Wendy Chapkis, USM Professor of Women & Gender Studies, was featured on Maine Things Considered, discussing her oral history project “Querying the Past” and collaboration with USM’s fall visiting artist Macon Reed.
“The multimedia art installation examines the history of these queer spaces and their cultural impact as part of professor Wendy Chapkis’ three-year oral history project. The “Querying the Past” project documents oral histories from Portland and Maine’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and queer communities and collects them online. The project pairs students with members of the LGBTQ community in Maine who are interviewed about their experiences in the state. These interviews are stored as part of USM’s digital commons.”
Reed, also a Salt Institute for Documentary Studies alum, hosted a storytelling event as part of her installation in the AREA Gallery at the Woodbury Campus Center, on the USM Portland Campus in mid-November.
“…I feel like Salt really kind of spiked that excitement of storytelling in me,” she says. “It seems almost like now I’m using the visual art as an excuse to create these elaborate installations that then I just have people tell me stories inside of again.”
Hear the full interview as well as excerpts from the “See You at the Bar” event at Maine Public Radio.