WEBVTT 00:00.680 --> 00:21.020 align:start >> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. 00:21.020 --> 00:22.530 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Good morning, everyone. 00:22.530 --> 00:23.830 align:start >> Good morning. 00:23.830 --> 00:25.430 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: It's such a beautiful day and you all are 00:25.430 --> 00:28.880 align:start such a beautiful sight to look at. 00:28.880 --> 00:31.130 align:start Welcome to the Library of congress. 00:31.130 --> 00:35.320 align:start I'm Betsy Peterson, the director of the American Folk Life Center here. 00:35.320 --> 00:38.560 align:start And I'm not going to talk too long because the staff 00:38.560 --> 00:42.430 align:start of the center is going to talk about our collections and work 00:42.430 --> 00:44.620 align:start that we do in greater detail. 00:44.620 --> 00:50.100 align:start But the leadership of NABS approached us last spring to talk 00:50.100 --> 00:54.360 align:start about what we could do and how we could work together 00:54.360 --> 00:55.940 align:start for your conference. 00:55.940 --> 00:57.980 align:start And so we're really excited. 00:57.980 --> 01:02.310 align:start We've been meeting with Dilan Pritchard for several months 01:02.310 --> 01:03.880 align:start and talking with him on the phone. 01:03.880 --> 01:07.460 align:start So I hope we've got a good program here for you today. 01:07.460 --> 01:11.480 align:start But I think given the title or theme of the conference in the tradition, 01:11.480 --> 01:13.980 align:start I think you've come to the right place. 01:13.980 --> 01:15.280 align:start I would certainly hope so. 01:15.280 --> 01:18.430 align:start And I think we have a lot of materials, 01:18.430 --> 01:25.370 align:start a lot of primary resources that can inform and connect with the work 01:25.370 --> 01:27.680 align:start that you do, with the stories that you tell. 01:27.680 --> 01:30.560 align:start And actually I think Zora Neale Hurston has 01:30.560 --> 01:34.330 align:start about the best definition of folklore ever. 01:34.330 --> 01:38.120 align:start Which is folklore is the boiled down juice of human living. 01:38.120 --> 01:41.630 align:start And I think that kind of about sums it up. 01:41.630 --> 01:45.690 align:start So we do have that boiled down juice here. 01:45.690 --> 01:48.810 align:start And please come back and come back often. 01:48.810 --> 01:53.840 align:start Before I turn it over to the staff, I just wanted to say one word, 01:53.840 --> 02:01.100 align:start just a note of remembrance about a colleague, friend, mentor, 02:01.100 --> 02:04.630 align:start Gladys Marie Fry, who I know many of you knew. 02:04.630 --> 02:07.800 align:start She was a great friend to folklore. 02:07.800 --> 02:11.410 align:start And a great mentor to many folkoreists as well. 02:11.410 --> 02:16.080 align:start She was a professor at the University of Maryland, 02:16.080 --> 02:21.070 align:start has written two fabulous books, Night Riders and Black Folk History, 02:21.070 --> 02:26.420 align:start and Stitch from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South. 02:26.420 --> 02:30.040 align:start And we're very sad to hear of her passing. 02:30.040 --> 02:34.910 align:start We know you are too, but we know her spirit is with us here today. 02:34.910 --> 02:36.670 align:start And I think throughout your gathering. 02:36.670 --> 02:42.360 align:start So with that said, I'm going to turn this over to Todd Harvey, 02:42.360 --> 02:46.120 align:start the curator, one of the curators, reference librarians here 02:46.120 --> 02:47.780 align:start at the American Folk Life Center. 02:47.780 --> 02:49.880 align:start And actually two words. 02:49.880 --> 02:53.030 align:start There are cups, water in the back. 02:53.030 --> 02:55.090 align:start Please get some water if you need some. 02:55.090 --> 02:58.720 align:start I know some of you have found the restrooms, but if you need 02:58.720 --> 03:03.070 align:start to find the restrooms, talk to some of our staff. 03:03.070 --> 03:04.950 align:start And we'll get you all set up. 03:04.950 --> 03:08.650 align:start And hi there. 03:08.650 --> 03:11.070 align:start Okay. Todd Harvey. 03:11.070 --> 03:15.060 align:start [ Applause ] 03:15.060 --> 03:16.930 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Good morning, good morning. 03:16.930 --> 03:20.770 align:start I take the podium in gratitude, and I think that you know why. 03:20.770 --> 03:24.690 align:start It's because we work in the same field 03:24.690 --> 03:30.380 align:start and that is preserving tradition and continuing tradition. 03:30.380 --> 03:35.120 align:start And I do it from my place, which is to take care of the stuff. 03:35.120 --> 03:37.970 align:start And you do it out there in the world. 03:37.970 --> 03:41.190 align:start And we're all part of the same process. 03:41.190 --> 03:50.290 align:start I have a few words that I think will help us focus on the talks today. 03:50.290 --> 03:57.050 align:start And I get to talk about the Library of Congress 03:57.050 --> 04:03.200 align:start which is the oldest federal institution, cultural institution. 04:03.200 --> 04:05.800 align:start The world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge, 04:05.800 --> 04:08.740 align:start providing unparalleled integrated resources 04:08.740 --> 04:11.530 align:start to Congress and the American people. 04:11.530 --> 04:13.510 align:start That's the big bold: the American people. 04:13.510 --> 04:18.390 align:start Founded in 1800, the library seeks to further human understanding, 04:18.390 --> 04:21.680 align:start wisdom, by providing access to knowledge 04:21.680 --> 04:24.910 align:start through its magnificent collections. 04:24.910 --> 04:27.620 align:start So we are the largest library in the world, 04:27.620 --> 04:29.310 align:start which means we have the largest collection 04:29.310 --> 04:32.890 align:start of storytelling in the world by default. 04:32.890 --> 04:36.850 align:start And most of those are here at the American Folk Life Center. 04:36.850 --> 04:40.850 align:start So let me tell you, the American Folk Life Center was created in 1976 04:40.850 --> 04:45.180 align:start by an act of Congress, through programs of research, documentation, 04:45.180 --> 04:49.980 align:start archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibits, 04:49.980 --> 04:51.650 align:start publications and training. 04:51.650 --> 04:55.510 align:start The American Folk Life Center archive, established by the Library 04:55.510 --> 04:58.700 align:start of Congress Music Division in 1928, 04:58.700 --> 05:02.880 align:start is now one of the world's largest archives of ethnographic materials 05:02.880 --> 05:05.900 align:start from the United States and around the world. 05:05.900 --> 05:09.970 align:start Most of our materials and our programs and our services 05:09.970 --> 05:15.530 align:start to you are found on our website, and it's a great thing to explore. 05:15.530 --> 05:19.180 align:start You can waste hours and hours of time looking at it. 05:19.180 --> 05:24.640 align:start I curate the Lomax Collections here at the American Folk Life Center. 05:24.640 --> 05:29.920 align:start And they are some of the earliest documentation. 05:29.920 --> 05:32.780 align:start The Lomax's ran our archive in the 1930's. 05:32.780 --> 05:36.070 align:start And so what I thought I would do, just to start things off, 05:36.070 --> 05:41.580 align:start is to play a couple of examples of Lomax materials. 05:41.580 --> 05:46.440 align:start This isn't strictly storytelling, but it's personal narrative. 05:46.440 --> 05:48.770 align:start It's spoken word materials. 05:48.770 --> 05:52.510 align:start And I think it will give you some insight 05:52.510 --> 05:55.400 align:start into what we have in our collections. 05:55.400 --> 06:00.750 align:start And so the Lomax's, here's Mr. Lomax, 06:00.750 --> 06:03.400 align:start John Lomax with an unidentified man. 06:03.400 --> 06:06.160 align:start Maybe someone will know who he is. 06:06.160 --> 06:09.040 align:start Probably somewhere in Georgia. 06:09.040 --> 06:15.390 align:start Here's the younger Lomax, with Sonny Terry 06:15.390 --> 06:19.350 align:start and Brownie McGhee, these guys. 06:19.350 --> 06:24.490 align:start Recording girls singing in San Antonio 1934. 06:24.490 --> 06:27.860 align:start Alan Lomax in action in the 1980's, 06:27.860 --> 06:31.980 align:start explaining to the world why cultural equity is the way we should 06:31.980 --> 06:33.800 align:start all live. 06:33.800 --> 06:35.510 align:start So I want to play you an example. 06:35.510 --> 06:39.800 align:start This is [inaudible] since 1939. 06:39.800 --> 06:45.290 align:start But the dust jacket you can see is side A number two, The Cat's Story. 06:45.290 --> 06:46.590 align:start [ Inaudible ] 06:46.590 --> 06:52.130 align:start So he places himself in a traditional tale, right? 06:52.130 --> 07:05.520 align:start It reminds me of some of the jack tales, the kind of magical cat 07:05.520 --> 07:10.180 align:start who appears and disappears in the haunted house. 07:10.180 --> 07:20.600 align:start And you know, it's a motif that you find all over American storytelling. 07:20.600 --> 07:27.890 align:start But in this case it's from Texas and there he is. 07:27.890 --> 07:30.850 align:start I guess he was a mule driver. 07:30.850 --> 07:35.380 align:start So the next performer I have for you, 07:35.380 --> 07:40.970 align:start Alan Lomax called her the greatest voice in American song, 07:40.970 --> 07:50.860 align:start Vera Hall from northwestern Alabama, from Livingstone area Alabama. 07:50.860 --> 07:59.580 align:start And he recorded her in 1948 for about 15 hours. 07:59.580 --> 08:00.880 align:start He did oral history with her. 08:00.880 --> 08:09.420 align:start And it was the only time I believe she left Alabama. 08:09.420 --> 08:11.900 align:start He brought her up to New York to make these recordings. 08:11.900 --> 08:20.930 align:start And the recorded her first in 1937 and last in 1959. 08:20.930 --> 08:27.600 align:start So at the American Folk Life Center archive we have a lot 08:27.600 --> 08:30.750 align:start of Vera Hall recordings. 08:30.750 --> 08:35.510 align:start And this is one of her best, The Wild Ox Moan. 08:35.510 --> 08:36.810 align:start [ Singing ] 08:36.810 --> 08:38.110 align:start [ Applause ] 08:38.110 --> 08:39.410 align:start [ Inaudible ] 08:39.410 --> 08:40.710 align:start Of course the library has Bessy Smith recordings. 08:40.710 --> 08:42.010 align:start [ Laughter ] 08:42.010 --> 08:44.550 align:start Not today, but we can certainly help you when you come back. 08:44.550 --> 08:48.410 align:start I know Bessy Smith was quite famous. 08:48.410 --> 08:54.750 align:start I would listen to Vera Hall alongside with her I think. 08:54.750 --> 08:56.810 align:start So I have one more. 08:56.810 --> 09:01.430 align:start I love that, because it's improvised, right? 09:01.430 --> 09:06.270 align:start And she's talking about what's happening today and it feels 09:06.270 --> 09:10.280 align:start like it could go on as long as it needed to go on. 09:10.280 --> 09:12.030 align:start And do you have a question? 09:12.030 --> 09:18.400 align:start >> Yes. You know what, I understand also that -- 09:18.400 --> 09:19.700 align:start [ Inaudible ] 09:19.700 --> 09:21.000 align:start [ Laughter ] 09:21.000 --> 09:22.300 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Do I know? 09:22.300 --> 09:25.280 align:start I was listening but I can't tell you what the words were. 09:25.280 --> 09:34.410 align:start It is online, for what it's worth. 09:34.410 --> 09:40.600 align:start Let's listen to one more. 09:40.600 --> 09:48.850 align:start This is Mohave Plantation, Moon Lake. 09:48.850 --> 10:01.420 align:start It's in one of those Islands in the Mississippi in Coahoma County. 10:01.420 --> 10:10.090 align:start And this is a nighttime service that they recorded 10:10.090 --> 10:12.090 align:start in a little country church. 10:12.090 --> 10:16.990 align:start And this is near the end of it, 10:16.990 --> 10:26.220 align:start so it's hard to imagine this has been going on for an hour. 10:26.220 --> 10:35.570 align:start And what I love about this is it has multilayered events going 10:35.570 --> 10:42.600 align:start on at the same time, right? 10:42.600 --> 10:47.790 align:start And so there is preaching, there is singing and there is some speaking. 10:47.790 --> 10:56.190 align:start So I just have a little bit of it to play for you and you're going 10:56.190 --> 11:08.330 align:start to have to come back and listen to the whole thing. 11:08.330 --> 11:09.630 align:start [ Laughter ] 11:09.630 --> 11:10.930 align:start [ Singing ] 11:10.930 --> 11:12.230 align:start [ Shouting and cheering ] 11:12.230 --> 11:13.530 align:start [ Applause ] 11:13.530 --> 11:18.680 align:start All right, so I can imagine there might be a few questions. 11:18.680 --> 11:26.690 align:start But I want to -- Thea says I can take a question or two. 11:26.690 --> 11:51.950 align:start But we have to move on soon because there are lots 11:51.950 --> 12:02.540 align:start of people to talk to today. 12:02.540 --> 12:14.140 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: We have about five minutes to take a couple 12:14.140 --> 12:21.350 align:start of questions and I have a microphone 12:21.350 --> 12:23.980 align:start so that it's easy for Todd to hear you. 12:23.980 --> 12:26.970 align:start >> Do your recordings have English subtitles? 12:26.970 --> 12:28.350 align:start >> Todd Harvey: No, they do not. 12:28.350 --> 12:29.990 align:start These are archival recordings. 12:29.990 --> 12:36.030 align:start These are discs and things like that, the real thing. 12:36.030 --> 12:40.780 align:start >> Is there a way to go online to get some of this information? 12:40.780 --> 12:42.080 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Yes. 12:42.080 --> 12:45.590 align:start >> What do you do to go online? 12:45.590 --> 12:50.310 align:start >> Todd Harvey: American Folk Life Center website. 12:50.310 --> 12:52.720 align:start >> That's it? 12:52.720 --> 12:59.720 align:start Okay, thank you. 12:59.720 --> 13:06.440 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Also, if you look in your packets, 13:06.440 --> 13:15.310 align:start Dana Bell has created -- one of our amazing staff people here 13:15.310 --> 13:21.640 align:start at the Library of Congress -- has compiled a guide to resources 13:21.640 --> 13:24.970 align:start that are online that you can access remotely. 13:24.970 --> 13:33.810 align:start She's here at the back of the room and she'll be here during the break. 13:33.810 --> 13:35.960 align:start You can ask questions. 13:35.960 --> 13:38.940 align:start Dana, can you raise your hand? 13:38.940 --> 13:40.240 align:start Here she is. 13:40.240 --> 13:42.310 align:start She created this resource guide. 13:42.310 --> 13:43.610 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Thank you, Dana. 13:43.610 --> 13:47.270 align:start >> I just wanted to suggest that I know that some 13:47.270 --> 13:51.770 align:start of the words may be a little bit difficult to understand, 13:51.770 --> 13:55.550 align:start but I would hope that most of us can appreciate the sounds 13:55.550 --> 13:59.070 align:start and the feeling and the emotion. 13:59.070 --> 14:03.860 align:start Understanding the period that the people had come through. 14:03.860 --> 14:24.010 align:start So I don't think we have to know the exact words. 14:24.010 --> 15:31.470 align:start We should hopefully be able to surmise what 15:31.470 --> 15:42.880 align:start that whole experience was about. 15:42.880 --> 15:49.780 align:start We're from that root. 15:49.780 --> 15:52.650 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Thank you. 15:52.650 --> 16:02.410 align:start >> I just want to share a quick statement. 16:02.410 --> 16:29.830 align:start I don't know how many of you saw me do Voices of Courage. 16:29.830 --> 16:48.560 align:start I did it in let's see, when we were in Little Rock, right? 