MEMORY MAPPING
OTOWN
A descendant-led archival storytelling initiative
Begin your Memory Map
“I used to think to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place–the picture of it–stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)
We build from your archive...
Everyone has memories. By curating those inherited, and the ones we've lived ourselves – we build our history from the homes, first. What can you upload? Photographs, letters, obituaries, funeral programs, newspaper clippings, maps, audio recordings, scans, handwritten notes, recipes, church documents, military records... anything archival!
Share your Archive
Upload Materials
Beginning wherever you wish, tell even us
—Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
What story do you want to tell?
What memory do you want to locate?
You may record a short memory directly on this page or upload an existing voice memo, interview, song, saying, pronunciation, or reflection. Audio submissions are reviewed before public use.Be sure to download a copy of your audio file
What Happens After Submission?
OTOWN is descendant-led and community-curated.
Contributors maintain ownership of their stories,
images, and materials. Submissions are reviewed
collaboratively and may be restricted, public,
or community-access only.
1. Your submission is received by OTOWN.
2. Materials are reviewed and archived.
3. We may contact you for additional information,
oral history interviews, or archival clarification.
4. Selected stories may become part of OTOWN exhibits,
research projects, public programs, or digital installations.
5. Contributors will be credited whenever possible.
OTOWN is descendant-led and community-curated.
Contributors maintain ownership of their stories,
images, and materials. Submissions are reviewed
collaboratively and may be restricted, public,
or community-access only.
Historiopoetics
an archival conversation
I crafted historiopoetics to showcase, teach, and examine — the conditional relationships between poetry and time — I am most interested in,
how writers produced freedom, memory, and history through articulation.