In this post, current OHMA student Monica Liuting (2016) reflects how Terrell Frazier uses oral history interviews to frame personal experiences in political expressions. This article is the last in a four-part series exploring Terrell’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Becoming an Organizer: Narrative, Identity and Social Action.”
Read MoreWith Blood, Sweat, and Tears: The Making of Peoplehood and Home
In this post, current OHMA students Robin Miniter (2016) and Shira Hudson (2016) reflect on the history of urban squatters on the Lower East Side after Amy Starecheski’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture. Through interviews with members of the current OHMA cohort, they explore what it takes to make a space feel like home.
Read MoreMy Deplorable Friend
In this inauguration season post, OHMA alum Jonathon Fairhead (2015) writes about applying skills he learned as an oral historian to listen deeply to a friend whose political perspectives he does not align with and as a path to understanding a country divided.
Read MoreCreating Dynamic Dialogue with Our Past and Present: Reflections on ‘Below the Grid’ (Part II)
In this post, current OHMA student Xiaoyan Li (2016) reflects on how the dynamic dialogic process enlightens the shadows of our past and present.
This article is the second in a three-part series exploring Jack Kuo Wei Tchen’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Below the Grid.”
Read MoreOral History in the 'Post-Fact' Era: Exploring ‘Voices of Crown Heights’ (Part II)
This article is the second in a three-part series examining the Brooklyn Historical Society’s ongoing oral history project “Voices of Crown Heights.” In this piece, current OHMA student Rachel Unkovic (2016) focuses on how oral history can illuminate (rather than obfuscate) historical narrative even in times of confusion and conflicting ideas.
Read MoreOral History as Excavation: Exploring ‘Voices of Crown Heights’ (Part I)
Source: 6sqft.com
This article is the first in a three-part series examining the Brooklyn Historical Society’s ongoing oral history project “Voices of Crown Heights.” In this post, current OHMA student Dina Asfaha (2016) writes that Zaheer Ali's project is a prime example of the need for oral history in understanding society. She proposes that Ali does an exemplary job of situating people's narratives in their respective historical contexts and putting those narratives in conversation with one another in order to deduce conclusions about how gentrification in Crown Heights can be understood today.
Read MoreZoetrope City: Moment, Motion, and Memory
Earlier this fall, OHMA students Emma Courtland (2016) and Robin Miniter (2016) met in a third story apartment in Hamilton Heights to “narrate their photos.” Using a modification of the methods used by artist and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani to put walking tours, photography, and memory in conversation about the experience of gentrification in Prospect Heights, Courtland and Miniter planned to use photography and oral history to explore their changing relationships to the city. They then visited the places depicted in their photos. This is the story of one of those photos.
Read MoreNovember Book Publication—‘Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York City,’ By OHMA Co-Director Amy Starecheski
OHMA is excited to announce that Amy Starecheski’s book, Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York City (University of Chicago Press, 2016), has officially been published! It is for sale online and is starting to appear in bookstores, from Red Emma's in Baltimore to Book Culture on Broadway in New York City. Congratulations, Amy! We look forward to hosting you for an OHMA Workshop lecture on Thursday, January 19, 2017.
Read MoreField Notes: The Narrative Outside of Oral History
Image by Emma Courtland
Earlier this fall, DW Gibson, author of Not Working and The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, gave an OHMA Workshop Series lecture in on how he used oral history to reflect the changes in peoples’ lives through gentrification. This article—written by current OHMA student Liu Ting (2016)—focuses on how Gibson presents oral histories in his book and how his own narrative interplays with the interviews.
Read MoreField Notes: How Much Can We Trust The Dialogic Exchange Between Historian and Narrator?
Recently, author DW Gibson stopped by OHMA to discuss his book, The Edge Becomes The Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, in which he documents the lives and stories of Brooklynites and others who have an opinion on the increased development in Brooklyn, New York. In this post, Fanny Garcia (2016) reflects on his presentation.
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