Rural Voices Radio: Today’s Current Events are Tomorrow’s Oral History

“Rural Voices Radio: Mississippi Voices Sharing Their Stories of Place”, presented by Emily Noble, was perhaps the most moving presentation at the Mississippi Historical Society’s 2007 Conference.

“Rural Voices Radio” encourages school children to write personal stories in their own voices.  Selected stories are recorded by the students and broadcast over Mississippi’s public radio stations.  If the story isn’t selected for radio, the child receives feedback and the chance to revise the story and submit it again.

Students record their stories in a professional recording studio, frequently traveling to another town to do so.  Each child receives a CD containing their story. 

Emily Noble brought her CD player and played several stories for us.  All were personal stories of surviving Hurricane Katrina - heartbreaking and inspiring – including one child who sang the blues:  

“Hurricane Katrina swept away, all my possessions into the bay.”

Rural Voices Radio is intended to develop student’s writing and thinking skills.  But because they represent real life in Mississippi, they serve as oral histories as well. 

Visit Mississippi’s Rural Voices Radio to see photographs of the budding writers and listen to their stories.

Using iPods in Oral History

“Wade in the Water: Memory and Community in the Delta”, presented by David Cunningham at the Mississippi Historical Society’s 2007 conference, illustrates an interesting way to use iPods in the recording and playing of oral history. 

Dr. Cunningham, who teaches Sociology at Brandeis University, brought a group of students to the Mississippi Delta (supported by Delta State University) to interview local people on topics such as civil rights, music, political and economic issues.  The students spent nine days based in Cleveland, Mississippi, while branching out to Clarksdale and other towns.  In each town, they first meet with local community members to explain their project in an attempt to really engage the townspeople. 

For interviews, they clipped a small microphone to the end of their iPods and set out to interview teachers, business owners, story tellers, etc. in their own environment, like the local barbershop.  They uploaded the iPod files to a laptop, edited them in Audacity, and are in the process of creating a Web site which will also contain photographs and other artifacts.  Playing excerpts for us, I was surprised at the quality of the audio.  It sounded very good.

Ultimately, they hope the podcasts will serve as “audio walking tours” of each town, of its history and culture, told through the stories and voices of the people who live there. 

The class blog expresses the experiences and reflections of students and teachers during the class trip.  One Brandeis student wrote about the common lament of “We have no jobs.” Another post mentioned how they took time out to teach an 8th grade class about podcasting and oral history. 

This class appears to be part of a larger initiative called the iPod Experience at Brandeis University.

Mississippi Historical Society Annual Meeting

I recently attended the Mississippi Historical Society’s annual meeting (March 1-3, 2007) in Jackson Mississippi.  This year’s theme was “Telling Mississippi’s Stories.”

This was my first time to attend the meeting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Several speakers emphasized the importance of oral history.  

Charles C. Bolton: Oral histories go beyond just records and facts – they add flesh to the bones and create a more accurate picture of people and times.  Oral histories present a story from multiple points of view.  This is especially important when you are in a minority, because you don’t control the keeping of the records.    

James W. Loewan expanded on this idea even more.  His recent book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism examines towns in which blacks were not allowed after sundown.  Everyone knew the custom, although there were no official laws and thus no records.  So, the only way to shed light on this practice was through oral histories of people involved and affected. 

Daphne Chamberlain, a P.H.D. student studying children’s participation in the Jackson Civil Rights movement, said oral histories are time-consuming and difficult.  But they provide personal insight and add power to your story. 

One thing I noticed at the conference was… Although many examples were from the civil rights movement, integration, and race relations, there were very few blacks at the meeting, and only one black speaker.  I found this curious, but don’t really have an explanation for it.

African American Movies at Allen Library

As part of its 2007 Black History Month Celebration, Allen Library in Allen, TX, is presenting four movies featuring all-black casts and/or African American themes.  The movies are shown every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm during the month of February.  Admission is free.

This past Tuesday, I went to see the first movie in the series, The Green Pastures, made in 1936.  It’s an entertaining movie that illustrates not only where we were in the 1930s in terms of film-making, but also in terms of racial stereotypes.  As a bonus, they showed an episode of the 1950s TV show, Beulah.

Next Tuesday, Feb 13, it’s Cabin in the Sky with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Ethel Waters, and Lena Horne.

Map to Allen Library.

“The Dust Bowl” – “Leaving South Dakota”

Here is an example from “The Dust Bowl” exhibit showing a 1930s FSA photo with a 1970s follow-up.  (See my earlier post.) 

The following photo called “Leaving South Dakota for a new start in the Pacific Northwest” was taken by Arthur Rothstein on July 18, 1936.

The following photo was taken in July 1979 by Bill Ganzel.

The woman on the left in both pictures is Marie Braught Johnson.  She tells her story:

“My dad used to walk the floor when those dust storms were blowing and say, ‘There’s a lot of real estate exchanging hands today.’ The year before we left, my dad had a corn crop going pretty good. The grasshoppers hit, and dad went to town and bought corn knives for all us kids. He figured if we’d get that corn chopped down and piled up for fodder, the grasshoppers would leave it alone. [Crying.] Well, they didn’t. We worked, butter we couldn’t keep ahead of them. They ate it right in the shock. They ate every bit of it. I don’t even like to think about those days. We had friends who had come out to Oregon the year before, and they’d write back what a great country it was. There was grass up to the cow’s belly, and there was fruit trees for the picking. And there was work in the fruit orchards. We had nothing, came with nothing.

