Oral History and Performance:

OHMAR 2008 Spring Conference

Conference Program

Sponsored by Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Columbia University Oral History Research Office
& the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Thursday, March 13, 2008, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Columbia University
Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15, 2008, at Columbia University

Welcome to the Oral History and Performance Conference:
A Letter to Conference Participants

Registration Information: HTML, PDF or Word Document

Presenters' Guide

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Thursday, March 13, 2008: Columbia University and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Beginners Oral History Workshop: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
523 Butler Library
location: click here 

Mary Marshall Clark offers an introduction to oral history theory and methodology for beginners, addressing topics such as preparing for the interview, developing questions, conducting the interview, editing the transcript, and arranging and storing the audio files and transcripts.

Mary Marshall Clark is the Director of the Columbia University Oral History Research Office. Clark teaches a graduate course on the history, methodology and applications of oral history at Columbia, and directs the annual Columbia University Summer Institute on Oral History, an international seminar.

Oral History and Performance Workshop: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM (ADMISSION TO THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW CLOSED)
Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center
location: click here 

Susan Kraft and Jeff Friedman offer a workshop on oral history and performance.  Topics include developing question protocols specifically for performing arts oral history, acknowledging and celebrating embodiment as part of the interview process, and methods for adapting oral history materials for music, dance and theater.

Workshop fee:  $50. Registration will be limited to 12 participants.  Workshop participants are required to read two articles prior to the workshop.

• Susan Kraft is the coordinator of the Dance Oral History Project of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts since 1993.  She has taught workshops for OHMAR and has presented at the Oral History Association annual meeting.
• Jeff Friedman, Ph.D. is on the faculty of the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2003.  He is the founder and current senior advisor for Legacy Oral History Program (1988-present) at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum.  He is head instructor of Legacy's annual summer oral history training workshop since 1994.

Free tour of Performing Arts Division Library for workshop participants: 4:15-5:15 PM

Tour by Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Curator for Exhibitions, of Writing to Character: Songwriters & the Tony's® and In Their Company: American Playwrights photographed by Ken Collins, two exhibitions informed by oral histories.

Friday, March 14, 2008: Columbia University

Registration: 8:00AM – 4:45 PM Hamilton Hall Lobby

Plenary Session:  9:00AM -9:45 AM 501 Schermerhorn

Ryan Claycomb, "Voices from No-Place: Place, Space, and the Utopian Impulse of Oral History Performance"

Ryan Claycomb is an Assistant Professor of Literature at West Virginia University, where he teaches courses on modern drama, gender studies and contemporary literature. He has published several articles on the intersection of life narratives and performance in such journals as Journal of Narrative Theory, Modern Drama and Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. He is currently at work on a book on life writing and contemporary feminist drama and editing a collection on writing and anti-disciplinarity.

Parallel Sessions: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

702 Hamilton Hall: Same Difference: Building Bridges Through Oral History and the Arts

• Marian Warden, Greater Harrisburg Arts Council, Union Theological Seminary, Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun, New York, NY
• Sarah Brockus, Same Difference Interfaith Alliance, New York, NY
• Eileen Weiss, Same Difference Interfaith Alliance, New York, NY
• Daisy Khan, American Society for Muslim Advancement, New York, NY

717 Hamilton Hall: Oral History as Performance in Performance

• Great Resonance, Great Risk: Medical Stories
  Gretchen Case, Duke University, Durham, NC
  
• Oral History as Performance in Performance
  Della Pollock, University North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
  
• Selections from Hanging it Out to Dry
  Danielle Sear Vignes, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

517 Hamilton Hall:  From Visual Art to Performance Art

Chair: Jeanne Nutter, Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, NJ

• In Their Own Words: from Oral History to Visual Art, Media Art and Performance Art
• Grace Yun, University of Connecticut
• Setusko Nishi, Brooklyn College/The Graduate  Center, City University of New York
• Patricia Maunder, Stories Through Art, Philadelphia, PA
• Claire Beckman, Brave New World Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn, NY

• If This Quilt Could Talk: A Performance by Theatre Morgan
  Performers: Theater Arts students, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
  Director: Shirley Basfield Dunlap, Theatre Morgan, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD

Parallel Sessions:  1:30 PM – 3:00 PM

702 Hamilton Hall: Witnessing Oral Histories Through Performance

Chair: Mary Marshall Clark, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, New York, NY

• Collaterally Damaged: A New Look at the Holocaust Story
  Laura Zam, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

• ReACTing: Watching the ACT UP Oral History Archives as a Performance of Public Witness
  Debra Levine, New York University, NY

• When All Other Lights Go Out: A Play Created from Interviews with Genocide Survivors
  Jenny Montgomery, OASISproject, Chicago, IL 

