Oral history workshops are becoming really popular in Turkey.

Professor Leyla Neyzi, who leads the workshops, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “We have started to think very differently about our history.  The past is being rethought in terms of the demands of the present.”

Yesterday, we hosted a workshop for teachers regarding our oral history exhibition In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans.  We discussed ways to teach contested histories and difficult material; using oral history as a tool in the classroom both to bring history alive and to teach important listening skills; and we were lucky to hear from three Vietnam Veterans, Michael Palo, Rudy Thomas, and Bill Kupper, who generously and courageously shared their stories with us and answered our questions.

Here are two more oral history events coming up soon:

Women Veterans: Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times
March 5, 2009
6:30 – 8:30pm

Listening to Women: Documenting Women’s Lives through Oral History
Registration deadline February 25, 2009