Upcoming Events
Storytelling for Immigrant Justice
The Women’s Building, San Francisco, CA
Amid a charged election season when political candidates and mainstream media alike are highly focused on immigration, often using xenophobic and dehumanizing rhetoric, there is rarely space to hear from immigrants themselves. In this storytelling/listening session hosted by Voice of Witness and The Women’s Building, we’ll center oral histories and stories from immigrant and refugee community members, as well as share calls to actions to support and stand in solidarity with our neighbors.
This event will leave you more informed, engaged, and equipped to advocate for immigrant justice.
Oral History Association Conference
Cincinnati, Ohio
The OHA conference runs from October 30 through November 2, 2024 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It brings together a broad range of people and practitioners and features a diverse breadth of oral history work and skill-building. Voice of Witness is leading two sessions:
Radical Collaboration: Expanding Narrator Agency and Community Impact
(Re)building Community and Honoring Complexity: Oral Histories of Movement and Migration
Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages (WAESOL) Conference
Renton, WA
VOW’s Education Specialist Jessica Fagen is presenting the keynote speech, “Say it Forward: Amplifying Unheard Voices with Oral History,” at the 2024 WAESOL Conference. The presentation will highlight the benefits of oral history as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning English. Educators will receive guidance on how to use oral history for culturally responsive learning opportunities, relationship building, and social-emotional learning.
Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia
Virtual
Join us for a webinar hosted by Firestorm Books, a radical co-op bookstore and community center in Asheville, NC. VOW’s Fanny García and Katrina Powell, editor of Beginning Again, will discuss Appalachia as a diverse place where belonging and connection are created despite displacement, resource extraction, and inequality.
Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia brings together oral history narratives of refugees, migrants, and generations-long residents that explore complex journeys of resettlement. In their stories, Appalachia—despite how it’s popularly portrayed—is not simply a monolithic region of white poverty and strife. This project adds to the growing body of works that counter damaging myths of Appalachia and expand our ideas of who belongs.
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Convention
Boston, MA
HS Matters: The Benefits of Oral History Storytelling to Foster Belonging, Community, and Student Agency in and Outside of the Classroom
VOW’s Jessica Fagen will present alongside Chris Wendelin and Lisa Thyer, teachers at Stagg High School. After leading a Voice of Witness oral history project-based class for 7 years, they surveyed and interviewed class alumni and found that oral history storytelling has profound impacts on student writing, empathy, community engagement, and social action far beyond the classroom. This session will share guidance on how teachers can harness the power of oral history storytelling in their classrooms.
Location: Room 252 B, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
