Storytelling Best Practices
Amplifying Unheard Voices: Our Interns Reflect on VOW’s Annual Oral History Workshop
Editor’s Note: The blog series “I, Witness,” seeks to explore the ethics, challenges, and possibilities of teaching and conducting oral history. VOW summer 2016 interns Miriam Hwang-Carlos and Charlotte Edelstein. Photo courtesy of Lisa Anderson. …
Notes on Studs Terkel
“Looking back I think he was kind of a soulful polymath—responding to humanity as he encountered it, in the studio, in the books.” – George Drury on Studs Terkel On a recent summer day at the …
I Am Not My Parent’s Mistakes: Stories from Children of Incarcerated Parents
Sophie Edelhart Sophie Edelhart is a senior at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco. Outside of school, she serves on the San Francisco Youth Commission, a body of seventeen young …
Knowing Nothing: Curiosity in Oral History
By Joell Hallowell Joell is a writer, editor, and experimental filmmaker living in San Francisco. Her books include Lawfully Wedded Wives (Spuyten Duyvil, 2013) and Take Me to the River (Heyday Books, 2010). With Meg Withers (interviewed on WordMothers …
We All Have a Story to Tell
“We all have a story to tell.” These are the words that greet my 4th grade students as they enter my classroom every day. At the beginning of the school year, I told them my …
Oral History and Vulnerability
Renowned oral historian Alessandro Portelli refers to the optimal interview experience as a “mutual sighting” between interviewer and narrator. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I’d like to have a mutual sighting! Who wouldn’t? As an educator, …
What’s Your Story?
by William Ayers William Ayers is a member of the Voice of Witness Educational Advisory Board. He is a former Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago …
How Are Single Stories Dangerous?
By Claire Sorrenson Claire Sorrenson is a former Voice of Witness Education Program Intern with a passion for telling stories that drive social change. Claire currently works in the nonprofit communications sector. By now, anyone …
