Nov and Dec PSNs Now Open!
Learning from our Elders: Interviewing Activists from Past Generations: November 17, 3-4:15 PM EST
Oral History, Art & Activism: A Radical Mix for Social Change: NEW DATE & TIME: December 2, 2016 3-4:15 PM EST
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Oral History for Social Change
Groundswell is a dynamic network of oral historians, activists, cultural workers, community organizers, and documentary artists.
Learning from our Elders: Interviewing Activists from Past Generations: November 17, 3-4:15 PM EST
Oral History, Art & Activism: A Radical Mix for Social Change: NEW DATE & TIME: December 2, 2016 3-4:15 PM EST
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Fall PSNs start Oct 20 with a conversation about how to talk about money in an oral history interview.
Read MoreWe hear a lot about immigrants in the media. It’s a story we all think we know about how times in Mexico and Central America are hard and how this hardship drives men and women to cross borders and take other people’s jobs. Many of us want to help, some of us want these people to return to their country of origin, but few of us take the time to ask questions and listen. Mainstream media rarely let immigrants speak for themselves.
Read MoreAt the 2016 Allied Media Conference, Groundswell organized two sessions and a lunch gathering, while Groundswell members organized and participated in countless other workshops and events...
Read MoreAs you undoubtedly know, the 50th anniversary conference of OHA that will be convening October 12th has been faced with a serious problem. When the Long Beach Renaissance Hotel was initially booked two years ago, there was no labor issue. However, subsequently, UNITE-HERE has been trying unsuccessfully to organize the hotel and has placed it on an unfair list...
Read MoreStoryCorps, the national oral history project, is launching the Justice Project – an initiative that will amplify and preserve the stories of people whose lives have been impacted by mass incarceration and the justice system nationwide We hope to use this and other Groundswell spaces to generate response, engagement, and reflection as we build this project. Please help us build the best project possible.
Read MoreJoin members of the grassroots archival collective XFR (pronounced "transfer") Collective for a conversation about how to organize, safeguard, and archive oral history materials. What questions should you ask as you begin an archival project? What kinds of tools might you use to make sure that your digital and paper files are findable? Bring your own questions, and join us for what we hope will be just the start of an ongoing conversation.
Read MoreOn May 26th, seven women-identified oral history practitioners gathered for May’s PSN, Self-Care for Social Justice Oral Historians. Our sharing circled above a loving attention to our bodies and the ways in which they communicate their profound knowing to us. In the social justice and oral history communities in which many of us operate, the idea of caring for ourselves is regarded as an afterthought, internalized as secondary to “the real work”.
Read MoreThe first thing that struck me about Listening through Time and Place: An Oral History Exhibit was the size of it. The information to wade in was both wide and deep. An average of four—and often more—five- to 10-minute excerpts of life history interviews featured in each of twelve exhibits may not sound overwhelming until you realize that each excerpt is designed as a gateway not just to that person’s life, but to an entire zeitgeist.
Read MoreIn oral history, deep listening requires the interviewer to open themselves to the narrator's stories. Such stories can be challenging and even painful. We often discuss how to support our narrators in telling difficult stories, but rarely how to take care of ourselves as we listen to them. In this chat we will build on conversations, in both the academic and the activist world, about burnout and resilience. The goal is to share experiences and develop self-care strategies for social justice oral historians.
Read MoreOn March 10th, 2016, twelve people participated in the PSN Chat titled "Success Stories: From Oral History to Social Change". Practitioners Alisa del Tufo, Manissa McCleave Maharawal, and Mark D. Naison shared their experiences in successfully engaging oral history in service of social justice. Here is a video report back of the chat.
Read MoreBefore you read further, please google the phrase East Garfield Park. Okay, aside from the ubiquitous Wiki entry, what did you find? Our guess is you saw mostly hits that involved crime and gentrification in some way. The mainstream dominant media portrays this community in the heart of Chicago’s West Side as crime ridden, poverty stricken, and little else. East Garfield Park organizations and residents strive to rewrite this narrative.
Read MoreThe Forced Trajectory Project (FTP) is a long-term multimedia project that documents the effects of police violence on communities, beginning with families whose loved ones have been murdered by police.
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After several years of hosting Practitioner Support Network Video Chats, we are excited to announce that we are starting two new PSN initiatives in 2016: PSN Problem Solvers and PSN One-to-Ones.
Read MoreApril's PSN Video Chat aims to develop strategies for utilizing storytelling to affect positive change in the natural world and to emphasize the human race's responsibility to our planet. This chat will examine the various roles narrative can play in environmental activism, from how storytellers can convey complex scientific knowledge to the general public to how personal storytelling can be used to affect public policy.
Read MoreWhat does it take to move from oral history to actual change? As practitioners seeking to engage oral history as a method for not only documenting, but actively contributing to social change, we often talk a lot about our struggles. But we also need to celebrate and learn from our victories! In this special PSN video chat, we invite three practitioners to share how they’ve successfully engaged oral history in service of social justice.
Read MoreIn this Practitioner Support Network video chat, we will discuss the potential and special challenges of interviewing about the body, and will develop strategies for interviews focused on embodied experience such as breastfeeding, living with a disability, being transgender, or dancing as well as strategies for keeping the body in focus in all of our work.
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Check out the notes from our recent PSN on Intergenerational Storytelling!
Read MoreDarryl B’s voice is clear and confident. ‘Today I would like to say that I am an American proud Black Gay man, and those are how I identify myself.” The audio then leads us into Darryl telling how his mother’s activism formed him into the person that he is today. Next, he tells the story of being unwarrantedly banned from a club in Greensboro and subsequently harassed, physically attacked, and arrested by police officers. “I wonder if my skin color were different, how would that situation have gone?” he reflects.
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Here are 10 Groundswell network highlights from 2015, true to oral history form.
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