[005] ‘MTSU On the Record’ guest shares ‘legacies of war’ through her art

MURFREESBORO — A professor will share her artistic interpretation of the bombing of Laos on the next “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Sisavanh Phouthavong-Houghton, an associate professor of art, will air from 9:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, and from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, July 23, on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

Phouthavong-Houghton’s exhibit was displayed at Tinney Contemporary Gallery in Nashville from Feb. 25 through March 25. It was inspired by her 2016 meeting with the founder of Legacies of War, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works to raise awareness of the impact of the Vietnam War in Laos and to remove unexploded ordnance there.

Though she arrived in the United States with her family at the age of 4, Phouthavong-Houghton learned of the horrors by interviewing her father and other family members for a documentary film she produced as an undergraduate.

“It opens up things that people don’t want to discuss,” said Phouthavong-Houghton. “In the Laotian community, it’s really hard for them to open up to you unless they really know you well.”

In a review for Wall Street International, critic Daniel Gauss wrote, “If we look at the best anti-war art, we see a lot of what Houghton is doing, with the big difference that she has had the courage and integrity to take the next step straight into pure abstraction, leaving explanatory figuration for the abstraction behind.”

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, go to http://bit.ly/mtsu-otr.

For more information, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.