Category: Museum News
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SHOUT! Opens in Richmond
For further information please contact:
Military Kid Art Project
2600 Hull St. Richmond VA 23224
Lora Beldon
804-614-8478
Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center
546B State Route 333, Tijeras, NM 87059
info@militaryfamilymuseum.org
TheatreLab
(804) 506-3533
info@heatrelabrva.org
Real stories from real people:
LGBTQ+ Veterans and Family Members of the U.S. Military Services.
Playwright and Director: Melissa Rayford
Producers: Lora Beldon and DeeJay Gray
SHOUT! is an ensemble production which includes compilations of true LGBTQ+ Military Family stories – from multiple generations and military branches, spanning rank, race, gender, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Sponsored by the New Mexico-based Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center (MAMF), SHOUT! is a collaboration between Lora Beldon, Director of Military Kid Art Project, the Transgender Veterans Support Group of Richmond, and TheatreLab. Funding for the project came through a generous grant by the ARCUS Foundation.
SHOUT! The play began as one story told by Theresa Duke, a trans-woman veteran for the museum’s anthology, SHOUT! Sharing Our Truth: An Anthology of Writing by LGBT Veterans and Family Members of the U.S. Military Services. Lora Beldon, MAMF Artist-in-Residence, and MAMF Director Circe Olson Woessner were the anthology’s co-editors.
That piece, titled Inner Voices, had such strong descriptive dialogue, editors Beldon and Woessner agreed the story would translate well on stage. The play quickly grew to include many voices and stories from LGBTQ+ Military personnel and families and evolved into SHOUT! the play.
Beldon says, “MAMF has done, and is doing, pioneer work in telling the story of the LGBTQ+ military veteran and family members through exhibits and publications at the museum and out in the community. Dr. Woessner is a visionary, who has maintained from the beginning that the museum would tell the stories of ALL military families and be inclusive of all.
Shared stories are what help build and define our identity, shared stories are what help communities learn from each other, and by listening to these particular stories, people who haven’t experienced what LGBTQ veterans or their families have– just their listening and learning is a gift.”
Playwright Melissa Rayford seamlessly wove together multiple stories contributed by service members, military spouses, brats, and allies into a strong, thought-provoking and poignant piece. Five Richmond actors, assuming multiple roles, bring the piece to life. Shout! is at once funny, sad, defiant, and whimsical.
One story’s author shares, “Those fantasies of aliens coming down from space to switch your body with the neighbor girl’s body, those were mine.”
Woessner says, “This play is exceptionally timely because of recent announcements from the White House regarding transgender citizens serving in the military, and the subsequent legal and political actions around that; and it also discusses how the military impacted the lives of LGBTQ spouses and children. As always, we want to focus on family stories.”
Ambitious future plans are in the works for Beldon and Woessner: to package the play for greater circulation and to create educational materials based on LGBT military history and stories in the play. Playwright Mellissa Rayford says, “It is our hope as a group that we create a production to be used by any theatre group wishing to produce this subject matter.”
SHOUT! will be traveling to Boston and to Albuquerque in late 2019.
TheatreLab, located in The Basement, 300 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219, is known as Richmond’s home for unexpected and evocative performances. Link for tickets: https://tlab-internet.choicecrm.net/templates/TLAB/#/events
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Sunday, September 22 and Monday, September 23, 2019. Each night doors open 7:00pm, General admission Tickets $20. There are discounts available for pre-sale, students, teachers, military and senior all with ID.
Coming to the Military Writers’ Conference in ABQ?
MAMF partners with the Albuquerque VA and New Mexico Service Organizations to Raise Awareness
Contact: Ron Bassford For Immediate Release
Public Affairs Specialist September 6, 2019
NMVAHCS to Host 2nd Annual Suicide Prevention Motorcycle Ride
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center will be hosting its second annual New Mexico Veterans S.A.V.E. Motorcycle Ride to help promote suicide prevention awareness throughout our state.
“Suicide is something I have personally experienced. A high school friend committed suicide, and when I was in my early 20s, another good friend took his life,” said Richardo Vallejos, State Road Captain for the American Legion Riders, Chapter 22.
This years’ ride will take place in Northern and Southern New Mexico. Approximately 50 motorcyclists from Albuquerque through the northern route; Tijeras, Espanola, and Taos, around the “Enchanted Circle,” and the ride’s final stop will be in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Approximately 50 more motorcyclists will also participate in the southern route which will start at the American Legion Post 10 and wind itself around Las Cruces and end at the local Veterans Memorial Park. At each stop, suicide prevention information will be available to both riders and members of the local community.
The American Legion Riders of New Mexico will be coordinating the route/s.
The 2nd Annual motorcycle ride from Albuquerque to Angel Fire will take place on Saturday, September 7, starting at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center, with a kick-off ceremony at 730 a.m. and kickstands up at 8 a.m. There will be a remembrance service on Sunday morning at the Angel Fire Vietnam Memorial. The motorcycle ride in Las Cruces will be on September 8, starting at the American Legion Post 10 (1185 E Madrid Ave.), with the kick-off ceremony at 830 am and kickstands up at 0900. The ride will end at Veterans Memorial Park and will be followed by a memorial.
“With this ride open to the public, we hope to increase awareness that suicide can be prevented, and services are available to veterans across New Mexico,” said Christina Camacho, NMVAHCS Social Worker.
This ride also coincides with September being suicide prevention month and the Department of Veterans Affairs campaign of #BeThereserves as a reminder that we all have a role to play in preventing Veteran suicide.
For more information/questions about the S.A.V.E. motorcycle ride, volunteer opportunities, or to donate, please contact Christina Camacho at (505) 265-1711, ext. 3056.
