Voice of Witness

Are you attending the Oral History Association conference next week? Join Voice of Witness staff and partners at our sessions! ➡️ Radical Collaboration: Expanding Narrator Agency and Community Impact ➡️ (Re)building Community and Honoring Complexity: Oral Histories of Movement and Migration We're excited to reconnect with partners and friends, meet new folks, and learn from other practitioners. Come say hello! #OralHistory #OHA2024

The Storyteller Initiative application officially opens today! This new fellowship supports oral historians, documentarians, artists, and narrative changemakers from historically marginalized communities to develop their own projects. Through the program, VOW provides training, guidance, and $10k in funding for fellows working to document and amplify stories from their own communities. The initiative aims to expand the kinds of stories that get told, strengthen community-rooted projects, and contribute to movements for justice. ➡ Read the FAQs, join the info session on November 7th, and apply via our website: https://lnkd.in/giW3dmnB ➡ Help us raise funds to add another fellow and support this unique, much-needed initiative. Donate here: https://lnkd.in/eA5rqJMM Know someone who might be interested? Spread the word! Applications are due December 1st. #EthicalStorytelling #OralHistory #Fellowship

Join Voice of Witness on 10/23 at The Women's Building in San Francisco for Storytelling for Immigrant Justice. It will be a combo of storytelling/listening and ways for you to take action. This event will be a connecting one, particularly so close to the election. I hope you can join!

If you've been to The Women's Building in SF you know it's an amazing venue to host powerful events like this Voice of Witness event on Storytelling for Immigrant Justice. Please come if you can!

As part of our Oral History in Practice event series earlier this year, we spoke with Rae Garringer, founder of the Country Queers project, about oral history processes, formats, and the importance of authentic, nuanced storytelling. Did you miss the webinar? Read insights from Rae on our blog and watch the full recording: https://lnkd.in/eRWu66vD

Join us on Wednesday, October 23rd at the historic Women's Building in San Francisco for our Storytelling for Immigrant Justice event! Amid an election season rampant with xenophobic and dehumanizing rhetoric, there is rarely space to hear directly from immigrants and refugees. In this storytelling/listening session co-hosted by VOW and The Women's Building, we’ll center oral histories from immigrant community members and share ways you can take action to stand in solidarity with our neighbors. All are welcome – invite your friends, family, and coworkers! RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/eV6Ei8aq Simultaneous translation to Spanish will be available.

Happy publication day to Country Queers! Tune into the virtual book launch today at 5pm ET to learn about this much-needed oral history project: https://lnkd.in/eVdNhYtR Voice of Witness is honored and proud that we piloted our Storyteller Initiative program with Rae Garringer, founder of Country Queers. Interested in applying to this fellowship? Applications open October 24th! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eZDiTUSg

I wrote a piece for The Greater Good Science Center that gives educators practical tips for teaching active listening skills, and discuss why that matters for building empathy, community, and healing spaces. Check it out!

The Oral History Review invites practitioners to submit papers with interviews, essays, reflections, and stories that explore how Indigenous oral historians embrace different ways of knowing and diverse expressions of oral history with communities. VOW's Storyteller Initiative Coordinator Sara Sinclair is co-editing this special issue!

Don't worry if you missed VOW's Storyteller Initiative team in discussion. You can catch the replay here! #voiceofwitness #storytellerinitiative