“We go back to South Dakota every once in a while to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. No way! No way! I just get that feeling every time I go back, like it used to be. I know it’s not quite that bad any more, but … no way. I tell Vern and Flora all the time they should have stayed out here.”

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

This example was taken from the “The Dust Bowl” exhibit on Texas Humanities Web site at:

 http://www.humanities-interactive.org/texas/dustbowl/

“The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit – a great idea to copy

I went to see “The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit (see earlier post) and really enjoyed it.  It’s fairly small, but effective.

The exhibit is based upon photographs taken by Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, and others when they worked for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s.  Then, in the 1970s, Bill Ganzel, a photographer from Nebraska, saw the photos and wondered what became of the people in them.  He asked himself, “Did they go to California?”  “Did they prosper?”  “Did they return?”  So he went in search of the people and some answers. 

As he found the individuals, now forty years older with a lot of stories, he photographed them again (sometimes in the same locations) and interviewed them.

That’s how the exhibit is layed out.  First, there is the photo from the 1930s.  Then a photo from the 1970s.  Then an excerpt from the interview.  There are about 14 of these groupings.   (In my next post, I will show an example.)

I loved seeing the “after” pictures and reading the stories.  So often, as I’ve looked at similar photographs, I’ve wondered what happened to the people.  

This is an idea that can be copied in many forms of public history – whether it’s more exhibits of FSA photos like this one – or community history where someone follows up on a local news story, school, church, or sports team from the early 1900s - or family history. 

There are so many stories to learn from.  I just hope that the complete collection of Mr. Ganzel’s oral histories have been captured in an archives somewhere.  

“The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit opens Jan 17, 2007, at Davis Library

“The Dust Bowl” photography exhibit will be on display at the Davis Library (directions) in Plano, Texas, Jan 17 – Feb 7, 2007.  The exhibit tells the story of great dust storms that swept across the Great Plains region of the United States during the 1930s – and the impact on the people who lived there.

The “Dust Bowl” refers to the drought-ridden land of the Midwest where farmers planted so much land in wheat, there wasn’t enough native ground-cover left to hold the soil in place.  The result was massive storms of dust whenever winds came.

Ian Frazier, in his book Great Plains describes the first great storm cloud:

“black at the base and tan at the top, rose from the fields of eastern Colorado and western Kansas and began to move south.  Inside the cloud darkness was total … People in the cloud’s path thought the end of the world had come…” 

A companion Web site provides additional information:

• photo gallery
• articles about the photographers and the Dust Bowl era
• student learning activities

The exhibit is sponsored by Texas Humanities (formerly the Texas Council for the Humanities.)

Oral History Association

I will be attending the Oral History Association’s Annual Meeting this week in Little Rock, Arkansas. (See earlier post.)

I’ve been looking forward to it.  On Wednesday, I will be going to an all-day workshop called “Introduction to Oral History Interviewing”, which should be good, since this is my first conference.  One of the presenters is from Baylor University, which is close by, and known for its Oral History program.

On Thursday and Friday, there will be a variety of speakers talking about oral history collections at museums, schools, etc. - including the Civil Rights Movement, Folk Music, Negro Baseball League, and Hurricane Katrina.  Douglas Brinkley is scheduled to be there.  I hope that information is still accurate.  

Will report back about the conference.  

What I Learned From Ernest J. Gaines

I went to see Ernest J. Gaines speak this week.  (See earlier blog.)   He was thoughtful and inspiring!

Ernest Gaines is the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.  Most of his stories take place in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana – the “patch of land” where he grew up that he loves so much. 

The setup was like the Actor’s Studio we see on Bravo.  Ernest Gaines sat on a small stage between two interviewers – all with microphones in front of them because it was being recorded by KERA, the public radio station for North Texas.  The audience surrounded them.   

My favorite line from his talk was,

“If we do not know the history of our neighbors, then we only know half of our own history.”

He said this in response to the question of who does he write for.  He said he doesn’t like to answer that question because he focuses on writing stories, not preaching.  But if pushed to answer, he would say he writes first for black young people, “So that they can know their past to help them better understand their future.”  Then he writes for white young people because, “If we do not know the history of our neighbors, then we only know half of our own history.”

My other favorite takeaway was that “we should howl more.”  He believes that we do not object enough when terrible things (or injustices) happen.  We should express our outrage and work to make sure they don’t happen again.

His new book, Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays, seems to touch on many of the themes from his talk.

Ernest Gaines talk was sponsored locally by the Writer’s Garret.  I believe they said the show would be aired on 7:00 Sunday, October 15, 2006, on KERA radio, 90.1, but I could not find a confirmation of that.

Ernest Gaines to Speak at Writer’s Studio, Dallas, October 10, 2006

Ernest Gaines, author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, will speak at Theatre Three, on Tuesday, October 10, 2006, as part of the Writer’s Studio, a live interview show.  The show is scheduled from 7:30 to 9:30 PM.

Ernest Gaines was born near New Roads, Louisiana, and draws upon his personal history as the background stage for his books. 

Read his bio from the Writer’s Studio press release:

“Ernest Gaines is the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, which was made into an Emmy Award-winning movie starring Cicely Tyson.  Gaines was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish near New Roads, Louisiana, which is the Bayonne of his fictional works, and is writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  In 1993 Gaines received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for lifetime achievement, and in 1996 was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest decorations.  Gaines’s other works include bloodline, Of Love and Dust, A Lesson Before Dying, and A Gathering of Old Men, the last two of which were also made into films.”

For more information about the Writer’s Studio, including how to purchase tickets, see the Writer’s Garret Web site and click on “Writer’s Studio Press Release.”