What responsibilities do we have when asking community members to share vulnerable stories for a publicly accessible archive?
About this event
“What hurts is that people consume my story and are not driven to action”: Navigating Storytelling Practices at Cultural Institutions (Workshop #2 of 2)
Workshop by Nancy Bercaw, Patty Arteaga, and José Centeno-Meléndez
The Undocumented Organizing Collecting Initiative at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History chronicles undocumented-led movements throughout the U.S. with directly impacted people. In an effort to document these histories with care and respect, we’ve had to rethink what it means to record oral histories with organizers who are both heard and unheard in popular accounts of undocumented organizing.
In the first of this two-part workshop series, the collecting initiative team will share how the principles of restorative history—a theoretical and methodological outgrowth of restorative justice—has reshaped their oral history practices to be more mindful of the ethics that accompanies this form of history documentation. Restorative history involves a 4-step process to address harms of exclusion from our national story in transformative ways: 1) address harms, 2) identify needs, 3) fulfill obligations, and 4) explore root causes through the study of history.
The second session of this workshop series invites narrators, museum workers, archivists, students, and members of the community practicing oral history to explore the implications and obligations that come with sharing interviews with the public. Please note that the second workshop will be capped at 15 participants in order to allow space for dialogue and resource sharing. Participants will be selected from a brief application process to ensure a diversity of voices and experiences in the space.
Nancy Bercaw is a Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where she also serves as Deputy Director for the Center for Restorative History. Before joining NMAH, Nancy was the lead curator for the landmark Slavery and Freedom exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Patty Arteaga serves as the Project Coordinator for the Center for Restorative History and Project Lead for the Undocumented Organizing Collecting Initiative at the National Museum of American History. Her work focuses on community centered practices in the museum’s collection, oral histories, documentation, and partnerships.
José Centeno-Meléndez is a historian from Prince George’s County, Maryland, who collaborates with diverse communities to advocate for the recognition of marginalized histories. He serves as the Oral Historian for the Undocumented Organizing Collecting Initiative.
Image Description:Two brown, mixed-race men sit on a couch with their bodies turned towards one another in preparation for an oral history recording. The man to the left is wearing a black t-shirt and green pants. He is holding an avocado pillow as he speaks to the man in the right, who is wearing dark glasses, a tan sweater, and blue pants. The man to the right is holding an audio recorder and is wearing a pair of over-the-ear headphones. Both are sitting in a living room and are surrounded by a coffee table with papers, a laptop, batteries, and bags of snacks.
We are excited to offer this round of workshops fully bilingually, in English and Spanish. We will also be providing ASL interpretation on demand, and offering live captioning on all sessions. We are hopeful that this will broaden access, allow for conversations that would not otherwise be possible, and deepen all of our learning.
We are committed to making these workshops as broadly accessible as possible, so we are offering an option of free registration for those who could not otherwise attend, with a sliding scale suggested donation of $20-$100 per workshop. We encourage you to pay what you can to support fair pay for our instructors as well as free registration for those who need it.
These events are open to all. You can use this quick survey to let us know how we could make these events more accessible for you. Note that we are able to provide ASL interpretation for any event, but need two weeks' notice. Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at rlm2203@columbia.edu with specific access requests or questions.