16:48.560 --> 16:53.130 align:start So when I went to study, when I got to IB Wells, 16:53.130 --> 16:58.050 align:start I wanted to include folk life and I wanted to do games. 16:58.050 --> 17:06.640 align:start And so when I came to the Library of Congress I looked up Vera Hall. 17:06.640 --> 17:11.690 align:start And I couldn't get the exact region, but I got the south. 17:11.690 --> 17:15.510 align:start And I used Vera Hall when I played the Game Song, The Courting Song. 17:15.510 --> 17:16.810 align:start I used Vera Hall's Courting Song to say 17:16.810 --> 17:20.510 align:start that at this age she would be courting IB Wells, 17:20.510 --> 17:25.780 align:start but she couldn't court because her parents died. 17:25.780 --> 17:30.640 align:start And I sing that song with the audience, 17:30.640 --> 17:39.260 align:start just to let you know how to use this work. 17:39.260 --> 17:43.850 align:start >> Todd Harvey: So I want to answer more questions, 17:43.850 --> 17:49.380 align:start but I think it's time for us to move on. 17:49.380 --> 17:51.610 align:start I'll be here after this. 17:51.610 --> 17:52.910 align:start Okay, go ahead. 17:52.910 --> 17:54.210 align:start [ Inaudible ] 17:54.210 --> 17:55.510 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Hang on just one second. 17:55.510 --> 17:57.390 align:start >> I don't think I need this. 17:57.390 --> 18:10.980 align:start I look around and I see so many people here that have these stories 18:10.980 --> 18:18.760 align:start and everything and a lot of us have made that transition. 18:18.760 --> 18:28.300 align:start Is there a way that we as a group can start recording our stories 18:28.300 --> 18:30.850 align:start so that they can be found? 18:30.850 --> 18:35.390 align:start You know, so that the younger generation 18:35.390 --> 18:39.130 align:start that comes after us can hear it? 18:39.130 --> 18:41.250 align:start Because I heard the Vera Hall. 18:41.250 --> 18:49.160 align:start I remember my aunt singing those songs and things to me. 18:49.160 --> 18:55.330 align:start I said, "Dang, I didn't even know it." 18:55.330 --> 18:56.650 align:start And I'm a librarian. 18:56.650 --> 18:58.500 align:start I didn't even know. 18:58.500 --> 19:02.920 align:start So what is the best way for someone to have their stories recorded? 19:02.920 --> 19:05.150 align:start Do you have any type of program 19:05.150 --> 19:08.530 align:start where they have their stories recorded so it can be added 19:08.530 --> 19:11.880 align:start to the archive, to the Folk Life? 19:11.880 --> 19:13.180 align:start >> Todd Harvey: There are ways. 19:13.180 --> 19:14.480 align:start I will make you a deal. 19:14.480 --> 19:19.530 align:start If you as a group will record your oral histories, we will put them 19:19.530 --> 19:21.800 align:start in the Library of Congress. 19:21.800 --> 19:23.100 align:start [ Applause ] 19:23.100 --> 19:25.330 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Also, just to let you know 19:25.330 --> 19:30.960 align:start that our staff member Guha Shankar will be talking more 19:30.960 --> 19:34.730 align:start about field work later on today in your sessions. 19:34.730 --> 19:36.030 align:start But let's thank Todd Harvey. 19:36.030 --> 19:37.330 align:start [ Applause ] 19:37.330 --> 19:40.030 align:start >> Todd Harvey: Well, my stuff is what you want to hear. 19:40.030 --> 19:44.560 align:start What Megan is going to talk about is what you have to hear. 19:44.560 --> 19:45.860 align:start Thank you. 19:45.860 --> 19:47.160 align:start [ Applause ] 19:47.160 --> 19:48.460 align:start >> Megan Harris: Wow, that was quite a lead-in. 19:48.460 --> 19:49.760 align:start Thanks, Todd. 19:49.760 --> 19:51.060 align:start Hi, everyone. 19:51.060 --> 19:52.360 align:start Thank you so much for coming. 19:52.360 --> 19:53.660 align:start Good morning. 19:53.660 --> 19:55.200 align:start I don't know that I've ever presented 19:55.200 --> 19:58.820 align:start to as enthusiastic an audience as this. 19:58.820 --> 20:05.750 align:start It's really wonderful and it puts me at ease 20:05.750 --> 20:08.880 align:start because I am not a performer whatsoever. 20:08.880 --> 20:12.430 align:start So you'll have to bear with me a little bit. 20:12.430 --> 20:15.430 align:start Great. Todd's presentation was actually a great lead-in 20:15.430 --> 20:20.620 align:start to my presentation because I am from the Veterans History Project. 20:20.620 --> 20:23.230 align:start I am the reference specialist at the Veterans History Project. 20:23.230 --> 20:26.820 align:start And we're part of the American Folk Life Center here at the Library. 20:26.820 --> 20:30.640 align:start And it's a project that you can take part in 20:30.640 --> 20:32.940 align:start and donate stories of veterans. 20:32.940 --> 20:35.420 align:start So it's a great lead-in to the question 20:35.420 --> 20:39.270 align:start about how can our stories be part of the library here. 20:39.270 --> 20:40.570 align:start All right. 20:40.570 --> 20:41.870 align:start Let's see. 20:41.870 --> 20:50.830 align:start Okay. So in case you don't know about the Veterans History Project, 20:50.830 --> 20:55.620 align:start our mission is to collect, preserve and make accessible the stories 20:55.620 --> 20:57.850 align:start of America's War Veterans. 20:57.850 --> 21:02.000 align:start And we were established by Congress in 2000. 21:02.000 --> 21:14.560 align:start And since 2000 we're celebrating our 15th anniversary this year. 21:14.560 --> 21:28.440 align:start Since 2000, we've collected over 99,000 individual narratives. 21:28.440 --> 21:30.190 align:start So quite a lot. 21:30.190 --> 21:35.740 align:start And our emphasis is really on the social and cultural experience. 21:35.740 --> 21:43.500 align:start Not so much the military history experience. 21:43.500 --> 21:48.570 align:start We're not so much about charting how battles were won 21:48.570 --> 21:56.870 align:start and how different regiments took part in a glorious victory. 21:56.870 --> 22:02.810 align:start It's really more about what the experience of being 22:02.810 --> 22:09.020 align:start in the military was all about, how it felt, how basic training felt. 22:09.020 --> 22:11.760 align:start How it felt to leave your family. 22:11.760 --> 22:16.140 align:start Those sorts of experiential feelings. 22:16.140 --> 22:23.330 align:start And we do this by asking the general public, so folks such as yourself, 22:23.330 --> 22:25.990 align:start to interview the veteran in your life 22:25.990 --> 22:31.530 align:start and then donate the oral history to us here at the library. 22:31.530 --> 22:37.170 align:start We archive it and make it accessible to researchers who are working 22:37.170 --> 22:44.090 align:start on Ph. D dissertations, who are working on documentaries, 22:44.090 --> 22:52.890 align:start who might just be wanting to know more about their own family history. 22:52.890 --> 23:00.770 align:start We make these stories accessible both in the reading room here 23:00.770 --> 23:03.920 align:start at the library as well as online. 23:03.920 --> 23:09.470 align:start So in terms of our African American holdings, 23:09.470 --> 23:16.590 align:start stories of African American veterans, these are some 23:16.590 --> 23:24.250 align:start of the photos that we have that have been donated to us. 23:24.250 --> 23:28.590 align:start All of these folks here have taken part in our project. 23:28.590 --> 23:31.560 align:start We have over 3,000 stories of veterans 23:31.560 --> 23:37.360 align:start who have self-identified as African American. 23:37.360 --> 23:46.210 align:start And you can see that out of the 99,000, 3,000 is only a small part. 23:46.210 --> 23:52.390 align:start And it really has to do with the fact that we are dependent 23:52.390 --> 23:58.850 align:start on the general public not only for the stories, 23:58.850 --> 24:02.870 align:start but for the information about the veterans. 24:02.870 --> 24:07.140 align:start So we can only count a story 24:07.140 --> 24:15.500 align:start if someone has self-identified as African American. 24:15.500 --> 24:27.000 align:start This is what we call metadata and it's really important that we know 24:27.000 --> 24:31.400 align:start as much as we can about the veteran and their story 24:31.400 --> 24:32.890 align:start when they're donated to us. 24:32.890 --> 24:35.050 align:start So it's a small fraction. 24:35.050 --> 24:39.260 align:start There are more veterans than this that are in our collection. 24:39.260 --> 24:41.940 align:start But that's the number that we can go with. 24:41.940 --> 24:46.650 align:start About 500 of these are fully digitized and available online. 24:46.650 --> 24:51.570 align:start And they span every branch, every conflict from World War II 24:51.570 --> 24:56.610 align:start to the present, including recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 24:56.610 --> 24:57.910 align:start And every rank. 24:57.910 --> 25:01.110 align:start So we have some of the more lauded stories from Tuskegee airmen 25:01.110 --> 25:02.830 align:start and Montfort Point Marines. 25:02.830 --> 25:06.310 align:start And then veterans who maybe didn't ever leave the state, 25:06.310 --> 25:10.460 align:start who just served stateside or who served in more administrative roles. 25:10.460 --> 25:13.120 align:start We are again interested in all experiences, 25:13.120 --> 25:16.170 align:start and not just combat roles or storming the beach 25:16.170 --> 25:18.740 align:start or in the trenches, but all of the roles. 25:18.740 --> 25:22.690 align:start So one of the stories that I wanted to show you today, I decided to look 25:22.690 --> 25:25.120 align:start at two different collections just to give you a taste 25:25.120 --> 25:27.560 align:start of what our collections are all about. 25:27.560 --> 25:30.340 align:start The first veteran is James Edward Blakely. 25:30.340 --> 25:35.580 align:start He enlisted in the Navy in 1939 and he served as a cook aboard a couple 25:35.580 --> 25:39.990 align:start of different ships in the Pacific Theatre. 25:39.990 --> 25:41.290 align:start [ Inaudible ] 25:41.290 --> 25:42.590 align:start Sorry? 25:42.590 --> 25:43.890 align:start [ Inaudible ] 25:43.890 --> 25:45.210 align:start Yeah, just like Dorie Miller, exactly. 25:45.210 --> 25:48.460 align:start Yeah. And just like Dorie Miller he was stationed 25:48.460 --> 25:51.060 align:start at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. 25:51.060 --> 25:52.580 align:start So I thought this was a good collection 25:52.580 --> 25:55.160 align:start as we approach Pearl Harbor Day. 25:55.160 --> 25:59.170 align:start And John, if you could play that first audio clip. 25:59.170 --> 26:01.510 align:start So this is part of this collection. 26:01.510 --> 26:14.350 align:start >> About five or six minutes before 8:00, I was on the USS St. Louis. 26:14.350 --> 26:19.830 align:start That's what they call box-back cruiser. 26:19.830 --> 26:25.520 align:start The word came over the loudspeaker, "All hands man your battle stations. 26:25.520 --> 26:27.910 align:start All hands man your battle stations. 26:27.910 --> 26:30.580 align:start This is not a drill." 26:30.580 --> 26:34.780 align:start That was where hell on earth began. 26:34.780 --> 26:41.270 align:start We only had probably 50, 60 men aboard, coming back to their ship. 26:41.270 --> 26:46.580 align:start And when I looked around, it was a direct hit, 26:46.580 --> 26:54.190 align:start right in the middle of the ship. 26:54.190 --> 26:59.330 align:start In December in Hawaii, the world is like summer, 26:59.330 --> 27:05.490 align:start and I could see white uniforms blown sky high. 27:05.490 --> 27:19.500 align:start They never made it. 27:19.500 --> 27:25.880 align:start I don't have to close my eyes to see that. 27:25.880 --> 27:31.140 align:start >> Megan Harris: So you can see 27:31.140 --> 27:35.220 align:start that Mr. Blakely's story is maybe different than those that we have 27:35.220 --> 27:38.710 align:start in the Lomax Collection, or those that Todd talked to you about. 27:38.710 --> 27:44.090 align:start But I think you'll agree that that account is equally 27:44.090 --> 27:45.940 align:start as important in terms of folk life. 27:45.940 --> 27:48.850 align:start Yeah, so that's Mr. Blakely's collection. 27:48.850 --> 27:50.680 align:start The next collection that I wanted 27:50.680 --> 27:53.430 align:start to show you is actually a video collection 27:53.430 --> 27:56.390 align:start from Evelyn Clarisse Martin Johnson. 27:56.390 --> 27:58.660 align:start She was in the Women's Army Corps. 27:58.660 --> 28:03.300 align:start She enlisted in 1941 and she served in a postal battalion, 28:03.300 --> 28:06.870 align:start which was actually the only all African American female unit 28:06.870 --> 28:08.610 align:start to serve overseas. 28:08.610 --> 28:12.040 align:start She served in France and England during World War II. 28:12.040 --> 28:14.980 align:start And John, if you can play that clip, that would be great. 28:14.980 --> 28:17.370 align:start She talks about her experiences are overseas. 28:17.370 --> 28:22.560 align:start >> What were your emotions over there when you did see them? 28:22.560 --> 28:29.150 align:start >> Well, destruction is heartbreaking. 28:29.150 --> 28:36.350 align:start To see how the schools, the churches, 28:36.350 --> 28:40.680 align:start the entire communities were bombed. 28:40.680 --> 28:46.080 align:start Because all that destruction had not yet been cleared up or cleaned up. 28:46.080 --> 28:50.190 align:start And we saw that daily, where we were. 28:50.190 --> 28:54.240 align:start Because they had bombed Birmingham before we had arrived there. 28:54.240 --> 28:58.190 align:start And it was the same in rural France. 28:58.190 --> 29:02.840 align:start That was what was sort of helping you 29:02.840 --> 29:08.250 align:start to wish you were leaving the area and on your way back to America. 29:08.250 --> 29:12.890 align:start >> Did your military experience influence your thinking about war 29:12.890 --> 29:16.900 align:start or about the military in general? 29:16.900 --> 29:19.030 align:start >> Well you don't forget it. 29:19.030 --> 29:21.750 align:start There's no way to forget it. 29:21.750 --> 29:30.890 align:start You try not to keep it on your everyday thinking, but you're going 29:30.890 --> 29:36.020 align:start to think about it especially when there is 29:36.020 --> 29:42.100 align:start so much similarity of that going on later. 29:42.100 --> 29:47.970 align:start Like the Vietnam and the Korean War and all the other wars. 29:47.970 --> 29:49.870 align:start You don't forget that. 29:49.870 --> 29:54.910 align:start >> How did people treat you when they find out that you're a veteran? 29:54.910 --> 29:58.580 align:start >> Oh, many of them are surprised. 29:58.580 --> 30:06.630 align:start And then when I say World War II, they say, "Where were you?" 30:06.630 --> 30:11.590 align:start And then I tell them and they are delighted. 30:11.590 --> 30:13.510 align:start They appreciate the fact that I did so. 30:13.510 --> 30:16.420 align:start >> Megan Harris: All right, so those are just two of the stories 30:16.420 --> 30:17.720 align:start that we have in our collection. 30:17.720 --> 30:19.940 align:start They happen to both be from World War II. 30:19.940 --> 30:21.690 align:start But like I said, we collect stories 30:21.690 --> 30:25.570 align:start from all conflicts, and even between wars. 30:25.570 --> 30:29.690 align:start So not just limited to particular conflicts, particular wars. 30:29.690 --> 30:34.200 align:start But anyone who served in US uniform can take part in our project. 30:34.200 --> 30:35.660 align:start Let's see, all right. 30:35.660 --> 30:38.390 align:start So just really quick, a couple of other resources. 30:38.390 --> 30:41.360 align:start Like I said, some of our collections are digitized 30:41.360 --> 30:42.800 align:start and available on our website. 30:42.800 --> 30:44.740 align:start So you can search our website. 30:44.740 --> 30:50.010 align:start We have an online database you can search by race, by gender, 30:50.010 --> 30:51.960 align:start by service location and unit. 30:51.960 --> 30:54.460 align:start So if you have family members or if you want 30:54.460 --> 30:57.060 align:start to research the particular history of a unit, 30:57.060 --> 30:59.550 align:start you can do that with our online database. 