Marion Voices Summer Institute 2021: Upcoming Workshops in Oral History, Soundscapes, Cultural Documentation, & Social Justi

H-OralHist Marion Voices Summer Institute 2021: Upcoming Workshops in Oral History, Soundscapes, Cultural Documentation, & Social Justice

Discussion published by jess lamar reece holler on Friday, July 9, 2021 Join the Marion Voices Folklife & Oral History Program -- Marion County, Ohio's countywide folklife for social justice program -- for our inaugural Marion Voices Summer Institute in Cultural Documentation this summer: a dynamic series of seven workshops in cultural documentation, community cultural organizing, & social justice praxis aimed at community organizers, artists, cultural workers, practitioners, non-profits, & pretty much anyone who wants to work for change in their community! This summer, we're offering two series of workshops: one focused on skills-building for documenting cultural heritage & landscapes in your community, & one focused on strengthening praxes for imagining & enacting social justice. Workshops are open to*anyone* — not just those living & working in Marion County — & we’re excited to build community, solidarity & conversations across spaces & communities!

Marion Voices Summer Institute workshops are offered remotely on Zoom; workshops are *free* for anyone living in, working in, or from Marion County, Ohio, with sliding-scale paid registration starting at $50 (with 10 $25 BIPOC/low-income slots reserved for each workshop) available for those from beyond Marion County, with 50% of proceeds supporting instructors, & 50% supporting Marion Voices 2021-2022 slate of educational outreach programming: including our newMarion Voices In the Schools K-12 Folklife & Cultural Arts Residency, ourMarion Voices Teaching Artists' Training Program to train local community cultural artists to become resident teaching artists in the schools, & our Marion Voices Countywide Folklife & Cultural Heritage Apprenticeship Program. Organizational registration is also available for non-profits, universities, museums, & businesses who would like to send multiple staff or board members (or an entire team) to a particular workshop. Advanced registration via Eventbrite is required to access the Zoom links for both paid & free Marion County registration ... make sure to register separately for each part of multi- part workshops!

Our full slate of Marion Voices Summer Institute Summer 2021 workshops includes:

Cultural & Documentary Arts Series:

Environmental Soundscapes w/ Jess Lamar Reece Holler (Sat., 07/10 4-5PM EST) Oral History 101 w/ Jess Lamar Reece Holler (Weekend Intensive: July 17-18, 4-6PM EST) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Folklife & Folk Arts 101 w/ Jess Lamar Reece Holler (Thursday: 08/12, 08/19, 08/26 @ 8PMEST) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Social Justice Praxes Series:

Afro-Futurist Funding w/ Johnnie L. Jackson (Saturdays August 7, 14, 21: 10-11AM

Citation: jess lamar reece holler. Marion Voices Summer Institute 2021: Upcoming Workshops in Oral History, Soundscapes, Cultural Documentation, & Social Justice. H-OralHist. 07-09-2021. https://networks.h-net.org/node/16738/discussions/7913063/marion-voices-summer-institute-2021-upcoming-workshops-oral Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-OralHist

EST) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Equity Budgeting 101 w/ Jess Lamar Reece Holler (Mondays, 08/09 + 08/16, 7-8PM EST) Diversifying Your Board w/ Francisco "Paco" Ollervides (Monday., Aug. 23rd 5-6PM EST) The Inner Work of Anti-Racism w/ Whitney Gherman (Tues., Aug. 24th 6:45-8PM EST)

We hope to see you at ourMarion Voices Summer Institute workshops! For more information contact Marion Voices at [email protected], or via our Eventbrite listing.

Coming up quickly in mid-July & early August (starting this weekend!) are three workshops of particular interest to oral history practitioners: an Environmental Soundscapes workshop this weekend, focused on the ethics & practice of recording soundscapes; an intensive weekend Oral History 101 workshop with Jess Lamar Reece Holler of Marion Voices offered from 4-6PM on the weekend of July 17th & 18th; & a reprise of Jess Lamar Reece Holler & Sarah Dziedzic's popular Equity Budgeting: Budgeting for Justice workshop with a slightly different name -- Equity Budgeting 101 -- on August 9th & 16th! Please mark your calendar for these workshops, & register via Eventbrite!

Our Environmental Soundscapes workshop takes up the history, practice, & politics of documenting ambient sound environments. What are the ethics & protocols for recording environments? What what can we do & make with soundscape recordings? Come learn how to start a soundscape library in your own community; & about how -- & when -- soundscape work fits into the wider ecology of more ethical approaches to community & cultural documentation.