717 Hamilton Hall: Is a Painting a Performance? Can Oral History be Conveyed in Song?  Stories of Immigrant New Yorkers on Canvas, on Film and in Song

Chair:  Rachel Bernstein, Labor Arts, New York University, NY

• Generations of Brooklyn
  Nina Talbot, Independent Artist, Brooklyn, NY

• The Last Butcher in Little Italy
  Laura Teruso, New York University, New York, NY

• Songs of Immigrant New Yorkers
  Henry Foner, Labor Arts, Paul Robeson Foundation, Brooklyn, NY 

517 Hamilton Hall:  Bronx African American Oral History Project's Database:  New Narratives of Urban History

Chair: Brian Purnell, Department of African and African American Studies, Fordham University, Bronx, NY

• African American and Latino Youth: Coalition Building in the Bronx, 1960-1993
  Frederick Douglas Opie, African Diaspora Program, Department of History, Marist College, NY

• Jazz in the Bronx: Redefining Black and Latino Musical Identities
  Maxine Gordon, New York University, NY

• Histories and "Her Stories" From the Bronx: Excavating Hidden Hip-Hop Narratives
  Oneka LaBennett, Fordham University, NY 

Parallel Sessions:  3:15 PM – 4:45 PM

702 Hamilton Hall: Narrative and the Intergenerational Connection in Oral History

Chair: Shaun Illingworth, Rutgers Oral History Archives, New Brunswick, NJ

• The Pearls of Wisdom Storytellers
  Marsha Gildin and Pearl of Wisdom Amatullah Saleem, Elders Share the Arts, New York, NY

• Flight of the Iron Butterfly: Based on the Oral History of an 82nd Airborne World War II Paratrooper
  Richard Bencivenga, Queens Theater Company, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

717 Hamilton Hall:  Beyond Words:  The Intimate Intersection of Movement and Language in Oral History

Chair: Renee Braden, National Geographic Archives and Special Collections

• The New Dance Group:  Oral History and the Intersection of Performance and Narrative
  Jenny Pachucki, National September 11 Memorial and Museum, New York, NY

• Framing the Narrative:  A Study of Language, Gesture and Intimacy in Oral History Video
  Maryam Kashani, University of Texas, Austin TX

• Giving a Voice to Dance
  Susan Kraft reading for Michelle Potter, Curator Emerita, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library, NY, NY

517 Hamilton Hall:  Viennese Perspectives on Oral History in Performance

Chair: Harriet Lynn, Heritage Theatre Artists' Consortium, Baltimore , MD

• Lora Sana & document of document: a performance lecture
  • Carola Dertnig, University of Fine Arts, Vienna Austria
  • Juma Hauser, independent artist/scholar, Vienna, Austria
    
• Oral History as means to access feminist history in Austria –"If you can't think it, dance it," or "Let's twist again"
  • Stefanie Seibold, independent artist/scholar, Vienna, Austria; Linz University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz, Austria
  • Carola Dertnig, University of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria

Performance:  5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Lerner Hall Black Box Theater

• Susan Banyas and David Ornette Cherry, freelance artists: The Hillsboro Story
• Slash Coleman, independent artist: The Neon Man and Me
• Gregory Ramos, University of Vermont: Border Stories 

Reception with hors d'oeuvres and open bar, Faculty House, Harrison Room 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Saturday, March 15, 2008: Columbia University

Registration, Lobby of Zankel Hall, Teachers College Main Entrance: 8:30 AM – noon

Parallel Sessions: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 277: Sounds and Silence: Oral Traditions/History in Cultural Contexts

Chair: Jeffrey Friedman, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

• An Ojibwe First Nations Epistemology of Performance and Oral History
  Dolleen Manning, University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada

• Afro Memories of Montevideo: Drumming and/as Afro-Uruguyan Oral History
  Matthew Van Hoose, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

• Yoruba Oral Arts: A Container and Proof of History in Traditional Setting
  Bayo Omolola, Baltimore City Community College, Baltimore, MD 

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 281:  Lessons from Katrina: North Gulfport, MS Senior Adults (Oral History Interviews) as part of the ReActions Event at ATHE Conference in New Orleans, Summer 2007

• Peter Harrigan, Saint Michaels College, Colchester, VT
• Harriet Lynn, Heritage Theatre Artists' Consortium, Baltimore, MD
• Char Nelson, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 285:  Documenting and Preserving Performance Traditions

Chair: Fred Stielow, American Military University, Charles Town, WV

• Voices From the Chorus
  Gerry Albarelli, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville NY
  Melissa Seley, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville NY

• Remembering Performance: An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales
  Heike Roms, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK

• Performing Combat:  An Oral History of Afro-Colombian Escrima and Participation in the War of Leticia
  Maduka T.J. Desch Obi, Baruch College, City University of New York, NY
  Olayinka Fadahunsi, Baruch College, City University of New York, NY

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 363: Trauma, Testimony and Identity

Chair: Mary Marshall Clark, Columbia University Oral History Research Office, New York, NY

• Performance, Image, and Recounting the Past in the Peruvian Truth Commission. 
  Cynthia Milton, Université de Montréal, Canada

• Dominican Immigrants Performing/Transforming their Identities.
  Nelson Reynoso and Sharon Utakis, Bronx Community College, NY

Parallel Sessions: 10:45 AM – 12: 45 PM

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 277: BodyStories: Reflections on the Complexities of Embodying Oral Histories

• Vodou FastForwarded or Narrations of the Contemporary Haitian Dancing Body
  Mario LaMothe, Northwestern University, IL

• My Body, Your Story: Oral History and Neo-Futurism
  Chloe Johnston, Northwestern University, IL

• SomeBody Slow Down: Aesthetics, Orature and Embodied Narratives in Slam and Spoken Word Poetry
  Javon Johnson, Northwestern University, IL 

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 281: Making History: Performances of Everyday and Extraordinary Life in Four Public Secondary Schools

• Story Circles as Performance: The Values of Making Stories Public
  Deborah Mutnick, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY

• Bearing Witness: The Faces of War
  Stefanie Siegel, Bailey's Café/Paul Robeson High School, Brooklyn, NY

• Public Declamations at Brooklyn Latin School
  Heather Lewis, Pratt University, Brooklyn, NY
  Chanika Perry, Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn, NY

• Learning From: In Our Own Words: Portraits of Vietnam Veterans
  Deborah Schwartz, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY

Chair: Ryan Claycomb, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

• Looking for Louie: What's the Story?
  Stacie Chaiken, University of Southern California/What's the Story workshop, Los Angeles, CA

• Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America
  Judith Sloan, EarSay, Inc./New York University, NY

• [classified]: crafting a performance of self and other with a space for public dialogue
  Megan Carney, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA

Chair: Fred Stielow, American Military University, Charles Town, WV

• To Bear Witness: Empowering Communities Through Oral History-Created Musical Theater.
  Roy Barber, St. Andrews Episcopal School, Potomac, MD

• MISCELLANEOUS Productions:  Culturally Diverse Oral History and Interdisciplinary Performance in Inner-City and Suburban Vancouver, Canada.
  Elaine Carol, MISCELLANEOUS Productions, Vancouver, Canada

• The Erk Russell Oral History and Performance Project: Complicating the Hero, Generating a Living Legacy.
  Rebecca M. Kennerly, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

Pogue Award Luncheon, Private Dining Room, 70 Grace Dodge: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

OHMAR Business Meeting, Open to all OHMAR members, 70 Grace Dodge, 2:30-2:45

Parallel Sessions: 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 277: Performing Human Rights: Life Stories of Montréalers Displaced by War, Genocide, and Other Human Rights Violations

• Steve High, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Warren Linds, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Ted Little, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Tim Schwab, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Alan Wong, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Nisha Sajnani, Creative Alternatives, Montreal, Canada
• Lorna Roth, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada 

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 281: HABITAT: Documentary Theatre as an Impetus to Social Change

• Kelly Utyro, Minnesota Advocacy for Political Leadership, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN
• Rachel Anne Johnson, Playwright, Producer, Community Organizer, Bennington, VT
• Cheryl Ann Skafte, Minnesota Advocacy for Political Leadership, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 285:  The Oral Interview as Performance:  Live Speech Acts

Chair: Jeffrey Friedman, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

• Adrian: A Living Legend of Drag
  • Joe E. Jeffreys, New York University/Stony Brook University, NY
  • Adrian (aka Henry Arango), drag performer 82 Club
    
• Ladies First: The Oral History of B-girls in New York City in the 1990s
• MiRi Park, Columbia University
• panel guest TBD

Grace Dodge Hall, Room 363: Research Methods and Orality

Chair: Ronald Grele, Columbia University Oral History Research Office

• Transforming Oral Histories into Performance Art Scripts: Ji'ilti be Khayr" or How "The Word" Keeps You Sane.
  Dina Dahbany-Miraglia, CUNY, New York, NY

• The Oral History Project: 'A Whole New Narrative Attitude' for Theatre Practice as Research
  Lara D. Nielsen, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN

• Women's Work Through Women's Voices.
  Robin Mello, University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, WI

The conference organizers would like to thank our generous sponsors:

Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region

The Columbia University Oral History Research Office

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

The Columbia University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library

The Taylor and Francis Group

Pickering and Chatto Publishers