30:59.550 --> 31:03.000 align:start We also have online exhibits. 31:03.000 --> 31:04.860 align:start It's a series called Experiencing War. 31:04.860 --> 31:09.090 align:start And we released those quarterly on a number of different topics 31:09.090 --> 31:13.240 align:start and we have right now two different online exhibits that pertain 31:13.240 --> 31:15.170 align:start to African American veterans. 31:15.170 --> 31:18.990 align:start So you can go to our website to see those. 31:18.990 --> 31:21.870 align:start And that's all I have for you right now. 31:21.870 --> 31:24.070 align:start But I'd be more than happy to take a couple 31:24.070 --> 31:26.270 align:start of questions if there are any. 31:26.270 --> 31:31.760 align:start >> Detroit Public Library is celebrating their sesquicentennial, 31:31.760 --> 31:35.230 align:start along with the Detroit Police Department. 31:35.230 --> 31:40.850 align:start And I wanted to know how would I with assistance through the Library 31:40.850 --> 31:45.270 align:start of Congress set up a Sesquicentennial blog 31:45.270 --> 31:47.790 align:start where people tell their stories and the stories 31:47.790 --> 31:51.940 align:start of their community service in the city of Detroit. 31:51.940 --> 31:53.240 align:start >> Megan Harris: That's a great question. 31:53.240 --> 31:57.060 align:start And it gets towards -- the question was about working 31:57.060 --> 32:01.660 align:start with partner organizations such as the Detroit Public Library 32:01.660 --> 32:05.670 align:start to donate oral histories to us and to the library. 32:05.670 --> 32:09.470 align:start And we have organizations that donate collections ranging 32:09.470 --> 32:12.910 align:start from public libraries to retirement communities, 32:12.910 --> 32:16.230 align:start to schools from K-12 and universities. 32:16.230 --> 32:17.630 align:start All sorts of organizations. 32:17.630 --> 32:21.870 align:start And so I would definitely encourage you to go to the public library 32:21.870 --> 32:25.800 align:start and work with the librarians there to start your own project. 32:25.800 --> 32:29.370 align:start There's not anything specific that you need to do. 32:29.370 --> 32:32.470 align:start We can get information to you and I can have some of my colleagues 32:32.470 --> 32:35.720 align:start who work on the programming end of the project work with you. 32:35.720 --> 32:39.460 align:start But it's really, if you have the will to start this 32:39.460 --> 32:43.440 align:start up in your community, then you can go ahead and do that. 32:43.440 --> 32:44.740 align:start Yeah, yeah. 32:44.740 --> 32:46.040 align:start Hi. 32:46.040 --> 32:50.630 align:start >> So I remember a couple of years ago a student tried to do a project 32:50.630 --> 32:53.450 align:start with the regiments where they wrote their stories down. 32:53.450 --> 32:57.210 align:start And I know a lot of library systems are trying to do that now 32:57.210 --> 32:59.840 align:start and get the veterans to come in. 32:59.840 --> 33:02.750 align:start Do you do a partnership or do you have a program 33:02.750 --> 33:06.720 align:start where they can come together in a group and record their stories 33:06.720 --> 33:10.020 align:start or write their stories so they can submit it to the archives? 33:10.020 --> 33:14.260 align:start I'm a veteran myself and I'm one of the last of the wax. 33:14.260 --> 33:17.990 align:start So mine was from a reserve point of view 33:17.990 --> 33:20.530 align:start but I think it would be really important 33:20.530 --> 33:22.620 align:start that all those stories get put in. 33:22.620 --> 33:25.150 align:start So if there's a way that we 33:25.150 --> 33:29.240 align:start as a group can organize to get the stories in. 33:29.240 --> 33:30.540 align:start >> Megan Harris: Yeah, wonderful. 33:30.540 --> 33:31.990 align:start And yes, definitely. 33:31.990 --> 33:34.230 align:start Even as a reservist, your story is very important 33:34.230 --> 33:36.710 align:start and we definitely want it in our archive. 33:36.710 --> 33:40.310 align:start And in terms of working with community organizations 33:40.310 --> 33:44.870 align:start and with students, we have, like I said, a lot of different programs 33:44.870 --> 33:48.780 align:start at schools, whether it's younger students 33:48.780 --> 33:51.260 align:start or older students and universities. 33:51.260 --> 33:54.980 align:start Generally we need stories to be kind of one-on-one interviews. 33:54.980 --> 33:58.290 align:start But that doesn't preclude having larger programs. 33:58.290 --> 34:01.350 align:start And I can speak with you after the program 34:01.350 --> 34:04.150 align:start about your specific community where you are and see 34:04.150 --> 34:06.970 align:start if there are organizations that are already set up doing this. 34:06.970 --> 34:08.810 align:start That would be wonderful. 34:08.810 --> 34:12.840 align:start Yeah. Any other questions? 34:12.840 --> 34:14.140 align:start Okay. 34:14.140 --> 34:20.800 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Okay, Let's thank Megan for her presentation. 34:20.800 --> 34:22.100 align:start [ Applause ] 34:22.100 --> 34:24.040 align:start And we have one more staff member, Guha Shankar is going to come up 34:24.040 --> 34:26.050 align:start and talk about the Civil Rights Oral History Project 34:26.050 --> 34:27.840 align:start and a couple of others. 34:27.840 --> 34:30.480 align:start But we have a few late arrivals. 34:30.480 --> 34:36.650 align:start So if you have an empty seat next to you, could you raise your hand? 34:36.650 --> 34:39.700 align:start So we have a seat up here. 34:39.700 --> 34:42.390 align:start We have a couple right in here. 34:42.390 --> 34:45.710 align:start There's one here. 34:45.710 --> 34:51.780 align:start There's one in the front row here. 34:51.780 --> 35:03.750 align:start And there's a seat over here in the front row. 35:03.750 --> 35:11.070 align:start Has everybody got a seat yet? 35:11.070 --> 35:16.840 align:start No? Is that a little tight? 35:16.840 --> 35:25.460 align:start Actually there are two seats here. 35:25.460 --> 35:31.970 align:start Okay, so Guha. 35:31.970 --> 35:39.320 align:start Actually, ace you comfortable? 35:39.320 --> 35:40.620 align:start Are you? All right. 35:40.620 --> 35:42.880 align:start Okay, so Guha Shankar. 35:42.880 --> 35:47.570 align:start [ Applause ] 35:47.570 --> 35:51.990 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Hi, good morning again. 35:51.990 --> 35:53.480 align:start Thank you all for being here. 35:53.480 --> 35:56.480 align:start It's a privilege to be here in front of you today. 35:56.480 --> 36:00.890 align:start I want to thank my colleagues Todd Harvey and Megan Harris for doing 36:00.890 --> 36:03.360 align:start such a nice job of setting up my presentation. 36:03.360 --> 36:06.410 align:start I have very little to say, so I'm just going to play some clips 36:06.410 --> 36:09.790 align:start for you from two of our most substantial collections 36:09.790 --> 36:12.580 align:start that document the African American experience here at the Library 36:12.580 --> 36:13.890 align:start of the American Folk Life Center. 36:13.890 --> 36:17.410 align:start If you look in your packets, you will see the URLs 36:17.410 --> 36:19.080 align:start for the Civil Rights History Project 36:19.080 --> 36:22.720 align:start and the National Visionary Leadership Project. 36:22.720 --> 36:25.070 align:start And those are the ones that I'm going to talk 36:25.070 --> 36:28.370 align:start about mostly in the time I have here. 36:28.370 --> 36:32.910 align:start And I look around and I think I see some familiar faces. 36:32.910 --> 36:35.670 align:start So I guess maybe we should start by acknowledging that many 36:35.670 --> 36:37.450 align:start of you have actually done research here before. 36:37.450 --> 36:38.750 align:start Is that correct? 36:38.750 --> 36:40.840 align:start Those of you how have visited our reading room, 36:40.840 --> 36:44.440 align:start raise your hands please. 36:44.440 --> 36:45.740 align:start Excellent. 36:45.740 --> 36:47.040 align:start Thank you. 36:47.040 --> 36:49.560 align:start Well, we welcome all of you, though not at the same time, to come 36:49.560 --> 36:50.910 align:start and visit our reading rooms. 36:50.910 --> 36:52.210 align:start [ Laughter ] 36:52.210 --> 36:53.510 align:start So make an appointment. 36:53.510 --> 36:54.830 align:start Your best friend is the librarian. 36:54.830 --> 36:56.130 align:start That's us. 36:56.130 --> 37:01.230 align:start I also noticed that with respect to what Megan has just said 37:01.230 --> 37:05.290 align:start about the experiences of the service folks here in the library, 37:05.290 --> 37:07.110 align:start and some of you have identified yourself, 37:07.110 --> 37:09.040 align:start those of you who are veterans 37:09.040 --> 37:13.170 align:start of the armed services, please raise your hand. 37:13.170 --> 37:19.930 align:start [ Applause ] 37:19.930 --> 37:21.230 align:start Thank you. 37:21.230 --> 37:24.270 align:start And then the other category of folks I wanted to call out, 37:24.270 --> 37:27.070 align:start give a shout out to, were those of you who are involved 37:27.070 --> 37:29.190 align:start in the freedom struggle from the 1950's 37:29.190 --> 37:32.570 align:start and '60's and on through today. 37:32.570 --> 37:37.620 align:start [ Applause ] 37:37.620 --> 37:38.920 align:start Thank you. 37:38.920 --> 37:42.620 align:start All right, so with regard to that, in your packets you will see 37:42.620 --> 37:45.500 align:start as I said, the URL's for the Civil Rights History project 37:45.500 --> 37:48.090 align:start from the National Visionary Leadership Project. 37:48.090 --> 37:53.550 align:start These resources are available to you online, in your own browser 37:53.550 --> 37:55.230 align:start in the comfort of your own home. 37:55.230 --> 37:57.530 align:start The Civil Rights History Project, the distinction I will make is 37:57.530 --> 37:59.930 align:start that the Civil Rights History Project is available 37:59.930 --> 38:02.740 align:start through the website of the Library of Congress, 38:02.740 --> 38:04.840 align:start as you can see down here in the corner. 38:04.840 --> 38:07.550 align:start And the National Visionary Leadership Project, 38:07.550 --> 38:11.820 align:start although the archival materials, the recordings, are here at the library, 38:11.820 --> 38:15.220 align:start in point of fact the National Visionary Leadership Project 38:15.220 --> 38:16.970 align:start maintains its own website. 38:16.970 --> 38:19.470 align:start And you can access stories through their website. 38:19.470 --> 38:21.520 align:start Have you folks visited the National Visionary Leadership 38:21.520 --> 38:22.820 align:start Project website? 38:22.820 --> 38:24.880 align:start Do you know where that is? 38:24.880 --> 38:27.630 align:start Well, you'll find out. 38:27.630 --> 38:28.930 align:start Okay, all right. 38:28.930 --> 38:30.860 align:start So let me begin first with the Civil Rights History Project. 38:30.860 --> 38:34.420 align:start I'm the project director here at the library side for this initiative. 38:34.420 --> 38:36.950 align:start It's a joint effort between the Library 38:36.950 --> 38:38.390 align:start and the Smithsonian's National Museum 38:38.390 --> 38:40.330 align:start for African American History and Culture. 38:40.330 --> 38:44.900 align:start We operate under the mandate of a public law 38:44.900 --> 38:48.080 align:start that was passed in 2009 by US Congress. 38:48.080 --> 38:52.370 align:start Under the terms of the mandate, the library and the NMAAHC were directed 38:52.370 --> 38:55.880 align:start to first conduct a survey of existing oral history collections 38:55.880 --> 38:58.560 align:start with the relevance of the Civil Rights Movement to obtain justice, 38:58.560 --> 39:01.100 align:start freedom and equality for African Americans. 39:01.100 --> 39:04.650 align:start And then to record new interviews with people who have participated 39:04.650 --> 39:06.880 align:start in the struggle, beginning about 2010. 39:06.880 --> 39:09.540 align:start The initiative ended about 2014. 39:09.540 --> 39:15.110 align:start To that end, we have as you will see here, over 100 distinct interviews 39:15.110 --> 39:18.250 align:start with members of the struggle. 39:18.250 --> 39:21.230 align:start Ranging from people who were well-known and famous, 39:21.230 --> 39:23.110 align:start like the Reverend Joseph Lowery, 39:23.110 --> 39:27.970 align:start to others who were frontline activists whose work is perhaps not 39:27.970 --> 39:32.700 align:start as well known, but whose stories are compelling nonetheless. 39:32.700 --> 39:37.060 align:start And we have over 100 interviews, and some of them, just to reference back 39:37.060 --> 39:39.390 align:start to an earlier point, some of them are done 39:39.390 --> 39:42.110 align:start with multiple people in one setting. 39:42.110 --> 39:44.430 align:start It's a difficult situation to do something like that. 39:44.430 --> 39:46.860 align:start I can talk about that a little later when we talk 39:46.860 --> 39:50.220 align:start about the technical aspects of conducting your own documentation. 39:50.220 --> 39:52.370 align:start So all these materials are available. 39:52.370 --> 39:54.860 align:start One of the nice things about the Civil Rights History Project is 39:54.860 --> 39:59.440 align:start that every one of these interviews, unlike others that you might find, 39:59.440 --> 40:02.870 align:start not just in the library site, but also across the spectrum 40:02.870 --> 40:06.100 align:start of oral history collections, they're all fully transcribed. 40:06.100 --> 40:08.970 align:start So you can actually come through here and search for them according 40:08.970 --> 40:12.320 align:start to locations of where the interviews were done. 40:12.320 --> 40:17.240 align:start Or where they're referencing events that were important in the struggle, 40:17.240 --> 40:20.440 align:start like say Birmingham or Selma and those other places 40:20.440 --> 40:23.910 align:start like St. Augustine Florida, which was a little less known. 40:23.910 --> 40:27.700 align:start And we have these materials, as I said, are available on-site. 40:27.700 --> 40:31.350 align:start And if you look for instance at the subject listing, it will tell you 40:31.350 --> 40:33.470 align:start that these are all the ways in which you can search 40:33.470 --> 40:36.050 align:start across the collections and aggregate. 40:36.050 --> 40:38.200 align:start Several interviews will come up in one place. 40:38.200 --> 40:40.710 align:start So you can search for those individual interviews. 40:40.710 --> 40:43.450 align:start And you can also do what is the librarian's best friend now. 40:43.450 --> 40:46.100 align:start You can Google it, which has now become a verb. 40:46.100 --> 40:47.990 align:start And you can find some of these materials and some 40:47.990 --> 40:51.240 align:start of these themes embedded within those transcripts. 40:51.240 --> 40:54.010 align:start So I'm going to sort of stop talking now 40:54.010 --> 40:56.720 align:start because I think the most important thing I can do is tell you 40:56.720 --> 41:01.970 align:start that the words of the elders, the words of the individuals 41:01.970 --> 41:04.130 align:start who we interviewed are paramount. 41:04.130 --> 41:07.030 align:start And here I'll make a distinction between I think what Todd 41:07.030 --> 41:09.480 align:start and Megan were also talking about. 41:09.480 --> 41:12.650 align:start We serve at the library the stuff that is the raw. 41:12.650 --> 41:15.460 align:start It's up to you to cook it, right? 41:15.460 --> 41:19.100 align:start So what we're presenting, and the nice examples that Megan 41:19.100 --> 41:22.740 align:start and Todd presented were extracts from a larger corpus of materials. 41:22.740 --> 41:27.790 align:start There's 15 hours of material in the Vera Hall interviews. 