease accidentally brought by UN troops in October 2010.

Through Fragments, visitors will be introduced to the work of activists trying to make a difference and will learn how to take action on cholera, forced eviction, housing rights and aid accountability. This exhibition is a vivid, personal and sensory experience and is meant to create a renewed awareness and inspire visitors to take action against injustices still faced by millions of Haitian people.