Guantánamo Public Memory Project

Archive: July 2013

Guantánamo in film

Each new host institution brings its own style to our traveling exhibit. Having so many collaborating students and universities means that new ideas and ways of engaging the public are constantly being generated. Rutgers held a poetry reading. UC Riverside offered screenings of ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ Various forms of media – from an interactive map…

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Companion projects for the traveling exhibit

Our traveling exhibit was launched at New York University in December, 2012. Since then it has been hosted by partner institutions across the country, and will continue traveling for the rest of the year and deep into 2014. Originally produced by student teams at twelve universities, the exhibit schedule has now expanded beyond these founding…

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This Week in Guantánamo: 2013 and 1964

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July 18, 2013: A federal appeals court reinstated the legal use of genital searches as a security precaution at GTMO. SOUTHCOM commander Marine General John Kelly explained the necessity of such searches by referring to the death of detainee Adnan Latif, who allegedly committed suicide after secretly stockpiling a lethal dose of medication. July 20,…

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Excavating Stories from GTMO’s Haitian Refugee Camps

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As Guantánamo Public Memory Project Director Liz Sevcenko and journalist Garry Pierre-Pierre noted in a recent op-ed, the current detainee hunger strikes at GTMO are not unprecedented. In 1993, Haitian political refugees who had received clearance for asylum were barred from entering the US after they, or a family member, tested positive for HIV –…

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VIDEO: U.S. Actor and Rapper Experiences Force-Feeding

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  As calls for an end to force-feeding at Guantánamo persist with the start of Ramadan, Human Rights organization Reprieve and award-winning director Asif Kapadia released a four-minute video of U.S. actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (also known as Mos Def) experiencing the procedure, which is based on military instructions for force-feeding detainees. Click here…

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What Contradictions Allow Detention at GTMO?

What Contradictions Allow Detention at GTMO? Thumbnail Image

We have talked about this dream since you were a young man . . . how the American Dream is so much more than a good night’s sleep. But I cannot sleep anymore. Every morning, an alarm clock blares those three letters throughout my conscience. This is so much more than a virus. This is…

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To Explore Guantánamo Is To Explore Empire

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I did not truly begin to understand imperialism until I read modern Arabic literature in an undergraduate course at Rutgers. Though I had long been aware of empires as a concept, I had no grasp of what imperialism could mean to an individual until I read narratives written from the perspective of the colonized. I…

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Guantánamo and My Home

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I feel very fortunate to have been able to participate as a dialogue facilitator for the Guantánamo Public Memory Project as a student at Rutgers University.  It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my college career thus far.  Usually, before even beginning to discuss with others the premise of the project, I like to explain why I…

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What Is It Like to Be Transported to GITMO?

What Is It Like to Be Transported to GITMO? Thumbnail Image

In 2007 Nonny de la Peña and Peggy Weil were awarded a MacArthur sponsored residency at BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) as part of their New Media Producers Institute to create Gone Gitmo, an installation of Guantánamo Prison in the virtual environment of Second Life.  They built an interactive experience, integrating Defense Department footage of…

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This Week in Guantánamo: 2013 and 1994

This Week in Guantánamo: 2013 and 1994 Thumbnail Image

July 8, 2013: A federal judge called on President Obama to address force-feeding at Guantánamo in the face of mounting allegations that the practice violates international norms, as well as legal bids from detainees seeking to block the practice during the Ramadan holiday.     July 8, 1994: By noon Coast Guard cutters delivered 862 Haitians to…

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Creative: Picture Projects & Tronvig Group