We are a good resource
Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center awarded funding by NEH to further collections preservation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Circe Olson Woessner
Circe@militaryfamilymuseum.org
505-504-6830
August 30, 2019
Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center awarded funding by NEH to further collections preservation
Tijeras’ Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center has done it again with yet another award.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded funding to the Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center to begin long-term preservation projects for its diverse collection of artifacts and documents.
Dr. Allen Dale Olson, who is the museum’s secretary, says, “Our grant’s project title is, ‘We Also Served: Safeguarding our Heritage.’ Receiving a federal grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities indicates, to us, that the NEH believes that our collection is of national importance.”
The NEH grant will support the purchase of display and storage containers for letters and documents dating back to WWI and the restoration of an antique tiger skin, which is part of the Dorothy Cox collection of special artifacts.
The collections preservation award is timely as the museum recently survived a minor catastrophe when, due to heavy snow and ice, part of the gallery’s ceiling collapsed at the beginning of the year. All the artifacts survived damage, but it was a grim reminder of how important it is to preserve and protect precious objects and treasured keepsakes.
The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center was one of only three organizations in New Mexico to receive a Humanities Grant in this cycle—and one of only 215 awardees nation-wide.
Director Dr. Circe Olson Woessner says, “While the museum is locally operated and staffed, it is national in scope, and much more than an array of artifacts, exhibits, and documents. It has also become a research center, a host for college interns, and a multidisciplinary collaborative site. It’s a community hub where veterans and family members can gather and reflect together on their collective identity over a century’s span of military deployment. It’s important that we preserve our collections properly. We have a Purple Heart, citation and dog tag from a World War I soldier, donated by his niece who is now in her 90s. There is no way one can assign a value to that, and it has become a charge for us to preserve and keep that soldier’s memory alive—as well as every other individual represented in our museum.”
It is the only museum completely dedicated to military family history, from all branches and eras.
Most of the artifacts have been donated since the museum’s inception in 2011.
The museum has a collection of over 1,600 items, including coins, textiles, patches, paintings, pottery, photographs, letters, documents, and audiovisual materials that tell the history on the home front and abroad of American military families. The Dorothy Cox collection remains one of the museum’s star attractions because of its unique carvings and musical instruments from Africa and the Philippines, leather work and brass items from Turkey and Libya and a Victorian-era insect collection—and of, course, the tiger skin.
The museum’s special collections library has become a research destination for scholars and students around the world seeking more information about military spouses or children, or the DOD world-wide school systems.
San Francisco State University Professor Deborah Cohler, who has visited the museum multiple times, says, “The Museum of the American Military Family is not only a space of active community engagement and an important archival site, it also engages with the social, political, and intellectual stakes of public history and material culture. The museum has a substantial archival mission: it not only amasses material artifacts of military families, but its director and board actively solicit and collect oral histories, memoirs, and informal as well as formal narratives by members of military families.”
This grant comes at the heels of several other awards of national scope, the latest being a sizable arts grant to provide workshops to military families in recovery from addiction, and another to create a ten-minute documentary film, “Love Song For the Dead,” which weaves together first- hand stories of wartime family sacrifices in a compelling reflection of such loss. In 2018, the museum received the American Association of State and Local History’s Albert B. Cory Prize, and this year, it received an Excellence in Leadership national award.
The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center is an all-volunteer non-profit honoring the men, women, and children who serve beside America’s service members. As a repository of artifacts, letters, documents and photos, it tells their stories, showing history through a different lens.
The museum is located at 546B State Highway 333 (Old 66, right next to Molly’s Bar.) It is open 10:30-5:00 Saturday through Wednesday and by appointment.
For more information, email info@militaryfamilymuseum.orgor phone (505) 504-6830
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East Mountain Veteran/Family Collaborative partners with the National Veteran’s Intermediary; hosts community events
By Circe Olson Woessner
The East Mountain Veteran/Family Collaborative, hosted at the Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center in Tijeras, has become one of nearly 100 local community partners nation-wide that make up the National Veterans Intermediary (NVI). The NVI is an initiative of the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
The East Mountain Veteran/Family Collaborative is comprised of representatives from veterans’ service organizations, business leaders, clinicians and educators working together to support veterans and their families through education, networking and community awareness.
Locally, the collaborative will sponsor quarterly military/family community resource events, military spouse monthly luncheons, “lunch and learns,” and other workshops, as well as focusing on, and addressing, the concerns of rural veterans. Nationally, the collaborative will engage as a member of a larger ecosystem working collectively to improve the lives of veterans and their families.
Air Force veteran Harold Murphree joined the collaborative because he wondered if his fellow East Mountain veterans shared the same concerns he did, and if, so, how could he help them. WWII/Occupation Army veteran Allen Dale Olson says he’s involved because the collaborative has the potential to unite community members and their resources in resolving common concerns and helping civilians see the uniqueness of military family life. Psychologist Natalie Williamson saysshe wants to give back to the community to honor and uphold the legacy of her brother SSGT Miguel Gonzales Jr. “He dedicated his life to protecting and serving God, Country, and all people. I know that if Miguel was alive today, he would say ‘you done good sis’.”
The East Mountain Veteran/Family Collaborative will be hosting a military/family and community resource day at the museum on Thursday, August 22 from 11:00-4:00. Local veteran organizations, Department of Veteran’s Services representatives, the Children’s Grief Center of New Mexico, the New Mexico Grief Center, Albuquerque Public Schools, and local businesses and voter registration will be on site. This event is free and open to the public.
The Museum is located at 546B State Highway 333, Tijeras, NM 87059. For more information about the collaborative or the resource day, contact the museum at 505-504-6830.