Staying Alive with Oral History - Part 4

Of course there must be books recommended by this librarian-storyteller.  

The 1947 Newbery honor medal winning The Cow-Tail Switch by Harold Courlander and George Herzog was republished by Square Fish. I treasure several stories in this collection of west African tales and it still deserves a place in folktale collections.  The cover story specifically fits this series as it illustrates staying alive because someone is remembered.  I'll not say more, hoping you read it or hear me tell it some time.

published by Heinemann in 1996

Finally I've discovered Lynn Rubright's excellent book after fellow storyteller, FranStallings, recommended it on the Storytell list.  I'd heard of the book before and wonder why I hadn't read it.  The oral history chapter describes a project with upper elementary students and seniors living in their area.  The project helped the kids discover an exciting part of their area's history.  Additional cross-generational projects in the book also are documented for sharing the arts and folklore as excellent opportunities for elders to bond with children and preserve their experiences. 

published by August House in 1993

In Lynn's bibliography I found my absolute favorite book for Oral History, Telling Your Own Stories, by storyteller, Donald Davis.  I had only the time while my mother was in the hospital to use it with her, but I'm so glad I did and only wished I had discovered it earlier.  The memory prompts in it also work for writers of fiction or to remember stories from your own life.  


Here's the rest of Lynn's bibliography in her Appendix A: Then and Now
Alessi, Jean, and Jan Miller. 1987. Once upon a Memory: Your Family Tales and Treasures. White Hall, VA: Better Publications, Inc.
Daniel, Lois. 1985. How to Write Your Own Life Story: A Step by Step Guide for the Non-Professional Writer. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.
Gould, June. 1989. The Writer in All of Us: Improving Your Writing Through Childhood Memories. New York: E.P. Dutton
Rosenbluth, Vera. 1990. Keeping Family Stories Alive: A Creative Guide to Tapping Your Family and Love. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks, Inc.
Rylant, Cynthia. 1982. When I Was Young in the Mountains. New York: E. P. Dutton.  (LoiS's comment here: This is a well-done picture book to interest children in the memories of "Then and Now.")
Weitzman, David. 1975. The Brown Paper School Presents My Backyard History Book.  Boston: Little, Brown and Company.  (LoiS again: This is from a creative non-fiction series for children past picture books with ideas for finding history all around.)
Welty, Eudora. 1984. One Writer's Beginnings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Zeitlin, Steven J., Amy J. Kotkin, and Holly Cutting Baker. 1982. Celebration of American Family Folklore: Tales and Traditions from the Smithsonian Collection. New York: Pantheon Books.
Zimmerman, William. 1982. How to Tape Instant Oral Biographies. New York: Guarionex Press, Ltd.

There are certainly other books, but Lynn gives an excellent start.

Thank you, Lynn, Renee, Judy, and all my storyteller friends. I hope this helps you and others you may interview Stay Alive with Oral History.

Staying Alive with Oral Histories - Part 1

We all hope our lives make a difference.  I've been privileged to do oral histories and at other times help young people do it, too.  Additionally my reenactment of Liberetta Lerich Green started with her oral history telling about growing up on a Michigan Underground Railroad Station and her family's Civil War experiences.  The title story in Harold Courlander's The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories shows the value of remembering people's lives. 

Never overlook the value of putting something in a format available to future readers or listeners.  Whether they are the descendants of the person interviewed or not, the interview becomes precious beyond any time or expense involved.  Two easily overlooked groups who can especially value doing this are people with no children and those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the early stages. It's their way to stay alive!

I'm always indebted to my fellow storytellers for their ideas.  Great storytelling resources come from a very active international email list, Storytell, and the online network, Professional Storyteller ,  (where I'm an assistant administrator to nearly 1900 members from around the world). I hope these suggestions from my storytelling friends help you do an oral history project.  The ideas were so plentiful this topic will have three more parts.

• Lynn Rubright's excellent book, Beyond the Beanstalk: Interdisciplinary Learning Through Storytelling, (published byHeinemann, 1996) will be discussed in the final part of this four part series of blogs.

• Jo Radner, who teaches oral history workshops in the northeast, adds: My favorite intergenerational storytelling program is Judy Klevins' Swapping Stories.  She trains groups of students and elders separately in interviewing and public speaking, then puts them together in pairs -- one elder, one student.  They interview each other, swap stories, and then perform each other's stories to an audience.  So it's not just students collecting stories from elders.  As I often put it, old people are a foreign country to the young -- but the young are also a foreign country to the old.  They need to tell each other their stories to make the connections.  (Note by LoiS: Their approach sounds very similar to some of the ideas in Lynn Rubright's book mentioned above and in Part 4.)

• Renee Englot offers a three-part look at the interview: Framing Questions, Tips for Shaping and Conducting the Interview, and finally After the Interview.  Each is a complete document, so her contributions will be a separate post, Staying Alive with Oral Histories - Part 3. 

• Prolific blogger, storyteller Karen Chace, has collected a number of resources on this topic.  She plans to update her "Preserving our roots collecting family history" so look to see if she mentions having added to it recently.

• Here in the Ann Arbor area, storyteller and former media specialist, Judy Schmidt, added both a basic "Ten Tips for Taping" and other recommendations in Part 2 of Staying Alive with Oral Histories.  

• It's almost guaranteed my research will include Jackie Baldwin's Story-Lovers site.  She's done an award winning job of compiling information from the Storytell list.  For this topic go to the Oral Histories section of the "S.O.S." there.  (While you're there, be sure to check her home page and scroll down to her lovely stationery, cards, prints, and so much more.)
• Something I first heard about years ago on the Storytell list was this playful way to bring back memories, the game, Life Stories.  It's available and thoroughly reviewed on Amazon (in the Toys and Games section).

If you can't do an oral history project, I suggest you at least create an interview document for people to use in self-recording.  That's not as "magical" as what pops up in a live interview, but at least it's not dependent on grant funding. 

 LoiS(econd interview with someone wasn't nearly as lively as the time the tape recorder didn't work! -- shades of those Ten Tips for Taping)  

This is the end of Part 1 - Staying Alive with Oral Histories.  See Parts 2 and 3 with guest authors, Judy Schmidt and Renee Englot and then the bibliography in Part 4 of Staying Alive with Oral Histories featuring Lynn Rubright.