41:27.790 --> 41:29.390 align:start Todd pulled together something 41:29.390 --> 41:32.430 align:start that crystalizes what we think is important 41:32.430 --> 41:34.090 align:start about that particular collection that speaks 41:34.090 --> 41:36.940 align:start to a certain aspect of the experience. 41:36.940 --> 41:40.260 align:start We cannot do the research for you, as you well know. 41:40.260 --> 41:42.600 align:start And find out what those nuggets of information are. 41:42.600 --> 41:45.260 align:start That's what archival research is in a lot of cases: 41:45.260 --> 41:47.670 align:start digging down, digging deep. 41:47.670 --> 41:50.230 align:start Gold doesn't just wash up on the shore in your pan. 41:50.230 --> 41:51.930 align:start You've got to go looking for it. 41:51.930 --> 41:55.780 align:start And that means doing all of this work like reading through or looking 41:55.780 --> 41:57.650 align:start through over 200 hours of materials 41:57.650 --> 41:59.260 align:start from the Civil Rights History Project alone. 41:59.260 --> 42:02.080 align:start There are over 300 interviews 42:02.080 --> 42:04.250 align:start in the National Visionary Leadership Project. 42:04.250 --> 42:07.540 align:start And don't even get us started about the Alan Lomax collection. 42:07.540 --> 42:10.060 align:start So it's a lifetime worth of work. 42:10.060 --> 42:12.160 align:start I certainly made it my lifetime, because I've been here a long time. 42:12.160 --> 42:13.470 align:start So I'm happy here. 42:13.470 --> 42:16.690 align:start But you're all welcome to come and participate with that as well. 42:16.690 --> 42:20.370 align:start So without further ado I'm going to start with the first interview. 42:20.370 --> 42:23.400 align:start And this is with Sam Mahone who was interviewed 42:23.400 --> 42:26.020 align:start in Albany, Georgia in 2013. 42:26.020 --> 42:28.220 align:start Sam Mahone was a Civil Rights Activist 42:28.220 --> 42:30.710 align:start with a student nonviolent coordinating community 42:30.710 --> 42:34.740 align:start in America's Georgia College of Art Institute of Atlanta, 42:34.740 --> 42:37.520 align:start working several art museums and galleries. 42:37.520 --> 42:40.610 align:start In this interview he discusses his experience of racial segregation, 42:40.610 --> 42:43.370 align:start discrimination in America's Georgia. 42:43.370 --> 42:48.400 align:start And the experiences which were on the heels of the passage 42:48.400 --> 42:51.040 align:start of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 42:51.040 --> 42:52.390 align:start How many of you have been 42:52.390 --> 42:54.790 align:start to the Civil Rights exhibit here in the library? 42:54.790 --> 43:00.980 align:start Well, you all must be from out of town. 43:00.980 --> 43:02.290 align:start So if you haven't done it, go. 43:02.290 --> 43:04.950 align:start Not now, but go after this presentation. 43:04.950 --> 43:06.250 align:start Go to that exhibition. 43:06.250 --> 43:10.120 align:start It's replete with a lot of just fascinating material, artifacts, 43:10.120 --> 43:14.790 align:start objects, transcripts and several oral histories, interviews, 43:14.790 --> 43:16.800 align:start not just from our collections but from collections 43:16.800 --> 43:19.610 align:start across the breadth of the library. 43:19.610 --> 43:22.600 align:start You'd find yourself really well-suited for that. 43:22.600 --> 43:26.430 align:start So I want to play this first clip, which is from Sam Mahone. 43:26.430 --> 43:33.900 align:start >> I finished high school and then I joined State and began 43:33.900 --> 43:36.470 align:start to continue working throughout our reference, but I also worked 43:36.470 --> 43:39.270 align:start in other counties, surrounding counties as well. 43:39.270 --> 43:44.610 align:start Continued doing voter registration and continued doing a lot 43:44.610 --> 43:48.610 align:start of public accommodation and what have you. 43:48.610 --> 43:54.080 align:start I remember the night the Civil Rights Bill was passed we decided we 43:54.080 --> 43:58.400 align:start were going to test it at a local restaurant. 43:58.400 --> 43:59.760 align:start >> This is July '64? 43:59.760 --> 44:01.550 align:start >> Exactly. 44:01.550 --> 44:06.030 align:start Myself and John Padoe who I believe is here, 44:06.030 --> 44:10.600 align:start who was one of the America's state workers. 44:10.600 --> 44:16.520 align:start Bob Mince, Adam Wolhouse who recently passed away. 44:16.520 --> 44:19.300 align:start And four of the students. 44:19.300 --> 44:23.690 align:start We went down to a place called The Hasty House restaurant. 44:23.690 --> 44:28.010 align:start And we sat there and we tried to order food, 44:28.010 --> 44:31.110 align:start but the waitress never came. 44:31.110 --> 44:38.970 align:start One of the guys who was with us said he needed to go to the restroom. 44:38.970 --> 44:40.300 align:start And the restroom was outside. 44:40.300 --> 44:43.930 align:start You had to go outside and go around the side of the building. 44:43.930 --> 44:46.730 align:start Well while we were waiting, the woman came to take our order, 44:46.730 --> 44:49.960 align:start but about 10 minutes passed and we realized 44:49.960 --> 44:53.380 align:start that he hadn't come back from the restroom. 44:53.380 --> 44:58.510 align:start So we finally decided to get up to leave. 44:58.510 --> 45:02.940 align:start And as we get up to leave to go out to the car, we were met by a group 45:02.940 --> 45:06.000 align:start of whites who had come across the street from a service station 45:06.000 --> 45:10.010 align:start with tire irons and baseball bats. 45:10.010 --> 45:15.490 align:start And so they waited until we got into the car, 45:15.490 --> 45:17.860 align:start which was a convertible car. 45:17.860 --> 45:21.030 align:start And then they just rained down on the car with baseball bats 45:21.030 --> 45:24.300 align:start and tire irons, beating us on top of our heads. 45:24.300 --> 45:29.970 align:start And we finally get the car started and we just get out of there 45:29.970 --> 45:32.760 align:start without the guy who had gone to the restroom. 45:32.760 --> 45:37.630 align:start Well he shows up about two days later and he says what happened is 45:37.630 --> 45:42.070 align:start that when he went to the restroom he was attacked and beaten 45:42.070 --> 45:45.090 align:start and he just ran off and never came back. 45:45.090 --> 45:52.080 align:start And so that was the first evening we decided to test the laws 45:52.080 --> 45:53.850 align:start that Congress had passed. 45:53.850 --> 45:57.360 align:start >> Guha Shankar: So that's that moment of deep personal experience. 45:57.360 --> 46:00.070 align:start And this is a person operating from 50 year memory. 46:00.070 --> 46:02.820 align:start And I think many of you might have similar memories of experiences 46:02.820 --> 46:05.620 align:start that just burned so deeply into you that you recount it 46:05.620 --> 46:07.170 align:start as though it were yesterday. 46:07.170 --> 46:09.550 align:start I'd be interested in finding out how 46:09.550 --> 46:13.740 align:start and in what way storytellers craft these kinds of personal experiences 46:13.740 --> 46:15.540 align:start into stories for your own use 46:15.540 --> 46:19.180 align:start and for sharing more widely with the world outside. 46:19.180 --> 46:21.520 align:start The second clip is from Bill Saunders, 46:21.520 --> 46:24.290 align:start who was born in New York, New York. 46:24.290 --> 46:26.680 align:start Married Henrietta Jenkins and had 10 children. 46:26.680 --> 46:29.530 align:start Mr. Saunders attended Southern Business College, 46:29.530 --> 46:31.740 align:start Southern Illinois University, vocational education, 46:31.740 --> 46:33.700 align:start and the University of Nevada. 46:33.700 --> 46:36.620 align:start He worked as a politician and was also the CEO of the committee 46:36.620 --> 46:39.880 align:start on Better Racial Assurance Human Services Agency. 46:39.880 --> 46:42.300 align:start He was interviewed for this project down in South Carolina. 46:42.300 --> 46:45.700 align:start And in this interview he recalls serving the Army during the 46:45.700 --> 46:47.000 align:start Korean War. 46:47.000 --> 46:49.100 align:start And speaks of his experiences with racism 46:49.100 --> 46:52.330 align:start in the national army at that time. 46:52.330 --> 46:55.800 align:start And I think those of you who have relatives who you have spoken to, 46:55.800 --> 47:00.190 align:start members of our service people, and particularly of that era, 47:00.190 --> 47:03.880 align:start will know how deeply those experiences influence their 47:03.880 --> 47:07.680 align:start subsequent activism in the freedom struggle. 47:07.680 --> 47:10.010 align:start So I want to play this particular clip from Mr. Saunders. 47:10.010 --> 47:15.370 align:start >> You confronted more racism in Hawaii than you had encountered 47:15.370 --> 47:17.220 align:start on Johns Island or in Charleston even? 47:17.220 --> 47:20.390 align:start >> Hawaii and the military even in Korea. 47:20.390 --> 47:23.610 align:start The racisms was real, real bad in Korea. 47:23.610 --> 47:24.910 align:start And then Hawaii. 47:24.910 --> 47:28.470 align:start And I just realized later on, it was right after 1851. 47:28.470 --> 47:30.590 align:start They had just really integrated the army. 47:30.590 --> 47:36.320 align:start There were four blacks in our company, one Hispanic, one Indian. 47:36.320 --> 47:40.190 align:start And I didn't realize until many years later that all 47:40.190 --> 47:44.330 align:start of these people, poor white men, who also had a lot of problems. 47:44.330 --> 47:46.880 align:start And the only place they could vet any 47:46.880 --> 47:51.930 align:start of those problems was on people like me. 47:51.930 --> 47:54.850 align:start So they had their own problem reasons and we had a lot of fights. 47:54.850 --> 47:58.570 align:start >> Do you remember particular instances? 47:58.570 --> 47:59.870 align:start >> Physical fights. 47:59.870 --> 48:01.170 align:start A guy will beat me, 48:01.170 --> 48:05.980 align:start but my grandmother gave me such a bad temper. 48:05.980 --> 48:09.270 align:start I get real mad, I don't give up. 48:09.270 --> 48:11.490 align:start So I don't stop when people say to stop. 48:11.490 --> 48:14.670 align:start So I end up being the one getting in trouble. 48:14.670 --> 48:17.690 align:start But they did so many things to the blacks. 48:17.690 --> 48:21.300 align:start We had one guy, one of my best friends who died recently, 48:21.300 --> 48:26.740 align:start they made him dig a 6x6x6 hole and they decided to drop a dime in it 48:26.740 --> 48:28.510 align:start and then make him close it up. 48:28.510 --> 48:32.570 align:start Those were the kinds of things we went through. 48:32.570 --> 48:35.670 align:start And a lot of it coming back to me more and more now. 48:35.670 --> 48:38.710 align:start I'm having a lot of flashbacks with that. 48:38.710 --> 48:43.520 align:start Even in Korea, the war, I mean the guy who was my first sergeant 48:43.520 --> 48:48.610 align:start who I didn't know, on the front lines we just fought for two days. 48:48.610 --> 48:53.470 align:start And I was going up the hill on top and he said, "Blacks are difficult. 48:53.470 --> 48:54.770 align:start I'll blow your brains out." 48:54.770 --> 48:57.120 align:start And he had a .45 on me. 48:57.120 --> 49:01.380 align:start And I decided at that point -- my rifle was in the hole I was going 49:01.380 --> 49:05.290 align:start to roll and get my gun like you saw from a movie. 49:05.290 --> 49:09.300 align:start Man, that .45 will blow a hole straight through you. 49:09.300 --> 49:13.320 align:start Because I've seen a .45 shoot people. 49:13.320 --> 49:16.290 align:start I went back to my hole and stayed there. 49:16.290 --> 49:19.420 align:start When it was time for us to leave, he sent for me and said 49:19.420 --> 49:24.370 align:start that he had made me lead the whole company out there because being 49:24.370 --> 49:25.670 align:start in front you get killed first. 49:25.670 --> 49:27.970 align:start So he wanted me killed out in front going out. 49:27.970 --> 49:30.390 align:start That was the kind of stuff. 49:30.390 --> 49:33.900 align:start So there was a lot of stuff that we can laugh about, 49:33.900 --> 49:35.840 align:start because if you don't you cry about it. 49:35.840 --> 49:39.080 align:start So but the racism was just really heavy. 49:39.080 --> 49:43.530 align:start Coming back, even in California when we got back as heroes, 49:43.530 --> 49:48.510 align:start because I got wounded, there in California they started calling 49:48.510 --> 49:51.860 align:start out the white soldiers' names and then the called blacks. 49:51.860 --> 49:54.400 align:start I never understood that until we got on. 49:54.400 --> 49:55.940 align:start But black and white soldiers couldn't ride 49:55.940 --> 49:58.840 align:start in the same train coach across America. 49:58.840 --> 50:01.570 align:start So we had to ride in separate coaches. 50:01.570 --> 50:04.180 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Okay, I'm going to wrap this up because I want 50:04.180 --> 50:06.120 align:start to make sure we have some time for questions. 50:06.120 --> 50:09.040 align:start The other collections that I might sort of point you to, 50:09.040 --> 50:10.660 align:start and my colleague Catherine Kerst will talk 50:10.660 --> 50:13.620 align:start about some of these a little later. 50:13.620 --> 50:17.320 align:start But again in your packet you will notice a URL for Born in Slavery: 50:17.320 --> 50:19.830 align:start Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project. 50:19.830 --> 50:23.330 align:start And this is more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery 50:23.330 --> 50:25.620 align:start and also photographs of former slaves. 50:25.620 --> 50:28.460 align:start And these narratives were collected in the 1930's as part 50:28.460 --> 50:32.210 align:start of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, 50:32.210 --> 50:33.510 align:start a federal project, by the way. 50:33.510 --> 50:38.250 align:start And assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the Slave Narratives, 50:38.250 --> 50:40.620 align:start which is this mammoth 17-volume set. 50:40.620 --> 50:44.970 align:start Published and available to you. 50:44.970 --> 50:47.770 align:start And the online collect I think might be interesting for you all 50:47.770 --> 50:51.240 align:start because it actually has facsimiles of all of the various narratives 50:51.240 --> 50:56.910 align:start that have been digitized and put up online so you can scan those. 50:56.910 --> 50:58.970 align:start They have some subject terms and so on, 50:58.970 --> 51:00.480 align:start but they're not fully transcribed 51:00.480 --> 51:02.310 align:start as are the Civil Rights History project. 51:02.310 --> 51:04.830 align:start So with that I'm going to bring this to a close 51:04.830 --> 51:06.510 align:start and thank you for your patience. 51:06.510 --> 51:08.390 align:start I know it's already been a little long. 51:08.390 --> 51:10.090 align:start But we'll move on. 51:10.090 --> 51:11.500 align:start And if there are any questions I'd be happy 51:11.500 --> 51:14.270 align:start to entertain them either here or afterwards. 51:14.270 --> 51:17.530 align:start >> In which way are you connected with Story Corps? 51:17.530 --> 51:22.120 align:start Because they have been going around, you know collecting stories 51:22.120 --> 51:27.750 align:start and I've even joined in telling people about it. 51:27.750 --> 51:29.160 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Story Corps is archived here. 51:29.160 --> 51:32.150 align:start The materials, the recordings are archived here at the Library 51:32.150 --> 51:33.960 align:start of the American Folk Life Center. 51:33.960 --> 51:36.430 align:start Again, you can get access to those. 