What does oral history look like in practice? What goes into community-rooted storytelling projects and what are the outcomes? Voice of Witness is hosting a series of intimate conversations with practitioners who have developed and activated dynamic oral history projects.
We’ll explore the connections between storytelling and community building, liberation, ethics, civic engagement, public art, narrative change, and more. Sharing reflections and challenges, VOW staff and guest speakers will offer insights into planning, conducting, and presenting oral history projects and their potential impact.
Event #1: Liberation Stories and Public Art
Join us for a conversation with Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz about using oral history to honor our past, make meaning of our present, and vision liberated futures. Mi’Jan will share insights from years of experience creating cultural projects and story-rich live events that foster community-building and meaningful social change.
In this conversation, we’ll explore topics including:
- Weaving liberation stories into public art and events
- The connections between oral history, cultural memory, and civic engagement
- Mi’Jan’s ongoing research into Octavia E. Butler’s life, work, and archives
Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Ed.D. is a 2019 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist who moves between realms of oral history, art, ritual, and civic engagement. She is a 2024 National Council on Public History Honoree for her oral history and social practice public art work with PolicyLink, an inaugural New America Us@250 Fellow, as well as a 2023-2024 Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellow and ongoing Octavia E. Butler scholar at the Huntington Library.
Date: Wednesday, April 23rd at 2pm PT / 5pm ET
Event #2: Participatory Storytelling Exhibitions
Join us for a conversation with Mark Menjívar about participatory projects rooted in oral history, archives, photography, and social action. Mark will share insights from collaborations with artists, educators, youth, and community members to engage in meaningful dialogue and action around immigration and border issues.
In this conversation, we’ll explore topics including:
- Developing participatory public exhibitions and interventions
- Intersections between oral history and socially engaged art
- Creating “All the Sacrifices You’ve Made / Todos Los Sacrificios Que Has Hecho,” a project by Borderland Collective that uses family archives and oral histories in collaboration with migrant farm workers
Mark Menjívar is a San Antonio-based artist and educator. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University and has worked on collaborative, interdisciplinary projects with various organizations including El Museo del Barrio, the Rothko Chapel, Eastern State Penitentiary, FotoFest, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas After Violence Project, and Borderland Collective.
Date: Wednesday, May 7th, at 2pm PT / 5pm ET
Event #3: Documenting Refugee Stories
Join us for a conversation with Diya Abdo about oral history as a tool for documenting refugee experiences and advocating for immigrant justice. Diya founded Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR), which advocates for housing refugee families on college and university campuses and supporting them in their resettlement, and led an oral history project recording newcomer experiences.
In this conversation, we’ll explore topics including:
- Practices around relationship-building, privacy, and ethics for storytelling projects with immigrants and refugees
- Ṣawt (“voice” in Arabic), a new oral history project that records and amplifies the voices and experiences of refugees hosted by colleges and universities
- Creatively adapting oral histories into a variety of formats, including comics, literary narratives, videos, and powerful visuals
Dr. Diya Abdo is a Professor of English at Guilford College and the founding Director of Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR), which advocates for housing refugee families on college and university campus grounds and supports them in their resettlement. A second-generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in Jordan, Diya’s teaching, research, and scholarship focus on Arab women writers, Arab and Islamic feminisms, and refugee and immigrant issues. She has also published poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, including the book American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience. Diya is the recipient of the Emerson Collective Fellowship (2024), the J.M. Kaplan Fund’s Innovation Prize (2021), and sits on the Boards of the Community Sponsorship Hub and Refugee Council USA.
Date: Wednesday, May 21st at 2pm PT / 5pm ET
