#oral-history

#oral-history

Beyond the written word and photographic evidence, how does one keep history alive? For the Guna people of northern Panama, community theatre emerges as a potent form of cultural documentation and preservation. This vibrant documentary directed by Duiren Wagua, who hails from the same Indigenous community, traces a vital tradition that breathes life into monumental events from the past. The year 1903 marked the separation of Panama from Colombia.

Betty Reid Soskin was 92 when she first went viral and became, in effect, a rock star of the National Park Service. She was the oldest full-time national park ranger in the US this was back in 2013; she'd become a ranger at 85 but she had been furloughed along with 800,000 other federal employees during the government shutdown. News channels flocked to interview her. She was aggrieved not to be working, she told them; she had a job to do.

When you ask someone whether they have ever seen a ghost, you are asking them whether they believe in the inexplicable. Some people are more accustomed to the idea than others: In different folklores, throughout history, ghosts appear as omens and lost spirits; they signify regret, pain, open endings. Then there are the ghosts that haunt not a culture, but a person.

Outside his career, Robert's main passion was oral history, which he believed was a way of giving voice to ordinary people who would otherwise have left behind just birth and death certificates. In 1983 he co-founded the Waltham Forest Oral History workshop, whose members interviewed hundreds of local people; it also published books and pamphlets on subjects such as school strikes, childhood health and local pubs.

"Initially, I was just documenting her story for myself. At a certain point, I realized it was a story that should be made public,"

When Ameya Desai won the fourth grade prize of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge last year, something surprising happened: A neighbor reached out asking if the 11-year-old journalist would interview his grandmother, a survivor of the Japanese incarceration camps. Ameya was amazed, shocked that she had never learned this history before, one that takes place in her hometown, San Jose, Calif.

Carolina De Robertis, author of So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color, joins in conversation with Nico Lang of American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era. This timely discussion dives into the stories of trans youth and elders, highlighting the way historical struggles and triumphs inform today's resistance.

Trans people have been fighting for their rights, dignity, and liberation for generations, facing significant challenges that continue in today’s political climate.

The Charabancs and Cadillacs project has been collecting travel and transport memories through oral history and reminiscence sessions over the last two years.