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OHMA EXHIBITS: a collection of interactive oral history encounters

2023 Promo Taveras Quisqueyanas Valientes Full

Blue background with yellow letters, title in Spanish "Quisqueyanas Valientes: Bienvenidos a Nuestra Sala" accompanied by the words "An Oral History Experience". The image is an orange circle with a reproduction of a living room, including a yellow couch, a brown and yellow chair, a brown and green coffee table with a figure on top, a brown side table with a plant on top, a painting hanging above the couch depicting a seemingly similar room. The walls of the living room are blue with green squares and there is a window to the left with orange curtains and a visible tree top.

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Quisqueyanas Valientes: Bienvenidos a Nuestra Sala (2023)
By Aya Taveras
This exhibit, inspired by the 2020 "Mujeres de Abril" collection by visual artist Lourdes Bernard, created a container for the reflections of Dominican women who lived through the 1965 U.S. invasion of the island. The "sala" is a space that organically holds the firsthand accounts of Dominican women across generations. In this context visitors heard their impressions of Dominican womanhood--a set of narratives that add nuance to what is predominantly told as a singular narrative of machismo and repression.

In this in-person exhibit visitors were invited to listen to the accounts of Dominican women on the under-represented stories of the revolutionary femme-identifying "Mujeres de abril" and how this group's legacy--among others--may have informed their beliefs and attitudes about their own identities. Visitors engaged directly with the artifacts within the sala as vehicles for these oral histories.

Note: This in-person exhibit was open by invitation only. For more information about the project, contact Aya Taveras at at3719@columbia.edu.