51:36.430 --> 51:38.090 align:start It's an enormous volume of stories, 51:38.090 --> 51:40.730 align:start so we can't provide online access to all of them. 51:40.730 --> 51:42.930 align:start But if you make an appointment with our library staff, 51:42.930 --> 51:46.010 align:start with our American Folk Life Center reference staff, you all can come in 51:46.010 --> 51:47.520 align:start and listen to those stories. 51:47.520 --> 51:49.410 align:start And some of them, as you know, are available in bits 51:49.410 --> 51:50.820 align:start and pieces here and there. 51:50.820 --> 51:53.050 align:start That's the nuggets that get extracted by NPR 51:53.050 --> 51:55.070 align:start for their programs as well. 51:55.070 --> 51:56.460 align:start So that's one way to do it. 51:56.460 --> 51:58.120 align:start And participation is an interesting one. 51:58.120 --> 52:00.430 align:start We can direct you to the Story Corps site and tell you 52:00.430 --> 52:03.920 align:start when the mobile trucks and buses show up in your area. 52:03.920 --> 52:08.400 align:start And you might want to think about working on a way to get your stories 52:08.400 --> 52:11.990 align:start or the individuals whose stories you think are important 52:11.990 --> 52:17.330 align:start into that archive. 52:17.330 --> 52:22.050 align:start Yes ma'am? 52:22.050 --> 52:29.140 align:start >> I wanted to share with NABS that Mary Carter Smith 52:29.140 --> 52:35.110 align:start and Victoria Smith were recorded by Story Corps, 52:35.110 --> 52:39.280 align:start so they are here with you. 52:39.280 --> 52:40.580 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Yes. 52:40.580 --> 52:43.160 align:start Thank you very much for your contributions. 52:43.160 --> 52:50.510 align:start I appreciate it. 52:50.510 --> 52:52.250 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: All right. 52:52.250 --> 52:57.590 align:start Oh, one more question and then we'll take a break. 52:57.590 --> 53:01.960 align:start >> Next year in 2017 will be the 50th anniversary 53:01.960 --> 53:07.860 align:start of the Detroit Riot, and I wanted to know would it be possible to set 53:07.860 --> 53:13.380 align:start up a Story Corps bus or whatever at that time? 53:13.380 --> 53:14.680 align:start >> Guha Shankar: That would be a very good question 53:14.680 --> 53:16.190 align:start and we can refer you to the Story Corps folks. 53:16.190 --> 53:17.620 align:start They might actually be in partnership 53:17.620 --> 53:19.740 align:start with the local organizations in Detroit 53:19.740 --> 53:21.530 align:start to do something like that already. 53:21.530 --> 53:23.700 align:start I guess that's one of the things I want to mention to you is 53:23.700 --> 53:28.050 align:start that we're the national library, but we're not quite the national mafia 53:28.050 --> 53:32.060 align:start and we really believe that our local partners are every bit as important 53:32.060 --> 53:33.620 align:start with the collecting efforts that you all do. 53:33.620 --> 53:37.800 align:start So we would encourage you strongly to contact your local libraries. 53:37.800 --> 53:41.630 align:start They are the community centers at their very best and they are places 53:41.630 --> 53:44.960 align:start that your stories can be collected. 53:44.960 --> 53:46.930 align:start They can help you with documentation efforts. 53:46.930 --> 53:50.060 align:start And they can help you find stories and that's really what we say, 53:50.060 --> 53:53.850 align:start is that the library is in your backyard and it's one 53:53.850 --> 53:56.040 align:start of the greatest resources that we have. 53:56.040 --> 53:58.090 align:start And we are always proud to partner with those folks 53:58.090 --> 54:00.950 align:start to do precisely the kind of efforts you were talking about. 54:00.950 --> 54:02.250 align:start Okay. 54:02.250 --> 54:05.110 align:start >> Elizabeth Peterson: Okay, so let's come back at 10:40 54:05.110 --> 54:07.200 align:start and you'll hear more about the collections 54:07.200 --> 54:08.500 align:start at the Library of Congress. 54:08.500 --> 54:09.800 align:start Thank you. 54:09.800 --> 54:11.100 align:start [ Applause ] 54:11.100 --> 54:12.400 align:start [ Singing ] 54:12.400 --> 54:13.700 align:start [ Applause ] 54:13.700 --> 54:28.920 align:start >> VM: So I'm guessing by the amount of cheers 54:28.920 --> 54:39.760 align:start that this person is no stranger to y'all's association. 54:39.760 --> 54:41.060 align:start So this was a recording of Linda 54:41.060 --> 54:48.280 align:start at the National Storytelling Festival, somewhere in the 1970's. 54:48.280 --> 54:50.350 align:start And I'm glad that you enjoy that. 54:50.350 --> 54:51.650 align:start Good morning. 54:51.650 --> 54:54.010 align:start I am Valda Morris and I'm a processing archivist here 54:54.010 --> 54:57.080 align:start at the American Folk Life Center. 54:57.080 --> 55:01.030 align:start And I want to piggyback off of something 55:01.030 --> 55:08.290 align:start that my colleague Guha said about we are archives 55:08.290 --> 55:10.000 align:start and we give the raw materials. 55:10.000 --> 55:12.520 align:start And it's up to you all to find that gold. 55:12.520 --> 55:16.060 align:start And Linda, Ms. Goss was actually here a couple years ago. 55:16.060 --> 55:19.600 align:start She had won one of our grants. 55:19.600 --> 55:23.330 align:start And she actually was able to research and she was able 55:23.330 --> 55:26.670 align:start to enrich our collections even more because she was able to fill in some 55:26.670 --> 55:29.360 align:start of the gaps and the questions that I had 55:29.360 --> 55:31.100 align:start about the National Storytelling Festival. 55:31.100 --> 55:34.630 align:start So that's just you know, another plug for you all to come in 55:34.630 --> 55:39.220 align:start and do some research here at our American Folk Life Center. 55:39.220 --> 55:42.620 align:start Okay, so I would like to personally welcome all of y'all 55:42.620 --> 55:45.800 align:start and every single member of NABS to the Library of Congress 55:45.800 --> 55:47.840 align:start to the American Folk Life Center and to DC. 55:47.840 --> 55:52.250 align:start I'm really excited here this morning to be able to share some 55:52.250 --> 55:56.100 align:start of the wonderful storyteller resources that you have just seen -- 55:56.100 --> 55:58.520 align:start that you're about to see from my colleagues 55:58.520 --> 56:00.090 align:start and that you're about to see from me. 56:00.090 --> 56:03.740 align:start That are actually housed here at the American Folk Life Center. 56:03.740 --> 56:06.230 align:start Some of these resources are not just on paper 56:06.230 --> 56:08.430 align:start or what we call manuscript materials. 56:08.430 --> 56:11.680 align:start But they are sound recordings, they're graphic images, you know, 56:11.680 --> 56:13.930 align:start photos and prints and stuff. 56:13.930 --> 56:16.120 align:start And moving images. 56:16.120 --> 56:20.740 align:start We have also digitized a large amount of these materials 56:20.740 --> 56:23.510 align:start and we're working on digitizing another set. 56:23.510 --> 56:28.990 align:start And some of these that are not digitized, you can also request 56:28.990 --> 56:32.230 align:start and we could do it for you on-demand. 56:32.230 --> 56:36.620 align:start Today I will share some of the recordings that are both sound 56:36.620 --> 56:40.520 align:start and moving images that are part of story collections here 56:40.520 --> 56:42.500 align:start at the American Folk Life Center. 56:42.500 --> 56:45.960 align:start The first one is a James Carpenter collection 56:45.960 --> 56:47.820 align:start and then the other would be the International 56:47.820 --> 56:49.120 align:start Storytelling Collection. 56:49.120 --> 56:56.330 align:start The earliest recordings of American Folk Tales that we have 56:56.330 --> 57:02.390 align:start in our archives that are actually done on wax cylinder recordings. 57:02.390 --> 57:05.120 align:start So just imagine like a candle with a hole in it 57:05.120 --> 57:08.930 align:start and they have grooves in there. 57:08.930 --> 57:11.880 align:start That's one of the earliest recordings 57:11.880 --> 57:16.180 align:start that we have of sound recordings. 57:16.180 --> 57:20.380 align:start And these were made in the 1930's by Harvard-trained scholar 57:20.380 --> 57:25.640 align:start from Mississippi, a person by the name of James Madison Carpenter. 57:25.640 --> 57:30.470 align:start Carpenter was best known for his ballads and songs 57:30.470 --> 57:36.800 align:start and he collected a lot of stories in England, Scotland and Wales. 57:36.800 --> 57:40.640 align:start However, he was also a teacher at Duke University. 57:40.640 --> 57:46.070 align:start And that's where he identified a janitor there by the name of John. 57:46.070 --> 57:47.700 align:start And these became important 57:47.700 --> 57:51.150 align:start because they were the earliest known field recordings 57:51.150 --> 57:55.640 align:start of African American folktales within the United States. 57:55.640 --> 58:01.210 align:start I'm going to play you a brief sample of James' wax cylinder recording 58:01.210 --> 58:05.970 align:start of John telling the story of Jack and the Devil. 58:05.970 --> 58:09.110 align:start So you image that these are some old recordings, 58:09.110 --> 58:11.620 align:start so the quality is not going to be that great. 58:11.620 --> 58:14.610 align:start But if you listen clearly you will hear when he begins. 58:14.610 --> 58:15.910 align:start "Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack." 58:15.910 --> 58:18.600 align:start >> Once upon a time there was a boy by the name of Jack. 58:18.600 --> 58:19.900 align:start [ Inaudible ] 58:19.900 --> 59:58.660 align:start >> VM: All right, I know that wasn't the best, but we have a lot 59:58.660 --> 01:00:02.280 align:start of these recordings in our James Carpenter Collection, 01:00:02.280 --> 01:00:04.600 align:start just waiting to be discovered by you. 01:00:04.600 --> 01:00:09.480 align:start Carpenter completed his field recordings and manuscripts. 01:00:09.480 --> 01:00:16.630 align:start His complete field recordings and manuscripts will be online in 2016 01:00:16.630 --> 01:00:19.100 align:start as part of the digital archives. 01:00:19.100 --> 01:00:21.600 align:start The Full English, hosted by the English Folk 01:00:21.600 --> 01:00:26.110 align:start and Song Society in London. 01:00:26.110 --> 01:00:32.010 align:start Okay. The International Story Collection is one 01:00:32.010 --> 01:00:37.680 align:start of our largest collections that we received here in 2001. 01:00:37.680 --> 01:00:41.500 align:start It was actually 500,000 items came. 01:00:41.500 --> 01:00:45.200 align:start And it documents the beginning 01:00:45.200 --> 01:00:47.160 align:start of the International Storytelling Center 01:00:47.160 --> 01:00:49.950 align:start and all the different variations that it had. 01:00:49.950 --> 01:00:54.340 align:start And of course you know it hosts the International Storytelling Festival. 01:00:54.340 --> 01:00:59.240 align:start And have featured many black storytellers over the ages. 01:00:59.240 --> 01:01:02.930 align:start Mary Catherine Smith, Linda Goss, Jackie Torrence, 01:01:02.930 --> 01:01:06.590 align:start Charlotte Bri Alsom, which I think I see her down there. 01:01:06.590 --> 01:01:08.600 align:start Donna Washington, Bro. 01:01:08.600 --> 01:01:13.210 align:start Blue, Lyn Cabral, Paul Keems Douglas and that's just to name a few. 01:01:13.210 --> 01:01:15.470 align:start We have many, many others in the collection. 01:01:15.470 --> 01:01:21.590 align:start In 2001 we actually digitized the real-to-real sound recordings, 01:01:21.590 --> 01:01:23.280 align:start which documents the beginnings 01:01:23.280 --> 01:01:26.890 align:start of the festival, right up to the 1990's. 01:01:26.890 --> 01:01:30.920 align:start And then we continue to digitize the docs which came, 01:01:30.920 --> 01:01:35.780 align:start which kind of like took up from that era right up to the 2000's. 01:01:35.780 --> 01:01:43.910 align:start We know we receive a lot of the storytelling stories on hard drives, 01:01:43.910 --> 01:01:48.200 align:start so we just upload them directly to our servers. 01:01:48.200 --> 01:01:51.520 align:start The collection is an open collection. 01:01:51.520 --> 01:01:55.310 align:start We have a corporate agreement with them, 01:01:55.310 --> 01:01:59.090 align:start which means we receive their materials every three years 01:01:59.090 --> 01:02:03.280 align:start for the life of the Center and of the festival. 01:02:03.280 --> 01:02:08.220 align:start In 2012, in an effort to celebrate the 40th anniversary 01:02:08.220 --> 01:02:10.390 align:start with the International Storytelling Center, 01:02:10.390 --> 01:02:14.470 align:start we at the American Folk Life digitized a set of tapes 01:02:14.470 --> 01:02:20.200 align:start and we put it all together and we produced a piece entitled Echoes 01:02:20.200 --> 01:02:23.940 align:start from the National Storytelling Festival. 01:02:23.940 --> 01:02:25.770 align:start So I opened with Linda Goss as you saw, 01:02:25.770 --> 01:02:27.440 align:start and that was part of this piece. 01:02:27.440 --> 01:02:30.260 align:start And now I'm going to close with another icon 01:02:30.260 --> 01:02:33.050 align:start to the storytelling festival. 01:02:33.050 --> 01:02:35.220 align:start Her name is Jackie Torrence. 01:02:35.220 --> 01:02:38.560 align:start And I would like to thank you for your patience. 01:02:38.560 --> 01:02:42.140 align:start And enjoy DC and enjoy the Library of Congress 01:02:42.140 --> 01:02:44.280 align:start and we're looking forward to serving you more. 01:02:44.280 --> 01:02:45.580 align:start [ Applause ] 01:02:45.580 --> 01:02:51.580 align:start >> Now Brer Rabbit was a fine fisherman. 01:02:51.580 --> 01:02:55.730 align:start All he had to do was go down to the river, drop his pole in 01:02:55.730 --> 01:02:59.450 align:start and with inside of 10 minutes he'd have 20 fish right 01:02:59.450 --> 01:03:01.230 align:start up there on the bank. 01:03:01.230 --> 01:03:03.150 align:start He was a good fisherman. 01:03:03.150 --> 01:03:06.250 align:start Brer Rabbit had a good friend, his best friend in fact, 01:03:06.250 --> 01:03:11.090 align:start whose name was Brer Raccoon. 01:03:11.090 --> 01:03:15.420 align:start But Brer Rabbit called him Brer Coon for short. 01:03:15.420 --> 01:03:19.060 align:start Brer Coon couldn't fish a toad. 01:03:19.060 --> 01:03:21.700 align:start He didn't even like fish. 01:03:21.700 --> 01:03:25.500 align:start What he liked was frogs. 01:03:25.500 --> 01:03:29.270 align:start Brer Coon would go down to the river with a big tow sack and he'd fill 01:03:29.270 --> 01:03:32.300 align:start that sack full of frogs and he'd take them home to his wife 01:03:32.300 --> 01:03:33.600 align:start and his wife would say, "Woohoo! 01:03:33.600 --> 01:03:35.400 align:start Frogs!" 01:03:35.400 --> 01:03:40.110 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:03:40.110 --> 01:03:44.650 align:start Now Brer Coon loved frogs. 01:03:44.650 --> 01:03:50.620 align:start But the frogs was getting tired of Brer Coon catching them. 01:03:50.620 --> 01:03:53.540 align:start So they had a big frog meeting. 01:03:53.540 --> 01:03:58.290 align:start And they said, "We's got to do something about Brer Coon. 01:03:58.290 --> 01:04:01.350 align:start He's coming down here and catching us. 01:04:01.350 --> 01:04:06.570 align:start We got to find out where he is and when he's coming." 01:04:06.570 --> 01:04:10.990 align:start So they decided to put a lookout frog on the bank. 01:04:10.990 --> 01:04:14.310 align:start They needed a frog with big eyes. 01:04:14.310 --> 01:04:18.350 align:start A frog that could hear good from a long way. 01:04:18.350 --> 01:04:22.560 align:start A frog that could see real good, see him coming. 01:04:22.560 --> 01:04:24.790 align:start They only frog they could see 01:04:24.790 --> 01:04:29.090 align:start with them qualifications was the bullfrog. 01:04:29.090 --> 01:04:34.610 align:start So they put him down on the riverbank to watch for Brer Coon. 01:04:34.610 --> 01:04:39.900 align:start Brer Coon would get a half a mile down to the river 01:04:39.900 --> 01:04:43.020 align:start and the bullfrog would see him. 01:04:43.020 --> 01:04:46.650 align:start And the bullfrog would warn all the rest of the frogs. 