Brooklyn Historical Society to Exhibit Vietnam Veterans Memories

February 15, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Education News
The Brooklyn Historical Society in collaboration with Brooklyn College is planning an exhibition tentatively entitled The Vietnam War: In their Own Words.

We are looking for Vietnam veterans from Brooklyn, their family and friends to contribute to the collection of oral histories and physical items tied to the Vietnam War; photographs, audio recordings and other similar items.

The exhibition will be housed in the beautifully-renovated Brooklyn Historical Society Building, located at 128 Pierpont St in downtown Brooklyn in fall 2007.

The exhibition will be curated by the staff of the Brooklyn Historical Society in collaboration with Professor Philip Napoli of Brooklyn College.

In the past 4 years Professor Napoli has recorded approximately 450 hours of interviews with Vietnam veterans, many of them from Brooklyn. “It is important that we record these memories now,” says Napoli. “A generation from now students and scholars will only have the paper trail left to follow. That fact means the historical record will be shaped by those in power.” His objective, by contrast, is to create an historical resource that takes into account the realities faced by average Brooklynites as they dealt with the realities of Vietnam. “I’m not just interested in stories of combat,” he says, “but also with the issues faced as these young men came home and worked hard to make lives for themselves.”

He believes that an effort to look back at the experience of Vietnam veterans is especially relevant at this point in time. “Remember that soon we will have another generation of young men and women returning to New York. We need to recall what happened to that earlier generation, if we are to do right by today’s soldiers.”

Anyone interested in participating in the oral history work or in donating items for the exhibition may contact him at:

pnapoli@Brooklyn.cuny.edu

646-330-5751

514 Whitehead Hall

2900 Bedford Ave

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, NY 11210