The Oral History Master of Arts Program is pleased to announce its 2017-2018 workshop series

Oral History and the Arts

Oral history is an art. The practice of oral history is creative -- in interviews we make narratives together with our interviewees, imagining worlds, telling stories, creating characters. Oral history can also be used to document the arts, to tell the stories of painters and dancers and actors and writers and the worlds they live in. And the arts are a powerful means to amplify and interpret oral histories, transforming them into literary narratives, building theater or music or dance performances from them, using them to create documentaries. This year, we will explore all of these many intersections of oral history and the arts, asking what unique contributions an oral history approach can make to artistic practice, and how oral history can help us to think about art and its role in the world.

All events are free and open to the public; tickets are not required. Refreshments will be served. Video and audio recordings from the Oral History Workshop Series will be available after the events available via our YouTube and iTunes channels.

Events include:

Thursday, September 14, 2017, 6:00 - 7:30 PM
Oral History As Engaged Community Listening, Ceremonial Practice and Performative Art
Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz

Thursday, September 21, 2017, 6 - 7:30 PM
Interviewing artists: intersubjectivity and visuality
Luisa Passerini

Thursday, October 19, 2017, 6 - 7:30 PM
From Field to Performance: Adapting Oral History and Ethnographic Field Research for the Stage
E. Patrick Johnson

Thursday, October 26, 2017, 6 - 7:30 PM
A History of Echoes-Part 1: Memory and Militant Sound Investigations
Robert Sember

Thursday, November 2, 2017, 6 - 7:30 PM
A History of Echoes-Part 2: Sound of Trans Freedom
Michael Roberson

Thursday, December 7, 2017, 6 - 7:30 PM
"Beyond words": oral tradition and the music of Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe

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Sponsors: This series is part of the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the Columbia Center for Oral History Research (CCOHR) and the Oral History Master of Arts Program (OHMA). Support from the Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE) is provided for programming that embodies late Professor Paul Lazarsfeld’s commitment to improving methodological approaches that address concerns of vital cultural and social significance.

For more information, please email Amy Starecheski, Co-Director of OHMA, at aas39@columbia.edu.