01:04:46.650 --> 01:04:49.610 align:start And you could hear him say, "Here he comes." 01:04:49.610 --> 01:04:50.910 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:04:50.910 --> 01:04:53.550 align:start "Here he comes." 01:04:53.550 --> 01:04:54.850 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:04:54.850 --> 01:05:00.150 align:start "Here he comes." 01:05:00.150 --> 01:05:03.790 align:start And the little frogs would echo what the bullfrog had said. 01:05:03.790 --> 01:05:05.090 align:start "Here he comes." 01:05:05.090 --> 01:05:06.390 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:05:06.390 --> 01:05:08.360 align:start "Here he comes. 01:05:08.360 --> 01:05:10.310 align:start Here he comes." 01:05:10.310 --> 01:05:13.280 align:start Well by the time Brer Coon got to the river, 01:05:13.280 --> 01:05:17.050 align:start all the frogs had leaped into the water. 01:05:17.050 --> 01:05:19.120 align:start And there wasn't a frog in sight. 01:05:19.120 --> 01:05:22.530 align:start And ole Brer Coon couldn't go in the water because he couldn't swim. 01:05:22.530 --> 01:05:26.470 align:start He'd go home with that empty tow sack and his wife would say, 01:05:26.470 --> 01:05:31.280 align:start "Is you coming in here without a frog?" 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:33.690 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:05:33.690 --> 01:05:35.210 align:start And Brer Coon would say, "Now wait a minute. 01:05:35.210 --> 01:05:36.510 align:start I can't catch them frogs. 01:05:36.510 --> 01:05:37.810 align:start They done got to wild. 01:05:37.810 --> 01:05:39.460 align:start I've been down there and every time I go 01:05:39.460 --> 01:05:41.500 align:start down there they say, "Here he comes. 01:05:41.500 --> 01:05:45.320 align:start Here he comes. 01:05:45.320 --> 01:05:46.910 align:start Here he comes." 01:05:46.910 --> 01:05:48.210 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:05:48.210 --> 01:05:49.510 align:start >> Catherine Kerst: High, I'm Cathy Kerst. 01:05:49.510 --> 01:05:51.790 align:start I'm a folklorist and archivist in the American Folk Life center. 01:05:51.790 --> 01:05:54.070 align:start And I'll be talking to you about some 01:05:54.070 --> 01:05:57.910 align:start of the Zora Neale Hurston materials that we have in our archive 01:05:57.910 --> 01:06:00.640 align:start and also elsewhere in the Library of Congress. 01:06:00.640 --> 01:06:03.490 align:start We are thrilled to have you here, really pleased. 01:06:03.490 --> 01:06:10.010 align:start In 1938, Zora Neale Hurston wrote an essay called Folklore in Music, 01:06:10.010 --> 01:06:13.490 align:start intended to be published in a work called The Florida Negro. 01:06:13.490 --> 01:06:17.180 align:start In it she wrote, as Betsy has already said, 01:06:17.180 --> 01:06:19.880 align:start "Folklore is the boiled down juice of human living. 01:06:19.880 --> 01:06:24.080 align:start It does not belong to any special time, place nor people. 01:06:24.080 --> 01:06:27.630 align:start In folklore, as in everything else that people create, 01:06:27.630 --> 01:06:31.160 align:start the world is a great big old serving platter. 01:06:31.160 --> 01:06:34.410 align:start And all the places are like eating plates. 01:06:34.410 --> 01:06:37.150 align:start Whatever is on the plates must come out of the platter, 01:06:37.150 --> 01:06:39.630 align:start but each plate has a flavor of its own. 01:06:39.630 --> 01:06:42.500 align:start Because the people take the universal stuff 01:06:42.500 --> 01:06:44.930 align:start and season it to suit themselves. 01:06:44.930 --> 01:06:50.470 align:start And this local flavor is what is known as originality." 01:06:50.470 --> 01:06:52.820 align:start She wrote so beautifully. 01:06:52.820 --> 01:06:56.340 align:start Known by many as a literary figure, a gifted author, 01:06:56.340 --> 01:06:58.690 align:start Hurston was also an astute 01:06:58.690 --> 01:07:01.790 align:start and perceptive ethnographer and interviewer. 01:07:01.790 --> 01:07:06.150 align:start She studied anthropology at Columbia University in the mid-20's 01:07:06.150 --> 01:07:10.050 align:start where she was encouraged to travel to her native Florida 01:07:10.050 --> 01:07:11.980 align:start to gather African American folklore. 01:07:11.980 --> 01:07:13.520 align:start Which she did. 01:07:13.520 --> 01:07:15.820 align:start The American Folk Life Center holds a variety 01:07:15.820 --> 01:07:19.900 align:start of fascinating Hurston materials relating to this research. 01:07:19.900 --> 01:07:24.120 align:start Our Hurston collections include for the most part audio recordings 01:07:24.120 --> 01:07:27.150 align:start that she collected from individuals or groups, 01:07:27.150 --> 01:07:30.440 align:start or were made of her own speaking and singing 01:07:30.440 --> 01:07:33.530 align:start in Florida and Georgia in 1935. 01:07:33.530 --> 01:07:36.080 align:start In Haiti in 1936. 01:07:36.080 --> 01:07:40.290 align:start In Washington, D. C. at the National Folk Festival in 1938. 01:07:40.290 --> 01:07:42.970 align:start And during her work for the Federal Writers Project 01:07:42.970 --> 01:07:46.490 align:start in Florida in 1938 and -39. 01:07:46.490 --> 01:07:51.750 align:start We also have a few letters in our collection. 01:07:51.750 --> 01:07:54.910 align:start Here is a photo of Hurston which we believe was taken 01:07:54.910 --> 01:07:57.750 align:start at a recording site in 1935. 01:07:57.750 --> 01:08:00.440 align:start The photo resides in the prints 01:08:00.440 --> 01:08:03.590 align:start and photographs division here at the library. 01:08:03.590 --> 01:08:07.450 align:start It was really hard to decide what audio recordings to play for you 01:08:07.450 --> 01:08:10.380 align:start since so much of it is so compelling. 01:08:10.380 --> 01:08:13.740 align:start I've chosen three selections from the late 1930's 01:08:13.740 --> 01:08:15.960 align:start that feature Hurston speaking and singing 01:08:15.960 --> 01:08:20.840 align:start and demonstrate her ethnographic eye and documentary style. 01:08:20.840 --> 01:08:24.450 align:start In April of 1938 Hurston joined the staff 01:08:24.450 --> 01:08:26.620 align:start of the Florida Federal Writers Project 01:08:26.620 --> 01:08:31.150 align:start to collect African American folklore in Florida. 01:08:31.150 --> 01:08:35.160 align:start The Federal Writers Project was part of the Works Progress Administration 01:08:35.160 --> 01:08:38.130 align:start where authors, historians, artists and folklorists 01:08:38.130 --> 01:08:42.430 align:start like Hurston were hired to collect folklore, history, oral narratives, 01:08:42.430 --> 01:08:45.340 align:start songs and more to document the lives 01:08:45.340 --> 01:08:48.870 align:start of ordinary Americans from many backgrounds. 01:08:48.870 --> 01:08:53.430 align:start As part of her work, Hurston collected folk speech, work songs, 01:08:53.430 --> 01:08:57.200 align:start tall tales and lies, narratives about preachers, 01:08:57.200 --> 01:08:59.090 align:start children's games and much more. 01:08:59.090 --> 01:09:03.260 align:start I'm focusing today on the recordings where you get a chance 01:09:03.260 --> 01:09:06.660 align:start to hear Hurston's voice and experience her method 01:09:06.660 --> 01:09:09.250 align:start of documenting folk culture. 01:09:09.250 --> 01:09:12.410 align:start These recordings are all on the Library of Congress's website. 01:09:12.410 --> 01:09:14.660 align:start This is a description of track lining. 01:09:14.660 --> 01:09:20.050 align:start >> Now when the men are lining, they put the rail down and then 01:09:20.050 --> 01:09:25.020 align:start of course the captain, he squats straddle of it and looks down it 01:09:25.020 --> 01:09:30.810 align:start so he can tell when it's lined up in exact line with the others. 01:09:30.810 --> 01:09:33.340 align:start And he'll say, "Shove it over." 01:09:33.340 --> 01:09:34.830 align:start And the captain, he'll say, "Send it back." 01:09:34.830 --> 01:09:37.680 align:start And when they get it exactly in line, 01:09:37.680 --> 01:09:39.420 align:start he'll tell them, "Join it ahead." 01:09:39.420 --> 01:09:41.190 align:start But they corrupted that to "Joiner ahead." 01:09:41.190 --> 01:09:43.530 align:start And all of them said, "Joiner head," for "Join it ahead." 01:09:43.530 --> 01:09:50.770 align:start And so this song is about lining and the rhythm goes with this. 01:09:50.770 --> 01:09:54.540 align:start They put this lining bar, this long steel bar, crow bar, 01:09:54.540 --> 01:09:57.870 align:start between their legs so they have greater push and pull back on it. 01:09:57.870 --> 01:09:59.170 align:start [ Inaudible ] 01:09:59.170 --> 01:10:00.470 align:start Their back is to the rail. 01:10:00.470 --> 01:10:01.770 align:start [ Inaudible ] 01:10:01.770 --> 01:10:03.070 align:start They're pulling up on the bar. 01:10:03.070 --> 01:10:05.120 align:start They don't have to look at the rail, 01:10:05.120 --> 01:10:11.660 align:start because that's the captain's job to see when it's right. 01:10:11.660 --> 01:10:17.590 align:start >> How do they get it under the rail? 01:10:17.590 --> 01:10:20.930 align:start >> They just push the flange of this lining bar onto the rail 01:10:20.930 --> 01:10:22.770 align:start and then pull back on it. 01:10:22.770 --> 01:10:25.680 align:start >> Do they have to look back at it? 01:10:25.680 --> 01:10:27.130 align:start >> Catherine Kerst: You can hear Herbert Kelford, 01:10:27.130 --> 01:10:31.160 align:start one of the other Federal Writers Project workers asking all sorts 01:10:31.160 --> 01:10:32.460 align:start of questions. 01:10:32.460 --> 01:10:33.760 align:start So Zora was interested 01:10:33.760 --> 01:10:38.160 align:start in documenting how things were done sometimes in traditional culture. 01:10:38.160 --> 01:10:44.490 align:start And the next recording is Shove It Over, 01:10:44.490 --> 01:10:50.120 align:start which is actually the work song that goes along with the track lining. 01:10:50.120 --> 01:10:54.610 align:start Sort of like a call and response chant used on the railroad. 01:10:54.610 --> 01:10:59.350 align:start >> This song is called Shove It Over 01:10:59.350 --> 01:11:05.150 align:start and it's the lining rhythm pretty generally distributed all 01:11:05.150 --> 01:11:07.590 align:start over Florida. 01:11:07.590 --> 01:11:23.270 align:start It was sung to me by Charlie Jones 01:11:23.270 --> 01:11:45.190 align:start on the railroad construction camp near Lakeland, Florida. 01:11:45.190 --> 01:11:49.350 align:start >> How long ago? 01:11:49.350 --> 01:11:58.830 align:start >> I gathered that in '33, 1933. 01:11:58.830 --> 01:12:00.130 align:start [ Singing ] 01:12:00.130 --> 01:12:06.230 align:start >> Catherine Kerst: And here is Uncle Bud, which is a social song, 01:12:06.230 --> 01:12:09.640 align:start a body juke song sung by Hurston. 01:12:09.640 --> 01:12:13.470 align:start It was collected by Stetson Kennedy who was recording her 01:12:13.470 --> 01:12:17.620 align:start and whose voice you also hear on this recording. 01:12:17.620 --> 01:12:23.890 align:start 1939 in Jacksonville. 01:12:23.890 --> 01:12:26.790 align:start >> Uncle Bud is not a works song. 01:12:26.790 --> 01:12:29.790 align:start It's a sort of social song for amusement 01:12:29.790 --> 01:12:31.380 align:start and it's so widely distributed. 01:12:31.380 --> 01:12:34.390 align:start It's growing all the time by incremental repetition. 01:12:34.390 --> 01:12:37.730 align:start And it is known all over the south. 01:12:37.730 --> 01:12:42.560 align:start No matter where you go, you can find versions of Uncle Bud. 01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:46.210 align:start And it's a favorite song and the men get to working in every kind of way. 01:12:46.210 --> 01:12:48.280 align:start And they just yell down to Uncle Bud. 01:12:48.280 --> 01:12:49.620 align:start And nobody in particular leads it. 01:12:49.620 --> 01:12:52.330 align:start Everybody puts in his verse when he gets ready. 01:12:52.330 --> 01:12:56.830 align:start And Uncle Bud goes and goes and goes. 01:12:56.830 --> 01:13:00.350 align:start >> Wow. Was it sung before the respectable ladies? 01:13:00.350 --> 01:13:02.910 align:start >> Never. It's one of those juke songs. 01:13:02.910 --> 01:13:06.040 align:start Any woman that they sing Uncle Bud in front of is a juke woman. 01:13:06.040 --> 01:13:10.200 align:start >> I thought you heard it from them. 01:13:10.200 --> 01:13:13.500 align:start >> Yes, I heard it from them. 01:13:13.500 --> 01:13:18.980 align:start [Singing] Uncle Bud's a man, a man like this. 01:13:18.980 --> 01:13:22.240 align:start He can't get a woman, got to use his fists. 01:13:22.240 --> 01:13:28.180 align:start Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud. 01:13:28.180 --> 01:13:31.980 align:start Oh go to town, got to hurry back, 01:13:31.980 --> 01:13:35.160 align:start Uncle Bud's got something I sure do like. 01:13:35.160 --> 01:13:41.550 align:start Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud. 01:13:41.550 --> 01:13:45.740 align:start Oh, little cat, big cat, little bitty kitten, gonna work that tale, 01:13:45.740 --> 01:13:47.470 align:start but they don't stop shitting. 01:13:47.470 --> 01:13:53.060 align:start Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud. 01:13:53.060 --> 01:13:56.260 align:start Uncle Bud got caught knee jerking, 01:13:56.260 --> 01:13:59.300 align:start Uncle Bud's got gout that sure needs working. 01:13:59.300 --> 01:14:04.900 align:start Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud, Uncle Bud. 01:14:04.900 --> 01:14:06.790 align:start >> Catherine Kerst: You can hear the rest of it online. 01:14:06.790 --> 01:14:08.090 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:14:08.090 --> 01:14:13.010 align:start So I have a few photographs from the prints and photographs division. 01:14:13.010 --> 01:14:16.860 align:start These are from Hurston's 1935 research with Edenville, 01:14:16.860 --> 01:14:20.810 align:start Florida children documenting their games and songs. 01:14:20.810 --> 01:14:24.470 align:start With the field research done by Hurston and the researchers 01:14:24.470 --> 01:14:29.500 align:start in the 1930's during the New Deal Era, the lives, music, speech, 01:14:29.500 --> 01:14:34.000 align:start memories and artistic efforts of ordinary Americans were documented. 01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:38.520 align:start The Library of Congress holds a huge amount of New Deal materials. 01:14:38.520 --> 01:14:41.050 align:start And in the American Folk Life Center we were honored 01:14:41.050 --> 01:14:44.860 align:start to also house a wealth of this material including these 01:14:44.860 --> 01:14:48.540 align:start and other stunning examples of Hurston's voice, vitality, 01:14:48.540 --> 01:14:51.690 align:start with and deep cultural understanding. 01:14:51.690 --> 01:14:54.810 align:start The Hurston recordings I played for you, plus many more, 01:14:54.810 --> 01:14:57.660 align:start are accessible online at the library's website. 01:14:57.660 --> 01:15:02.210 align:start And on the handout in your packet you will find a finding aid 01:15:02.210 --> 01:15:05.590 align:start to Zora Neale Hurston materials throughout the library. 01:15:05.590 --> 01:15:08.870 align:start Manuscript division, prints and photographs and so on. 01:15:08.870 --> 01:15:12.480 align:start I recommend that you explore them. 01:15:12.480 --> 01:15:16.440 align:start And now I want to talk very briefly about Voices from the Days 01:15:16.440 --> 01:15:21.030 align:start of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell their Stories. 01:15:21.030 --> 01:15:28.420 align:start So if you go to the American Folk Life Center homepage and look at all 01:15:28.420 --> 01:15:33.020 align:start of the online collections, there are quite a few. 01:15:33.020 --> 01:15:36.530 align:start There is Voices from the Days of Slavery. 