Stories Connected by Operation Babylift

Exhibit by Devaki Murch, Operation Babylift Collective

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Inspired by the commitment and dedication of the caregivers, volunteers, and veterans. Invisible Threads is an archival storytelling exhibit born from a deeply personal sense of gratitude. Devaki Murch was one of the babies on the first Operation Babylift flight out of Vietnam, a flight that ended in a crash on April 4, 1975. She doesn’t have a baby book or hospital bracelet. What she does have are front-page headlines, a nursery name, and her name printed on a survivor manifest.

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For years, the only version of her story she knew was the narrative told by others, journalists, historians, teachers, and politicians. But slowly, through the emergence of documentaries, memoirs, community websites, and social media, a new thread (literally) began to appear. Then another. And another. Until a tapestry began to form, not clean or symmetrical, but knotted, tangled, and full of texture.

 

Invisible Threads is that tapestry. It is a weaving together of lived experiences, personal correspondence, official records, oral histories, photographs, and personal artifacts, many of which were hidden in basements or forgotten in file boxes for nearly fifty years. But perhaps the most integral part of this tapestry is not the records or the photographs, it’s the people. The individuals. The ones who have shown up in each other’s lives sometime between now and then, often unexpectedly. 

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These are the threads: recognizing one another, even though we have never met, greeting one another after 50 years, holding the hand of someone you once held in your arms. Sharing the space with someone whose last time you were together was the minutes before the plane crashed. We have intersected at various points in space and time, often unknowingly, and our presence now binds this history together.

Some threads are strong and tightly braided. Others fray at the edges. Some intersect once and pull apart. Others wind their way back again, years or decades later. Together, they create a story, a bond that is stronger than any one person could tell alone.

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This installation, hosted at East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colorado (April 4–25, 2026), marks the culmination of the Operation Babylift 50-year commemoration. It brings together StorySharing, archives, and the community. It is not a story of endings (there are some), but of intersections, and the unexpected magic of finding yourself in the threads of someone else’s life.

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RSVP HERE

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This April marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and Operation Babylift. To honor this milestone, we will host Invisible Threads at the East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colorado. The exhibit will feature:

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• StoryCorps-style interviews recorded this fall

• 5-minute live StoryShare on April 10th

• A gallery with artifacts and exclusive material showcasing an interactive installation tracing adoptee journeys from Vietnam to adoptive families

• A closing showcase from the Mini Memoir workshop, writing, art, poetry from the Operation Babylift community

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About the Project

Invisible Threads is a storytelling and archival exhibition series curated by StoryScope Studios. It combines personal narratives, digitized records, and historical context to build a public archive, live gallery exhibition (April 2026 at East Window Gallery, Boulder CO), podcast, and documentary materials. 

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Why Your Story Matters

Your experience is a vital thread in this shared tapestry. Whether you are an adoptee, caregiver, refugee, veteran, volunteer, journalist, or artist, your voice is integral to an authentic, diverse, and intergenerational record of memory, migration, and healing. These conversations serve not only as personal reflection but as collective history.

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STORYSHARE: Call for pitches to share your story will open on January 1. 

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WRITING WORKSHOP WITH NOEL NGUYEN: Find out more here

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PAIRED STORYTELLING:  Oral History Project 

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