Oral History

Monticello's New Slave Oral History Project

AP | ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON | Posted 02.26.2012

Read More: Thomas Jefferson Slaves, Virginia, Video, Monticello Slaves, Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville, Oral History, DC News

RICHMOND, Va. — When Thomas Jefferson died, scores of slaves were sold from his Monticello plantation to settle his debts. Peter Fossett, 11, wa...

Read Whole Story

Using the 9/11 Documentary Rebirth to Repair Lives

Marcia G. Yerman | Posted 11.11.2011

Read More: 9/11, Impact, Documentary Film, Art and Activism, Oral History, Ptsd, Impact News, Jim Whitaker, First Responders, Grief, Imagine Entertainment, Rebirth, The Rebirth Project, Rebirth the Documentary, World Trade Center, Ground Zero, Philip Glass, Impact News

The documentary Rebirth begins with a sound familiar to New Yorkers. It's the audio theme for the "all news all the time" radio station 1010 WINS.

Read Post

Gimme That Old Time (Native American) Religion

Alison Owings | Posted 08.08.2011

Read More: Native American Faith, Native American Women, Native Americans, Native American Religion, Native American Culture, Listening to Native Americans, Gutsy Women of Faith, Indian Voices Book, Oral History, Religion News

I participated in a series of talks my local church sponsored called, "Gutsy Women of Faith." Like everything connected to Native Americana, at least in my view, things were complicated.

Read Post

No More Questions!

Dave Isay | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Stories, Oral History, Family, Family Stories, Healthy Living News

Our stories -- the stories of everyday people -- are more powerful and interesting than the lives of celebrities that clog up our airwaves every day.

Read Post

LISTEN: Grandmother Tells Granddaughter What It Was Like To Fall In Love With Her Partner

Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: National Day of Listening, Gay Rights, Storycorps, Oral History, Grandparenting, Healthy Living News

This Friday, StoryCorps, an oral history initiative that helps Americans record and archive stories from their lives, will celebrate the third annual ...

Read Whole Story

WATCH: Studs Terkel On What's Missing From Modern Life

Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: National Day of Listening, Storycorps-Animation, Storycorps, Oral History, Studs Terkel, Healthy Living News

This Friday, StoryCorps, an oral history initiative that helps Americans record and archive stories from their lives, will celebrate the third annual ...

Read Whole Story

'Oral History Project' Takes An Inside Look At Chicago Classrooms

Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Teachers Oral Histories, Teachers, Gapers Block, Chicago Public Schools, Oral History, Chicago Teachers, Education News

In popular culture, American teachers are sometimes idealized as the visionaries portrayed in films, quickly able to turn around the lives of troubled...

Read Whole Story

How to Defeat the Great Eraser

Steven Crandell | Posted 11.17.2011

Death eventually claims everyone who remembers a certain person, but there is another option: Honor those people and their stories by writing them down or recording them.

Read Post

Overcoming Katrina: In the Words of the Survivors

Nina Sankovitch | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Personal Narratives, Hurricane Katrina, Evacuation of New Orleans, Survival, Oral History, Rebuilding New Orleans, Books News

No book has told the story of Katrina as plainly and as painfully as Overcoming Katrina. These narratives perform one of history's most important functions: to acknowledge the reality of experience.

Read Post

Oral-gate: The Secret History of the Metropolitan Museum

Michael Gross | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rogues' Gallery, Met, Museums, Smithsonian, Books, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum Archives, Oral History, Books News

Although the Metropolitan Museum celebrates the history of human creation, its keepers were profoundly anti-historical when it came to their own story.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: The Curse of the Irish

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Poverty, Homelessness, US Poverty, Alcoholism, Chicago Irish, Chicago Homeless, Oral History, Homeless Immigrants, Chicago News

'I used to see guys who were on the street and homeless, and I just never fathomed that it could be me one day.'

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: Terrorized Around the Clock

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mental Illness, Chicago Homeless, Homeless Women Chicago, Poverty, Homelessness, Oral History, Chicago News

Mental illness can lead to homelessness, but the stress of losing one's home, sleeping on a park bench, and surviving from nickel to nickel could just as easily exacerbate a predisposition to mental illness.

Read Post

Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle on Storytelling

Gotham Chopra | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Storytelling, Slumdog Millionaire Best Picture, Film, Danny Boyle Slumdog Millionaire, Slumdog Millionaire, Movies, The Odyssey, History, Epic Storytelling, Filmmaking and Activism, Activism, Middle East Conflict, Pakistan India Relations, Oral History, Entertainment News

If there is one thing we might learn from great filmmaking, as with Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, it is that through our stories we have the ability to inspire, lead, and transform.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: The Panhandler's Playbook

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Chicago News, Chicago Homeless, Poverty, Panhandling, Homelessness, Oral History, Panhandler, Chicago News

This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from my oral history Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: A Real Job

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Veterans PTSD, Poverty, Homeless Veterans, Panhandling, Homelessness, Chicago Homeless, Ptsd, Oral History, Streetwise, Chicago News

This is the sixth in a series of excerpts from my book Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago.

Read Post

A Few More Words For Studs

Jamie Kalven | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Studs Terkel, Rosthstein Studs Terkel, Studs Terkel Interviews, Red Baiting, Studs Terkel Working, Studs Terkel Marxism, Npr, Edward Rothstein, Mccarthyism, Studs Terkel Joe McCarthy, Studs Terkel Ideology, Oral History, Studs Marxism, Chicago News

Three days after Studs Terkel's death, the New York Times published a column by critic Edward Rothstein titled "An Appraisal: He Gave Voice to Many, Among Them Himself." The piece is a striking instance of the low art of red-baiting disguised as high-minded criticism.

Read Post

Remembering Studs Terkel

Rick Ayers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Studs Terkel Death, Radicalism, Studs Terkel Working, Chicago, Oral History, Studs Terkel, Entertainment News

It is sad that Studs died just before Barack Obama won this election. My guess is he already completed his absentee ballot. Obama is a Chicago candidate, one Studs was proud of.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: God Planned It

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Illiteracy, Homeless Women Chicago, Homelessness, Adult Illiteracy, Chicago News, Chicago Homeless, Chicago Poverty, US Poverty, Oral History, Chicago News

This is the fourth in a series of excerpts from my book Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: Poor Is Everybody

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Homeless Women Chicago, US Poverty, Homeless Youth Illinois, Chicago Homeless, Single Room Occupancy, Oral History, Homeless Youth Chicago, Chicago Homeless Shelters, Chicago Poverty, Homelessness, Chicago News

A man on the street once said to me, "I wish I could just go somewhere and be with some people. You know, just socialize with some people. Not a shelter. Just a place to hang out, you know? But I'm homeless, man. I ain't got nowhere to go." Brunches like these seem to fill that void.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: The Gospel According to Art

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Lincoln Park Homeless, Poverty, Lincoln Park, Homelessness, US Poverty, Chicago Homeless, Oral History, Chicago News

Art and his friend Martin have set up camp in a long, narrow storage space below a three-flat in west Lincoln Park. A single bulb lights the enclosed room.

Read Post

Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago

Christopher Devine | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Poverty, Homelessness, Oral History, US Poverty, Homeless Chicago, Urban Segregation, Lincoln Park Homeless, Chicago Homeless, Lincoln Park, Chicago News

On the busy streets that frame Lincoln Park's expressions of grandeur, you will find some of America's poorest citizens.

Read Post