01:15:36.530 --> 01:15:39.400 align:start And I just urge you to take a look at this site. 01:15:39.400 --> 01:15:43.580 align:start The site includes seven hours of recorded interviews that took place 01:15:43.580 --> 01:15:49.210 align:start between 1932 and 1975 in nine southern states. 01:15:49.210 --> 01:15:53.550 align:start On these recordings, 23 persons were interviewed born 01:15:53.550 --> 01:15:57.960 align:start between 1823 and the early 1860's. 01:15:57.960 --> 01:16:02.600 align:start In the interviews they discuss how they felt about slavery, 01:16:02.600 --> 01:16:06.310 align:start about slaveholders, the coercion of slaves, 01:16:06.310 --> 01:16:08.870 align:start their families and about freedom. 01:16:08.870 --> 01:16:12.380 align:start The variety of topics, personal experiences and feelings 01:16:12.380 --> 01:16:16.580 align:start that are conveyed are incredibly moving and quite remarkable. 01:16:16.580 --> 01:16:21.210 align:start Being able to actually able to hear their voices and all. 01:16:21.210 --> 01:16:24.580 align:start Included in the collection is an interview that Hurston took part 01:16:24.580 --> 01:16:29.500 align:start in with Wallace Porterman in 1935 in Georgia. 01:16:29.500 --> 01:16:33.610 align:start This whole collection of audio recordings is available here 01:16:33.610 --> 01:16:34.910 align:start on this site. 01:16:34.910 --> 01:16:39.090 align:start And it includes transcriptions of the narratives to help 01:16:39.090 --> 01:16:43.250 align:start in understanding dialect and understanding some 01:16:43.250 --> 01:16:46.560 align:start of the older recordings that are a little scratchy. 01:16:46.560 --> 01:16:47.860 align:start Anyway, thank you. 01:16:47.860 --> 01:16:49.770 align:start Thank you so much for coming. 01:16:49.770 --> 01:16:51.720 align:start It's a pleasure having you here. 01:16:51.720 --> 01:16:54.980 align:start And we urge you to come and visit us. 01:16:54.980 --> 01:16:57.010 align:start There's a lot to explore. 01:16:57.010 --> 01:17:06.860 align:start Thank you very much. 01:17:06.860 --> 01:17:09.110 align:start [ Applause ] 01:17:09.110 --> 01:17:12.580 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Hello again. 01:17:12.580 --> 01:17:17.580 align:start Right, this is going to be the high-speed version of how 01:17:17.580 --> 01:17:22.800 align:start to conduct audio documentation, or cultural documentation. 01:17:22.800 --> 01:17:25.770 align:start Before we do that, I wanted to make a couple of announcements. 01:17:25.770 --> 01:17:27.750 align:start First of all I want to thank a couple of people 01:17:27.750 --> 01:17:29.630 align:start who have not been acknowledged so far. 01:17:29.630 --> 01:17:31.890 align:start Frist and foremost or events production coordinator, 01:17:31.890 --> 01:17:34.820 align:start Thea Austin who has put this program together for you. 01:17:34.820 --> 01:17:39.310 align:start There she is right there. 01:17:39.310 --> 01:17:40.610 align:start [ Applause ] 01:17:40.610 --> 01:17:41.910 align:start And Dana Bell who is in the back, 01:17:41.910 --> 01:17:43.710 align:start who put together the wonderful list of resources for you. 01:17:43.710 --> 01:17:46.740 align:start [ Applause ] 01:17:46.740 --> 01:17:51.780 align:start And many others too numerous to name at this particular point. 01:17:51.780 --> 01:17:54.770 align:start By rights, this next session, which I'm going to do at top speed 01:17:54.770 --> 01:17:57.850 align:start in about 15 minutes, leaving some time for questions, 01:17:57.850 --> 01:18:01.240 align:start is generally the focus on various training programs that we conduct 01:18:01.240 --> 01:18:04.380 align:start at the library through various institutional partners 01:18:04.380 --> 01:18:09.320 align:start across the country to orient people like yourselves who wish 01:18:09.320 --> 01:18:12.840 align:start to do cultural documentation in your communities for various purposes. 01:18:12.840 --> 01:18:17.700 align:start Whether it's for podcasts, whether it's for collecting stories 01:18:17.700 --> 01:18:22.470 align:start of elders and community members, class projects and so on. 01:18:22.470 --> 01:18:26.090 align:start And the things that we often get asked go along the lines of, 01:18:26.090 --> 01:18:27.390 align:start "How do I do it? 01:18:27.390 --> 01:18:28.840 align:start What equipment do I use? 01:18:28.840 --> 01:18:30.140 align:start And how do I do interviews?" 01:18:30.140 --> 01:18:35.610 align:start I'm going to concentrate on those three things because it's a topic 01:18:35.610 --> 01:18:38.650 align:start which as I said, covers about three weeks in duration 01:18:38.650 --> 01:18:40.990 align:start when we teach our annual field schools. 01:18:40.990 --> 01:18:42.800 align:start This is not for the faint-hearted. 01:18:42.800 --> 01:18:47.340 align:start How many of you have done collecting oral history interviews yourselves? 01:18:47.340 --> 01:18:51.860 align:start Well, you know, I should get you all to come up here and do this. 01:18:51.860 --> 01:18:53.590 align:start [ Laughter ] 01:18:53.590 --> 01:18:57.370 align:start But I think they will tell you that be prepared, be careful 01:18:57.370 --> 01:19:00.620 align:start and be cautious about what you are embarking on. 01:19:00.620 --> 01:19:02.850 align:start It's not a project for the faint of heart. 01:19:02.850 --> 01:19:06.070 align:start Our colleague Todd Harvey, very generously said 01:19:06.070 --> 01:19:08.810 align:start that he would take the documentation that you're going to collect. 01:19:08.810 --> 01:19:14.050 align:start I will caution you that while we are welcoming of collections, 01:19:14.050 --> 01:19:19.120 align:start we also are acutely aware, given where we stand in terms of trying 01:19:19.120 --> 01:19:21.350 align:start to archive and sustain these materials, 01:19:21.350 --> 01:19:24.240 align:start and sustainability is a keyword for us. 01:19:24.240 --> 01:19:26.600 align:start When we say sustain we mean not just 01:19:26.600 --> 01:19:31.650 align:start to have these stories accessible the day after you record them and so on, 01:19:31.650 --> 01:19:33.600 align:start but generations down the line. 01:19:33.600 --> 01:19:36.030 align:start The recordings that you have here from the Lomax's, 01:19:36.030 --> 01:19:38.490 align:start from the Civil Rights History Project, 01:19:38.490 --> 01:19:41.890 align:start from the Federal Writers Project and so on, have stood the test of time. 01:19:41.890 --> 01:19:43.740 align:start Because there is a body of people 01:19:43.740 --> 01:19:47.100 align:start and there's an entire institution devoted to making sure 01:19:47.100 --> 01:19:50.110 align:start that these materials are available and accessible to you. 01:19:50.110 --> 01:19:53.860 align:start I do not believe, unless you are really well-funded trust fund 01:19:53.860 --> 01:19:56.310 align:start hippies, that you've got that kind of manpower 01:19:56.310 --> 01:19:58.440 align:start and resources at your disposal. 01:19:58.440 --> 01:20:01.150 align:start That's where the library and other institutions 01:20:01.150 --> 01:20:03.790 align:start in your community come into play. 01:20:03.790 --> 01:20:07.490 align:start But even then, even with all of our interests in maintaining 01:20:07.490 --> 01:20:09.810 align:start and preserving our collections, there are certain things 01:20:09.810 --> 01:20:13.780 align:start that we would ask that you do in terms of making sure 01:20:13.780 --> 01:20:16.200 align:start that your materials are going to be available 01:20:16.200 --> 01:20:18.830 align:start and accessible over the course of time. 01:20:18.830 --> 01:20:20.380 align:start One of the things that we ask 01:20:20.380 --> 01:20:23.840 align:start in the first place is understand what the parameters 01:20:23.840 --> 01:20:25.760 align:start of your project are. 01:20:25.760 --> 01:20:29.130 align:start To take inventory of the resources that you have 01:20:29.130 --> 01:20:33.160 align:start so that you can then embark upon a project of cultural documentation 01:20:33.160 --> 01:20:35.700 align:start and interviewing very carefully. 01:20:35.700 --> 01:20:39.780 align:start One of the things I will show you here is on our website. 01:20:39.780 --> 01:20:43.670 align:start This particular thing is called the cultural documentation, methods 01:20:43.670 --> 01:20:45.320 align:start and techniques, on that site. 01:20:45.320 --> 01:20:49.430 align:start And within the site we have provided some basic guidelines 01:20:49.430 --> 01:20:52.840 align:start and best practices documents that you may wish to consult. 01:20:52.840 --> 01:20:54.780 align:start There are many of these around the country. 01:20:54.780 --> 01:20:58.510 align:start Many institutions like Baylor's Oral History Association have similar 01:20:58.510 --> 01:20:59.920 align:start sets of guidelines. 01:20:59.920 --> 01:21:02.810 align:start The Smithsonian Institution's Folk Life programs, 01:21:02.810 --> 01:21:07.130 align:start the Center for Folk Life and Heritage Research have their own set 01:21:07.130 --> 01:21:09.140 align:start of rubrics and best practices. 01:21:09.140 --> 01:21:12.180 align:start We generally bring these materials together from our colleagues 01:21:12.180 --> 01:21:15.710 align:start across these institutions because we've been at it for a long time 01:21:15.710 --> 01:21:19.050 align:start and our roles as ethnographers, as folklorists, as anthropologists, 01:21:19.050 --> 01:21:22.750 align:start as ethnomusicologists, and we always lean upon our colleagues 01:21:22.750 --> 01:21:25.060 align:start to keep us abreast of best practices. 01:21:25.060 --> 01:21:27.670 align:start So one of the things I would urge you to do is when you get 01:21:27.670 --> 01:21:29.590 align:start to the site and you're interested in trying to figure 01:21:29.590 --> 01:21:32.210 align:start out what the parameters of such projects are is to go 01:21:32.210 --> 01:21:36.410 align:start to this link here you'll see, called cultural documentation guidelines. 01:21:36.410 --> 01:21:39.700 align:start And within that you have various aspects 01:21:39.700 --> 01:21:43.870 align:start of what the broad categories are that one needs to think 01:21:43.870 --> 01:21:47.150 align:start about when engaging in projects of cultural documentation. 01:21:47.150 --> 01:21:49.210 align:start Some of these are more relevant to you than others. 01:21:49.210 --> 01:21:51.330 align:start I'm not planning on going through all of them. 01:21:51.330 --> 01:21:53.990 align:start But one of the very first things we suggest is 01:21:53.990 --> 01:21:57.500 align:start that you actually do a project plan, all right? 01:21:57.500 --> 01:22:00.840 align:start And what we're asking you to do again is take an inventory 01:22:00.840 --> 01:22:02.510 align:start of the resources that you have. 01:22:02.510 --> 01:22:07.150 align:start If you don't already have equipment, if you don't already have a place 01:22:07.150 --> 01:22:10.910 align:start to have these materials rest, then you're going to have to think 01:22:10.910 --> 01:22:12.860 align:start about it at the head end. 01:22:12.860 --> 01:22:17.510 align:start Many project runs afoul of one very basic thing. 01:22:17.510 --> 01:22:20.380 align:start Nobody thought through what the end result was going to be 01:22:20.380 --> 01:22:22.400 align:start and where it was going to live. 01:22:22.400 --> 01:22:24.700 align:start People come to these projects and they say, 01:22:24.700 --> 01:22:27.840 align:start "We're going to document this particular community member 01:22:27.840 --> 01:22:31.190 align:start or these particular community members because there's an urgency." 01:22:31.190 --> 01:22:33.280 align:start You get halfway through the project and you find 01:22:33.280 --> 01:22:35.960 align:start that you don't know where to store them. 01:22:35.960 --> 01:22:39.600 align:start You find that you don't have an idea of what sorts 01:22:39.600 --> 01:22:41.710 align:start of topics you might want to embark upon. 01:22:41.710 --> 01:22:43.010 align:start You have a broad idea, 01:22:43.010 --> 01:22:46.600 align:start but the specific historical facts are not available to you. 01:22:46.600 --> 01:22:49.830 align:start You find out that your technical needs are inadequate 01:22:49.830 --> 01:22:52.330 align:start to the subject matter at hand. 01:22:52.330 --> 01:22:57.700 align:start So there's a very simple spreadsheet that our colleagues Paula Johnson 01:22:57.700 --> 01:23:00.610 align:start at the Smithsonian Institution, she's a curator there 01:23:00.610 --> 01:23:04.380 align:start and a folklorist, and our own David Taylor who used to work with us here 01:23:04.380 --> 01:23:08.730 align:start at the Library of Congress, have put together several years ago. 01:23:08.730 --> 01:23:11.230 align:start And I've modified this over the course of time. 01:23:11.230 --> 01:23:14.410 align:start But it asks you to take account of very basic things 01:23:14.410 --> 01:23:18.990 align:start like a budget, what are your goals. 01:23:18.990 --> 01:23:21.260 align:start What other kind of research has been done? 01:23:21.260 --> 01:23:24.010 align:start Do you have a body of materials to draw upon? 01:23:24.010 --> 01:23:25.320 align:start Would you need to consult 01:23:25.320 --> 01:23:27.710 align:start for instance International Storytelling Collection to figure 01:23:27.710 --> 01:23:29.410 align:start out if the people whom you want 01:23:29.410 --> 01:23:31.500 align:start to interview have already been interviewed? 01:23:31.500 --> 01:23:34.040 align:start Or if they've been interviewed, if they've been documented, 01:23:34.040 --> 01:23:35.340 align:start is there something else 01:23:35.340 --> 01:23:37.780 align:start in the historical record that needs fleshing out? 01:23:37.780 --> 01:23:42.030 align:start So thorough research is one of the things that we ask you to do. 01:23:42.030 --> 01:23:45.110 align:start And then you just precisely ask, where are you going to do the work? 01:23:45.110 --> 01:23:46.670 align:start Is it a national collecting project 01:23:46.670 --> 01:23:49.240 align:start like this Civil Rights History Project? 01:23:49.240 --> 01:23:50.540 align:start Probably not. 01:23:50.540 --> 01:23:52.470 align:start I mean, you've got to have money for funding and you have 01:23:52.470 --> 01:23:54.550 align:start to have funding for travel and so on. 01:23:54.550 --> 01:23:56.530 align:start So maybe it's in your backyard. 01:23:56.530 --> 01:23:59.420 align:start One of the things we ask you is are you planning on -- 01:23:59.420 --> 01:24:03.610 align:start what sort of documentation are you going to do? 01:24:03.610 --> 01:24:04.910 align:start Is it audio recording? 01:24:04.910 --> 01:24:06.430 align:start In my view that's the best 01:24:06.430 --> 01:24:09.190 align:start and the simplest method of recording stories. 01:24:09.190 --> 01:24:12.890 align:start Video recording and videotaping, it looks great, it looks sexy, 01:24:12.890 --> 01:24:14.880 align:start all hi-def and all of that. 01:24:14.880 --> 01:24:16.880 align:start If you don't have the expertise to do that, you're going to have 01:24:16.880 --> 01:24:19.940 align:start to bring some people in who can help you do that documentation. 01:24:19.940 --> 01:24:21.980 align:start That adds to the resources that you're going to need. 01:24:21.980 --> 01:24:25.200 align:start That adds to the money, right? 01:24:25.200 --> 01:24:26.740 align:start You're going to have to get equipment. 01:24:26.740 --> 01:24:28.040 align:start You're going to have to buy it. 01:24:28.040 --> 01:24:29.340 align:start You're going to have to rent it. 01:24:29.340 --> 01:24:30.640 align:start You're going to have to do something with it. 01:24:30.640 --> 01:24:32.020 align:start Even if you were to work in partnership 01:24:32.020 --> 01:24:35.090 align:start with a particular institution, you're going to have 01:24:35.090 --> 01:24:38.340 align:start to understand what their technical limitations are, who they can lend 01:24:38.340 --> 01:24:40.180 align:start to the project and so on. 01:24:40.180 --> 01:24:41.480 align:start Are you going to do photography? 