Against Erasure: Bodies, Sites, and Collective Memory

We invite you to join us for Against Erasure: Bodies, Sites, and Collective Memory, a two-day gathering bringing together archivists, artists, scholars, and cultural practitioners to explore the roles of archives, storytelling, and collective memory in confronting histories of erasure.

The program opens on Wednesday, November 4, with a screening of Michèle Stephenson’s True North (2025) at the Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center, followed by a conversation and Q&A with the director and A. Sayeeda Moreno.

On Thursday, November 5, the symposium continues at Campus Center North with two roundtable discussions: Archival Activism and What We Carry. Together, these conversations will consider how archives, artistic practice, performance, and storytelling preserve histories, challenge silences, and shape collective memory. Registration is free. [Register here.]

Organized by A. Sayeeda Moreno (Film & Electronics), Angelica Sanchez (Music), Heather Topcik (Bard Libraries), and Olga Touloumi (Art History & Visual Culture)

Co-sponsored by The Uses of History, Friends of Stevenson Library, & the Ralph Ellison Center, Bard College

Program

Wednesday, November 4
Film Screening and Discussion | Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center
5:00 p.m. — Screening of True North (2025), followed by a Q&A with director Michèle Stephenson and A. Sayeeda Moreno.

Thursday, November 5
Symposium | Campus Center North
10:00 a.m. — Coffee and Conversation
11:00 a.m. — Opening Remarks
11:30 a.m. — Panel Discussion: Archival Activism
Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NY
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Commissioner, New York City Department of Records and Information Services
Dorothy Berry, Archivist and Author
Suzanne Snider, Oral History Summer School
Facilitated by Shannon Mattern, Director of Creative Research, Metropolitan New York Library Council

3:00 p.m. — Panel Discussion: What We Carry
Wafa Ghnaim, The Tatreez Institute
Terry Jenoure, Composer and Visual Artist
Aarati Akkapeddi, Visual Artist, New York University
Michèle Stephenson, Rada Film Group
Facilitated by Krista Caballero, Co-Director, Center for Experimental Humanities

5:00 p.m. — Closing Reception

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Location: Various locations, see program