Main Site | About BHS | Visitor Information | Exhibitions | Education | Library | Publications| Support BHS Press | Contact us | Online Store | Site Map
 

Listening to Women

...now browsing by tag

 
Architecture Archives Astroland Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Brooklyn Arts Council Brooklyn Bridge Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Navy Yard Brooklyn Past & Present Clinton Hill Coney Island Coney Island History Project Crossing Borders Bridging Generations Crown Heights Dodgers Education Flatbush Folk Feet Fort Greene Historic Landmark In Our Own Words Interpreting Brooklyn Iraq Library Map of the Month maps Municipal Art Society Nelson George New York Times Oral History Oral History Highlights Park Slope Photographs photography Photography Collection Photo of the Week Podcast Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans Prospect Park Public Perspectives Red Hook Studs Terkel Vietnam Women Veterans
 

Oral History Seminar

Written by Sady on February 9th, 2010

Virginia Woolf and Dame Ethel Smyth; photo courtes of NYPL Digital Gallery
Virginia Woolf and Dame Ethel Smyth; photo courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery

Listening to Women:

Documenting Women’s Lives through Oral History

a six week non-credit course at BHS

The Brooklyn Historical Society’s oral historian Sady Sullivan leads a seminar this spring (March 24 – May 5, 2010) introducing the practice of Oral History as an historical methodology, a unique narrative genre, and a tool in the reconciliation of social injustices.

The course is interdisciplinary, drawing from history, sociology, memoir, and gender studies.  We will examine oral history in all its forms — audio, video, print, and exhibition — and in a variety of settings — museums, schools, archives, performance, radio, and online.  In particular, we will consider the dynamics of listening to, recognizing, and validating the voices of women, who may not know their stories have an audience.

In addition to learning the theory and background of oral history, students will learn the practical and technical information needed to conduct their own interviews.  View syllabus.

Admission is limited to 15 participants.  $250 (BHS members $200)

Register online here (Full)

For more information visit BHS Oral History.



Posted in Education, Oral History | No Responses »
Tags: ,

Brooklyn Women

Written by Sady on February 20th, 2009

Yesterday, I was getting some ducks in order for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project we’re working on and browsing through some audio recordings to double check dates of birth and I happened to listen to two striking moments.

In one, a woman who grew up in Red Hook in the 1920s and 1930s breaks into tears when she talks about having to end her schooling and go to work.  She was a proud honors student but she didn”t finish high school.  In the second, a woman who worked as a welder in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during WWII talks about how she would have loved to continue her career as a welder but no one would hire a woman; you can hear the disappointment and frustation in her voice but this interview was conducted in 1989 and you can also hear how resigned she is to that being the way it all went.

Women’s History Month is a week away now.  In February, there was lots of public conversation about Black History Month and whether it’s still necessary after Obama’s historic election.  I always feel a little funny about the History Months but the fact remains that Black History and Women’s History are still not given fair enough play during the rest of the year.  And so much has changed in such a short amount of time there’s a lot to think about and discuss so, both months still seem important.  But ungh, I remember calling radio station programmers on behalf of Voices of Public Intellectuals, a feminist radio series produced at Radcliffe, and there was always a handful of station managers who would respond, “Oh but Women’s History Month already passed…”

That said, we do have some great events coming up in the spirit of Women’s History Month:

Wednesday, February 25
Seminar Application Deadline
Listening to Women: Documenting Women’s Lives Through Oral History

Thursday, March 5, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Discussion – Women Veterans: Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times

Wednesday, March 18, 6:00 PM
Domestic Violence, Citizenship and Equality – A Lecture with Professor Elizabeth M. Schneider

Posted in Oral History | No Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oral History in Turkey

Written by Sady on February 6th, 2009

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

Posted in Exhibitions, Oral History | No Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Listening to Women

Written by Sady on January 20th, 2009

The Brooklyn Historical Society announces a New Seminar:

Listening to Women: Documenting Women’s Lives through Oral History

A six-week non-credit course meeting once per week for 2 hours

Wednesdays March 18, 2009 – April 29, 2009
6:30 – 8:30pm

Registration Deadline: February 25, 2009

Admission limited to 15 participants.

Sign up HERE

I took it for granted that like most of the billions of people who are born and die on this planet I was just an accident. There was no reason for me. Yet my life burned inside me. Even such as it was, it was the only record of me, and it was my only creation, and something in me would not accept that it was insignificant. Something in me must have been waiting to stand up and demand to be counted. Because eventually, when I was presented with an opportunity to talk about myself, I grasped at it.

— Nuala O’Faolain in her book Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman

Seminar Description and Objectives:

This seminar will introduce the practice of Oral History as an historical methodology, a unique narrative genre, and a tool in the reconciliation of social injustices. It will be interdisciplinary, drawing from history, sociology, memoir, and gender studies. We will examine oral history in all its forms — audio, video, print, and exhibit — and in a variety of settings — museums, schools, archives, performance, radio, and online. In particular, we will consider the dynamics of listening to, recognizing, and validating the voices of women, who may not know their stories have an audience. In addition to learning the theory and background of oral history, students will learn the practical and technical information needed to conduct their own interviews.

Posted in Education, Oral History | 1 Response »
Tags: , ,