01:24:41.480 --> 01:24:43.230 align:start Those photographs, images, as Cathy 01:24:43.230 --> 01:24:47.410 align:start and others have shown you are really important to give a face 01:24:47.410 --> 01:24:52.010 align:start to the voices that you hear online or anywhere else. 01:24:52.010 --> 01:24:58.650 align:start And all of these materials, all of these kinds of very detailed things 01:24:58.650 --> 01:25:00.980 align:start that we're asking you to consider are important 01:25:00.980 --> 01:25:03.330 align:start because they will play a part in how well 01:25:03.330 --> 01:25:06.640 align:start and how well-sustained your materials are going to be 01:25:06.640 --> 01:25:08.770 align:start in an archival situation. 01:25:08.770 --> 01:25:12.810 align:start I do not believe -- I heard a young lady ask a question 01:25:12.810 --> 01:25:14.500 align:start over here about recording. 01:25:14.500 --> 01:25:17.300 align:start That the stories that she wants to collect are going 01:25:17.300 --> 01:25:19.040 align:start to just live in here and the now. 01:25:19.040 --> 01:25:20.590 align:start Again, I go back to that point earlier: 01:25:20.590 --> 01:25:23.750 align:start you're trying to make these publicly available and acceptable 01:25:23.750 --> 01:25:26.120 align:start to generations of people that come after you. 01:25:26.120 --> 01:25:28.830 align:start You do that through your storytelling. 01:25:28.830 --> 01:25:31.770 align:start Consider the fact that the materials that you collect, the documentation, 01:25:31.770 --> 01:25:35.190 align:start the firsthand experiences that you collect, have to live. 01:25:35.190 --> 01:25:37.590 align:start If they don't live, then they don't enter public memory. 01:25:37.590 --> 01:25:40.140 align:start They don't enter American historical consciousness. 01:25:40.140 --> 01:25:41.440 align:start So it's up to you. 01:25:41.440 --> 01:25:43.580 align:start Because you guys are mediating between the voice 01:25:43.580 --> 01:25:47.130 align:start of the person whom you're collecting and everybody else in this room 01:25:47.130 --> 01:25:48.550 align:start and people you don't even know. 01:25:48.550 --> 01:25:51.620 align:start Right? That's the generational aspect of all of this. 01:25:51.620 --> 01:25:54.800 align:start So think through all of these questions very carefully. 01:25:54.800 --> 01:26:02.610 align:start Now let me see if I can -- so the project plan is available online 01:26:02.610 --> 01:26:05.630 align:start in this particular website. 01:26:05.630 --> 01:26:10.680 align:start The second thing we get asked is, what equipment do we want to use? 01:26:10.680 --> 01:26:12.720 align:start The Library of Congress, being a public institution, 01:26:12.720 --> 01:26:16.130 align:start can neither confirm nor deny that there are better grades of equipment 01:26:16.130 --> 01:26:20.230 align:start than others, although I could tell you that off-camera somewhere. 01:26:20.230 --> 01:26:24.670 align:start So we rely again on our colleagues like Doug Boyd, who is the director 01:26:24.670 --> 01:26:27.840 align:start of the Oral History Association's Oral History 01:26:27.840 --> 01:26:29.440 align:start in the Digital Age Project. 01:26:29.440 --> 01:26:33.120 align:start And this to me is one of the great tools. 01:26:33.120 --> 01:26:35.640 align:start I keep hoping for the day and keep toying with the idea 01:26:35.640 --> 01:26:37.940 align:start that there might be a similar set of rubrics 01:26:37.940 --> 01:26:40.400 align:start that we could use for video recording. 01:26:40.400 --> 01:26:43.030 align:start Video recording is a whole other animal. 01:26:43.030 --> 01:26:47.580 align:start What we're dealing here with is almost a transparent interaction 01:26:47.580 --> 01:26:50.610 align:start in terms of audio recording between you as a collector 01:26:50.610 --> 01:26:51.950 align:start and the person that you're recording. 01:26:51.950 --> 01:26:53.400 align:start There's not a lot of equipment. 01:26:53.400 --> 01:26:55.460 align:start There's not a lot of people trailing wires behind them 01:26:55.460 --> 01:26:56.760 align:start as is the case with video. 01:26:56.760 --> 01:26:58.580 align:start You don't have to have a video operator. 01:26:58.580 --> 01:27:03.410 align:start You can with practice get really good at conducting an interview, 01:27:03.410 --> 01:27:06.740 align:start a story collecting project with just you and the person 01:27:06.740 --> 01:27:08.460 align:start that you wish to document. 01:27:08.460 --> 01:27:13.100 align:start And to that end, people say, "What kind of equipment should I get?" 01:27:13.100 --> 01:27:15.280 align:start And we say, well, here's what you do. 01:27:15.280 --> 01:27:17.500 align:start You go in here and you go to this particular website. 01:27:17.500 --> 01:27:20.720 align:start This is the Oral History in the Digital Age site. 01:27:20.720 --> 01:27:26.590 align:start And right here is this thing called go to ask Doug. 01:27:26.590 --> 01:27:31.570 align:start And digital expert Doug Boyd, fellow folklorist, oral historian and all 01:27:31.570 --> 01:27:35.340 align:start around good guy has done this really, really neat thing here. 01:27:35.340 --> 01:27:37.970 align:start And what he says is, it's very simple. 01:27:37.970 --> 01:27:39.620 align:start It's radio buttons and checkboxes. 01:27:39.620 --> 01:27:42.360 align:start If I can do it, you can do it. 01:27:42.360 --> 01:27:45.880 align:start And basically says things like it goes back to your project planning. 01:27:45.880 --> 01:27:48.380 align:start How much money do you have to get a recorder? 01:27:48.380 --> 01:27:51.570 align:start Right? He asks you question like quality. 01:27:51.570 --> 01:27:53.060 align:start What is it you want to do with this? 01:27:53.060 --> 01:27:54.480 align:start Is it professional level quality? 01:27:54.480 --> 01:27:57.150 align:start Are you the person who's facile with technical equipment 01:27:57.150 --> 01:28:00.560 align:start that you can say, "I want the best and the brightest, the lates"? 01:28:00.560 --> 01:28:04.180 align:start Then you check this box that says professional quality. 01:28:04.180 --> 01:28:08.610 align:start But you still want to keep it somewhere in the $500 range. 01:28:08.610 --> 01:28:12.760 align:start And then Doug very helpfully has told you 01:28:12.760 --> 01:28:14.910 align:start that he considers this the best in class. 01:28:14.910 --> 01:28:16.970 align:start This is something that people like Doug can do. 01:28:16.970 --> 01:28:20.330 align:start That is to say they can actually put their hands on pieces of equipment. 01:28:20.330 --> 01:28:23.700 align:start And I can guarantee you that you have some assurance 01:28:23.700 --> 01:28:25.460 align:start that it is what he says it is. 01:28:25.460 --> 01:28:29.110 align:start What he says it is in the box will actually be what's delivered to you. 01:28:29.110 --> 01:28:32.490 align:start One of the things that we often say is that you know 01:28:32.490 --> 01:28:33.790 align:start that people are lying when they tell you 01:28:33.790 --> 01:28:38.030 align:start to have archival quality CD's and DVD's. 01:28:38.030 --> 01:28:39.600 align:start There's no such thing. 01:28:39.600 --> 01:28:42.980 align:start Right? But with this particular project you can understand 01:28:42.980 --> 01:28:47.510 align:start as Doug says that there are these classes of recorders and every one 01:28:47.510 --> 01:28:51.950 align:start of them comes with an explanation of what the equipment is, what it does, 01:28:51.950 --> 01:28:55.550 align:start tells you where to go buy them. 01:28:55.550 --> 01:28:58.870 align:start All right? 01:28:58.870 --> 01:29:00.570 align:start Making sense? 01:29:00.570 --> 01:29:01.870 align:start All right. 01:29:01.870 --> 01:29:05.040 align:start So that's one of the recommendations that we would have. 01:29:05.040 --> 01:29:07.340 align:start So mark this down if it's not already in your package, 01:29:07.340 --> 01:29:09.300 align:start prepared very nicely by Dana. 01:29:09.300 --> 01:29:13.060 align:start Right? We can come back to this in just a second, all right? 01:29:13.060 --> 01:29:14.660 align:start Whoops, what happened here? 01:29:14.660 --> 01:29:23.120 align:start Hang on. Yes, thank you. 01:29:23.120 --> 01:29:26.470 align:start All right, and let me go back 01:29:26.470 --> 01:29:32.670 align:start to one more particular aspect of this website. 01:29:32.670 --> 01:29:34.740 align:start So far we talked about project planning, 01:29:34.740 --> 01:29:36.240 align:start understanding what you want to do 01:29:36.240 --> 01:29:38.160 align:start and who you want to do it with and so on. 01:29:38.160 --> 01:29:42.700 align:start We talk about very basic equipment and now comes what happens 01:29:42.700 --> 01:29:48.220 align:start when you go to the actual interview situation? 01:29:48.220 --> 01:29:51.130 align:start And this should be no surprise to those of you 01:29:51.130 --> 01:29:52.780 align:start who have done cultural documentation, 01:29:52.780 --> 01:29:54.160 align:start who have done interviews. 01:29:54.160 --> 01:29:56.840 align:start But one of the things we do is we say these are best practices 01:29:56.840 --> 01:29:59.670 align:start and guidelines for conducting recorded interviews. 01:29:59.670 --> 01:30:03.490 align:start And not all of these are going to come 01:30:03.490 --> 01:30:07.470 align:start up in your particular situation, but check these out. 01:30:07.470 --> 01:30:11.890 align:start Sort of take them to heart and understand what they are in terms 01:30:11.890 --> 01:30:15.510 align:start of your own particular documentary situation. 01:30:15.510 --> 01:30:17.730 align:start We just go through a list of stuff. 01:30:17.730 --> 01:30:19.030 align:start It's not a template. 01:30:19.030 --> 01:30:20.330 align:start It's not the Bible. 01:30:20.330 --> 01:30:21.630 align:start We're not saying you have to follow it 01:30:21.630 --> 01:30:24.030 align:start from point one to point 20 or whatever. 01:30:24.030 --> 01:30:28.210 align:start But this enables you to get the story and the voices of people 01:30:28.210 --> 01:30:31.680 align:start that you're wanting to document in as clear and as concise 01:30:31.680 --> 01:30:33.460 align:start and as precise a fashion as possible. 01:30:33.460 --> 01:30:41.260 align:start And above all, one of the things that we say is right here. 01:30:41.260 --> 01:30:45.330 align:start That I think is probably as germain to you all as anything else. 01:30:45.330 --> 01:30:48.540 align:start And all it says is you're not just after the facts. 01:30:48.540 --> 01:30:54.770 align:start You want stories, narratives and explanations, right? 01:30:54.770 --> 01:30:58.270 align:start You're storytellers yourselves, so you just have to figure out how 01:30:58.270 --> 01:31:02.560 align:start to mesh the things that you do with the people whom you're talking to. 01:31:02.560 --> 01:31:06.450 align:start And elicit those stories so that it makes sense for you and for all 01:31:06.450 --> 01:31:08.180 align:start of us who will hear it later on. 01:31:08.180 --> 01:31:12.030 align:start Okay. So my 10 minutes are up and I think the buses are about to come. 01:31:12.030 --> 01:31:16.240 align:start But I will be happy to take some -- yes ma'am. 01:31:16.240 --> 01:31:17.540 align:start [ Inaudible ] 01:31:17.540 --> 01:31:20.100 align:start It just says avoid questions -- it's just a guideline. 01:31:20.100 --> 01:31:23.780 align:start It says avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or a no. 01:31:23.780 --> 01:31:25.080 align:start You're not just after the fact. 01:31:25.080 --> 01:31:28.200 align:start You want stories, narratives and explanations. 01:31:28.200 --> 01:31:31.300 align:start That and many more helpful tips are available on this guide. 01:31:31.300 --> 01:31:32.970 align:start Thank you very much. 01:31:32.970 --> 01:31:34.270 align:start Yes, sir? 01:31:34.270 --> 01:31:35.570 align:start [ Inaudible ] 01:31:35.570 --> 01:31:36.870 align:start Guha Shankar. 01:31:36.870 --> 01:31:39.480 align:start You can get ahold of me here at GShankar@LOC.gov. 01:31:39.480 --> 01:31:41.620 align:start Do you have other questions? 01:31:41.620 --> 01:31:44.060 align:start >> Do you have business cards? 01:31:44.060 --> 01:31:51.180 align:start >> I don't have 125 of them, sorry. 01:31:51.180 --> 01:31:53.000 align:start Yes ma'am? 01:31:53.000 --> 01:31:54.300 align:start [ Inaudible ] 01:31:54.300 --> 01:31:56.080 align:start Some of the pictures we have online. 01:31:56.080 --> 01:31:59.450 align:start Some of them are in the public domain and can be used, 01:31:59.450 --> 01:32:02.720 align:start but some of them we ask that you figure out the provenance 01:32:02.720 --> 01:32:06.610 align:start of each collection because they are copyrighted by the donors. 01:32:06.610 --> 01:32:09.710 align:start And there's also user and performer rights that you want to be aware of. 01:32:09.710 --> 01:32:13.150 align:start In a lot of cases we ask even if they've been donated to the library 01:32:13.150 --> 01:32:15.860 align:start that as a courtesy you contact the performer, 01:32:15.860 --> 01:32:17.890 align:start the person whose image comes 01:32:17.890 --> 01:32:20.650 align:start up in those photographs and/or their estates. 01:32:20.650 --> 01:32:21.950 align:start Just as a courtesy. 01:32:21.950 --> 01:32:23.250 align:start Say, "Can we use this in our own work?" 01:32:23.250 --> 01:32:25.160 align:start Okay? Anything else? 01:32:25.160 --> 01:32:36.930 align:start GShankar. First name is Guha, G-u-h-a. 01:32:36.930 --> 01:32:50.460 align:start @LOC.gov. Or you can just get me through FolkLife@LOC.gov. 01:32:50.460 --> 01:32:52.810 align:start And all that information is available 01:32:52.810 --> 01:33:00.710 align:start at our website right at the LOC.gov/folklife. 01:33:00.710 --> 01:33:03.420 align:start And all of that information is in your packets, by the way. 01:33:03.420 --> 01:33:05.570 align:start A lot of this information is in your packets, 01:33:05.570 --> 01:33:07.700 align:start so you're quite welcome to contact us. 01:33:07.700 --> 01:33:09.000 align:start Thea has final announcements. 01:33:09.000 --> 01:33:12.960 align:start >> Thea Austin: Yes, so there are -- 01:33:12.960 --> 01:33:18.560 align:start as your glorious leader here has told you, there are three buses. 01:33:18.560 --> 01:33:22.260 align:start One group of people is going to be staying behind a little bit, 01:33:22.260 --> 01:33:23.560 align:start waiting for the last bus. 01:33:23.560 --> 01:33:27.490 align:start And I urge you to take a look at the Civil Rights History exhibit. 01:33:27.490 --> 01:33:29.690 align:start That's one floor up, on the second floor. 01:33:29.690 --> 01:33:32.350 align:start If you're going to be staying here for a little while longer, 01:33:32.350 --> 01:33:34.660 align:start hang back a little bit and let the people who are going 01:33:34.660 --> 01:33:37.720 align:start to be exiting the building first go through the door. 01:33:37.720 --> 01:33:39.130 align:start We have a couple of staff people 01:33:39.130 --> 01:33:42.690 align:start to help you either take the elevator or take the stairs. 01:33:42.690 --> 01:33:44.470 align:start There's one exit. 01:33:44.470 --> 01:33:47.090 align:start And we'll help you get back to the foyer 01:33:47.090 --> 01:33:49.700 align:start where you got off the bus originally. 01:33:49.700 --> 01:33:51.000 align:start So thank you again. 01:33:51.000 --> 01:33:52.590 align:start Let's thank Guha for his presentation. 01:33:52.590 --> 01:33:54.420 align:start [ Applause ] 01:33:54.420 --> 01:33:57.440 align:start Valda, Cathy Kerst. 01:33:57.440 --> 01:33:58.740 align:start All of the staff. 01:33:58.740 --> 01:34:00.040 align:start Thank you so much for coming. 01:34:00.040 --> 01:34:02.760 align:start We really enjoyed presenting our collections to you today. 01:34:02.760 --> 01:34:04.750 align:start And we hope that you'll come back and do research 01:34:04.750 --> 01:34:06.920 align:start with the American Folk Life center at the library. 01:34:06.920 --> 01:34:09.730 align:start >> Guha Shankar: Thank you. 01:34:09.730 --> 01:34:13.590 align:start >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. 01:34:13.590 --> 01:34:19.090 align:start Visit us at LOC.gov.