OHA members have planned a terrific line up of workshops and tours for the Minneapolis conference. Head to Minneapolis a day early and take advantage of a compelling slate of Wednesday workshops prior to the annual meeting organized by workshop coordinator Christian Lopez. Wednesday workshops are $40 for OHA members and $50 for non-members. Read more workshop content at 2017 Workshops.
In Creating Digital Exhibits Using Oral History, led by Janneken Smucker, participants will develop skills to integrate oral histories into online exhibits by embedding audio clips and OHMS indexes into open source platforms including WordPress and Omeka. Using additional freely available online tools, participants will learn ways to contextualize audio excerpts with images, maps, and other resources. We encourage participants to bring a laptop computer to test out these simple, concrete ways to bring oral histories to life in online environments.
Podcasting is the perfect way to use the stories you’ve gathered to tell larger stories across time and context – Susan Davis will show you how. In Podcasting I, participant will learn the building blocks of the form: True Listening, The Art of Hosting, Perfecting a Sound, and Achieving a Tone. You bring the content and Susan will show you how to shape it into a deeply listenable, educational, entertaining radio show (on demand.) In Podcasting II, attendees will learn how to design and execute an efficient and sustainable production design and schedule, as well as how to promote and distribute your podcast.
Sarah K. Loose will lead Oral History for Social Change. Oral history has long been acknowledged for its critical role in documenting and preserving the history of social movements and marginalized communities. More recently, oral history has also been recognized as a methodology to actively support and advance contemporary social justice organizing efforts. This workshop will explore how the process and products of oral history can be engaged to further social change.
Two free teacher workshops offered on Saturday will be open to the local community and introduce teachers to oral history and how it can enhance the classroom. Workshop attendees will receive Minnesota CEU credits. Contact OHA at oha@gsu.edu to sign up for a teacher workshop. On Sunday morning, OHA is offering a professional development opportunity that will be free and open to all conference registrants in the form of an OHMS workshop. OHMS, the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer, is an open-source, web-based application designed to enhance user access to oral histories online created by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries.
The 2017 Local Arrangements Committee, led by Ryan Barland of the Minnesota Historical Society and Andrea Jenkins of the University of Minnesota, has developed three tours to introduce meeting attendees to the Twin Cities. Learn details of each tour at 2017 Tours.
The Friday evening tour is Immigrant Stories: A Walking Tour of Eat Street. On this walking tour, you will learn about the history of Eat Street through the stories of immigrant business owners who have participated in the Eat Street Oral History Project. Tour stops include a Mexican bakery, a Vietnamese market, the site of a former Middle Eastern café, and German, Greek, Chinese, and Vietnamese restaurants, and you can stay and eat dinner on Eat Street after the tour!
On Saturday afternoon, explore “On the Avenue:” Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis’ American Indian Cultural Corridor. Simply called “the Avenue” by Twin Cities Native Americans, Franklin Avenue is considered the heart of the vibrant neighborhood also known as Minneapolis’ American Indian Cultural Corridor. A short distance south of downtown Minneapolis, the Franklin Avenue neighborhood became home to large numbers of Native Americans displaced during the federal relocation programs of the 1950s and 60s and has since remained an important neighborhood and gathering space for Native people. On this tour, you will learn about the history of this neighborhood and experience its richness.
If you want to explore St. Paul, how about an afternoon pub crawl? Seek out new go-to brews and learn about St. Paul’s hoppy past on the Historic St. Paul Pub Crawl with samples, conversations and hidden gems along the way. The tour includes a behind-the-scenes look at the Schmidt Brewery Complex, now Schmidt Artist Lofts, with one of Schmidt’s last brewmasters, Phil Gagne, as well as tours and tastings at Flat Earth Brewing and Summit Brewing.
Meeting attendees will be able to sign up for workshops and tours during conference registration at OHA 2017.
