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Robert Rauschenberg hunting and gathering in Captiva. Courtesy of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
In this post, OHMA student Holly Werner-Thomas (2017) considers the similarities and differences between the oral history biography and the traditional authored biography, and how Robert Rauschenberg's own spirit of collaboration is reflected in the Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project.
Read MoreIn this post part-time OHMA student Bud Kliment examines the relationship of folk music to oral history through the intersecting careers of Alessandro Portelli and Barbara Dane, occasioned by the release of Dane’s retrospective Hot Jazz, Cool Blues and Hard-Hitting Songs on Smithsonian Folkways.
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Photo from Nyssa Chow’s Still.Life. 2017 Exhibition, by Elyse Blennerhassett
Current OHMA student Carlin Zia shares gems from a warm-up conversation with Nyssa Chow ahead of her public presentation, “Writing and Listening for the Intersubjective Encounter,” the second event in our spring Oral History & the Arts lineup.
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Nyssa Chow, alum and OHMA teaching fellow, presents on her latest work, Still.Life., an oral history project documenting the lives of the women in her family. She spoke on her experience in the U.S. as an immigrant of color and the different perceptions of skin tone here and in Trinidad.
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In this post, OHMA student Yameng Xia (2017) considers Jennifer Egan’s work Manhattan Beach and the interviews Egan conducted for the book. Jennifer Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer and she came to Columbia University to give a public interview on how she used an oral history approach to get raw material for her new novel, Manhattan Beach.
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OHMA student Tomoko Kubota reflects on Nyssa Chow’s contribution to the Spring Workshop Series, "Writing and Listening for the Intersubjective Encounter."
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In this post, OHMA student Filip Mazurczak compares the methods of research used by Jennifer Egan and James Michener in writing historical fiction.
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In this post, part-time OHMA student Bud Kliment reviews Glorious Mahalia by Stacy Harrop and Peace Be Till, by multimedia composer Zachary James Watkins as performed by the Kronos Quartet in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Jean Rice of Picture the Homeless interviewed and photographed by OHMA student Lynn Lewis
We're excited to announce the two recipients of this year's student thesis research grant awards!
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Image taken by Chris Lee for the Krannert Center
Current OHMA student Kyna Patel (2017 cohort) reflects on the historical and political themes in composer Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, as well as her personal connection with her work.
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Copyright Peter Serling 2009
Julia Wolfe came to Columbia University to speak on December 7, 2017, and was interviewed live by Bud Kliment as part of the Workshop Series: Oral History and the Arts. Among other things, she spoke about her 2009 musical composition Steel Hammer that was based on the tale of John Henry and her 2014 musical composition Anthracite Fields that was a tribute to the Pennsylvania anthracite coal miners and their families.
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OHMA student Desmond Austin-Miller reflects on Michael Roberson’s contribution to the Fall Workshop Series, A History of Echoes, Pt. 2: Sound of Trans Freedom and the influence Roberson left on him as a Black academic.
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Bud Kliment, a part-time OHMA student, reflects on his recent conversation with composer Julia Wolfe, and some of the challenges (and benefits) of conducting a public interview.
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Image by Laura Summer
In this post, OHMA student Yiyi Zhang (2017) reflects on E. Patrick Johnson’s performative approach to story-telling and its relation to understanding and compassion between people.
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OHMA student Samantha Lombard (2018) reflects on E. Patrick Johnson’s theatrical representation of his narrators from oral history interviews he conducted as part of research for his book, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South – An Oral History.
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In this post, Oral History Masters Student Alissa Funderburk discusses the methodology of self-interrogation mentioned by E. Patrick Johnson, oral historian and Carlos Montezuma Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University, in his recent talk for the OHMA Oral History and the Arts Workshop series.
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Nutmeg Harvest Baskets, Image from Nyssa Chow’s Still Life
In this post, OHMA student Elyse Blennerhassett (2017) reflects on Robert Sember’s approach to sound. Born under apartheid South Africa, Sember moved to the United States in the 80s to become a prominent activist in social movements relating to health, sexual, gender, racial, and class inequalities.
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image credit © ultra-red
In this post, OHMA student Holly Werner-Thomas (2017) considers the theme of struggle in the life and work of Robert Sember, who is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at The New School’s Eugene Lang College, and a member of the international sound-art collective, Ultra-red.
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Stills from Michael Roberson on the Ballroom Freedom School by Shawn Van Sluys on Vimeo.
Current OHMA student Carlin Zia reflects on her experience of the penultimate workshop in our fall series—Michael Roberson’s A History of Echoes, Pt. 2: Sound of Trans Freedom—and shares how the event influences her own approach to oral history.
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In this post, OHMA student Lynn Lewis (2017) describes a recent workshop with Ultra-Red member Michael Roberson. Roberson is a public health practitioner, advocate, activist and leader within the LGBTQ community who created the Federation of Ballroom Houses, and co-created the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Group.
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