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.

Mary River Oral History

A co-operative effort between the Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee and Luke Barrowcliff's Goorie Vision under the Caring for Country banner has collated a vast array of information on the history of the Mary River catchment. Dr Tanzi Smith and Mr Barrowcliffe co-ordinated the project which involved travelling to different locations throughout the catchment and filming, listening and interviewing residents of that area. For full story click here.

Greenwich Village Oral History Project

Storytellers and interviewers in an ambitious oral history project came together last month at Jefferson Market Library to celebrate their effort to preserve the past. For five months, volunteers worked to record neighborhood tales from people who have lived, worked or spent more than 20 years in the area for “Your Village, Your Story: A Greenwich Village Oral History Project.” Successfully archived, the stories are now accessible online. For full story click here and to listen to the interviews click here.

Gibraltar Oral History

The Chief Minister was in London on Thursday 15 May where he received, on behalf of the People of Gibraltar, an important new historical archive recording the years 1930 to 1970, a formative period in the modern history of Gibraltar. For full story click here.