For 24 straight hours, beginning at 3 p.m. on Monday and ending at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, members of and volunteers for the Coalition for Preserving Memory are reading aloud the names of victims of genocides in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The name reading ceremony is an annual event that CPM, a coalition which includes a variety of campus organizations, has hosted since 2013. This year, it is hosted on Abele Quad on West Campus near the clocktower.
The seven genocides whose victims’ names are being read during the ceremony are the Bosnian Genocide, the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, the Yazidi Genocide and the Darfur Genocide, the last two of which are currently ongoing.
A name reader, who would alternate in shifts, stands in front of a lectern, holding a microphone and reading the names of victims and what genocide they were killed in. In front of the lectern, posters describing each of the U.N.-recognized genocides lay on the grass below.
The posters include background on the times, places and context behind each genocide, and also pictures and quotes from survivors and witnesses.
“It's important because a lot of people … don't actively go about listening and seeing other people's stories,” said junior Daniel Ross, who has been a member of CPM for two years and participated in the name readings.
“So just by putting these names out there, we're giving people an opportunity to try to actively listen and understand and hear other people's names and kind of bring themselves into the perspective.”
Ross explained that his Jewish background made the Holocaust important to him in particular, motivating him to participate in the name readings.
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Holly Keegan is a Trinity sophomore and a university news editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.