Voices from the Occupation: The Unearthing of Memory & History of Storytelling

The Oral History and Documentation Project at the Library of the American University of Kuwait seeks to document the personal histories of individuals who lived in Kuwait, and lived through various personal experiences and public events. In this exhibition, snippets of recorded interviews from the project’s archives are showcased; the personal stories of narrators who witnessed the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait are shared, accompanied by visuals that represent different aspects of the narrators’ lives. Weaving together firsthand witness accounts of history with private artifacts aims to open a window onto the depth of human experience and its complexities, providing a chance for multiple histories to emerge, and for human heritage to continue to be contained and carried through storytelling.