Author: ohadmin

The Grassy Knoll

Resize of Dallas, Grassy Knoll, JFK assassinationLesley Jenkins is a Life Member of Oral History Queensland and she traveled to the  Chicago History Museum via Dallas to take up a two week Fellowship generously provided by Museums and Gallery Services  Queensland. To find out more you can also visit her blog: http://magsq.wordpresscom

The grassy knoll goes down in history doesn't it as one of the sites linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Here visitors waited to see the President and his stylish wife, Jackie, drive past. It was from The Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza, then a book depository, that Lee Harvey Oswald purportedly fired the fatal shot. This museum features a lot of oral history and it is both powerful and poignant.  They also have a Living History Series which features talks by all sorts of people who have any connections to the assassination story.  They combine this with an ongoing oral history project that explores the history and culture of Dallas in the 1960s. Unfortunately they don't allow any photos to be taken of the exhibition and there is a feeling of high security as you explore the dark space with the most wonderful audio guide. 

Tiananmen Square Remembered

Ian Johnson writes:  Every spring, an old friend of mine named Xu Jue makes a trip to the Babao­shan cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing to lay flowers on the tombs of her dead son and husband. She always plans her visit for April 5, which is the holiday of Pure Brightness, or Qingming. The traditional Chinese calendar has three festivals to honour the dead and Qingming is the most important – so important that in 2008 the government, which for decades had tried to suppress traditional religious practices, declared it a national holiday and gave people a day off to fulfil their obligations.  For full story click here.

50 Years of Coffs Harbour Library

Coffs Harbour City Library is celebrating 50 years of service.  In preparation for the 50th anniversary celebrations, the library has launched a new website called '50 Years 50 Stories' to promote the library's history and its impact on the community.  The site includes narratives on the development of the library service, including photographs, online oral history interviews and streaming video.

Kids Connect to Immigrant Roots

A group of Oakland public school third graders were given an assignment: interview your parents and grandparents, and record their stories about growing up in the U.S. or moving to this country. The local nonprofit running the project, ALICE Arts, found itself with over 400 oral histories — immigrant stories from Cambodia to Africa's Gold Coast and beyond. For full story, radio program and video click here.

Human Face of Global Economy

A review of: Invisible Hands: Voices From the Global Economy
Compiled and edited by Corinne Goria
Voice of Witness, McSweeny's Books, 2014

This new and completely engrossing book of oral history testimonials by workers in factories and fields all over the world is a welcome addition to the Voice of Witness series. Oral history is always about contributing to the historical record, creating historical narratives, from the ground up and the people at McSweeny's Voice of Witness project make it their mission to give voice to the marginalized and silenced people of the world. This in itself is a powerful human rights accomplishment.  For full story click here.

StoryCorps – Gay America

David Isay, the founder of the nonprofit oral history group StoryCorps, tried for many years with little success to raise money for a project to collect stories from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. When his father died two years ago on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots, he decided the project would proceed, with money or not.  For full story, click here.