Our Oral History 101 Workshop is a crash course in how to do oral history for anyone wishing to document family, community, or social movement oral histories, with an attention to the ethics of oral history practice. Topics include the history of oral history, preparing ethical consent forms, audio recording equipment & format options, the art of conducting oral history interviews, & archiving & composing or building exhibits, documentaries, & events with oral histories after the interview. The workshop will also include a mock interviewing session.

Our Equity Budgeting 101 workshop is an introduction to how -- & why -- to pay your oral history & cultural work narrators alongside documentary artists, cultural workers, & community collaborators, as part of a "full ecology" approach to economic justice as a critical component of racial justice & solidarity work in the cultural work communities. The workshop includes access to Sarah & Jess's Equity Budgeting Workbook. Come with

a budget for a recent, past, or forthcoming project & conduct an Equity Budgeting audit of your own; & dream forward next steps in instituting more equitable budgeting practices in your own cultural work!

Our Marion Voices Summer Institute also offers a workshop series onFolklife/Folk Arts & an Introduction to Public Folklore Practice (with sessions on documentary photography & audio recording), & three other workshops on social justice praxis, focused onBlack futurist funding strategies & approaches to reparative community economics, somatic abolition // body-based approaches to sustaining anti-racism work, & on board diversification for cultural & cultural heritage non-profits, which should be of interest for oral historians working in the movement-based & racial justice spaces.

No experience or equipment are necessary for either workshop ... full descriptions & registrations are available at the links, or see descriptions for our oral history & oral history-adjacent workshops below!

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Environmental Soundscapes

with Jess Lamar Reece Holler -- Marion Voices & Caledonia Northern Folk Studios Saturday, July 10th, 4-5PM EST

Learn about & how -- & why -- to record environmental soundscapes to document, preserve, & compose with your community's sonic ecology!

Have you ever played an ambient YouTube clip of rain falling on a café, or the wind blowing thru the trees? What about the sounds of your own community? Our soundscapes are often the most distinctive -- but least immediately recognizable -- aspects of our home environments. How does that work? What can we learn from documenting the complex soundscapes of our communities? This workshop will explore the art, politics, + ethics of ambient media documentation -- beginning with the controversial politics of the ambient music + "acoustic ecology" movements of the 1970s, & tracking all the way thru to summer 2021: the summer of the cicadas. Together, we'll talk about how documentary ethics looks when we're recording whole sonic worlds, & not just an interview; & we'll also touch upon options for collating & composing with environmental soundscape recordings: for the radio, film/video, or for building custom soundscape "libraries."

No experience or equipment necessary. Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

JESS LAMAR REECE HOLLER is a Marion County cultural worker, documentary artist, & historic preservationist working to build capacity for cultural heritage as a tool for dreaming justice. Jess is Program Director & co-founder of the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Program, & is Principal at Caledonia Northern Folk Studios: a cultural heritage for social justice consultancy. caledonianorthern.org

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Oral History 101

with Jess Lamar Reece Holler -- Marion Voices & Caledonia Northern Folk Studios Saturday, July 17th & Sunday July 18th, 4-6PM EST

Join Marion Voices for a four-part intensive weekend introductory oral history workshop preparing you or your organization for your oral history project!

This foundational course in our Oral History Workshops series covers all of the basics of starting an oral history project — from groundwork & community relations, to navigating research, consent form design, & baseline interview questions, to the art & ethics of the interview experience, to mobilizing your interviews for community & movement projects. This four-part workshop provides hands-on instruction in the praxis of oral history, and is designed for justice- aligned organizations & practitioners who wish to interrogate & disrupt extractive legacies of oral history & cultural work. As such, the workshop also includes a quick introduction to principles of Equity Budgeting (i.e.: pay your narrators!) in oral history work; & training in reparative, post-custodial models of imagining consent & (co-) ownership of project materials. This workshop will give you everything you or your organization needs to start an oral history project or program of your very own.

No experience or equipment necessary. Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

** Note: due to Eventbrite limitations, participants must register for each part of this four-part workshop separately. These four workshops will be held in two blocks over a long "intensive" workshop weekend: Pts. 1 & 2 from 4-6 on Saturday, July 17th; & Pts. 3 & 4 from 4-6 on Sunday, July 18th. Attendance across all four parts is really critical in this case since this hands-on workshop will actively help participants build an ethical, community-responsible approach to the oral history process. **

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Folklife + Folk Arts 101

with Jess Lamar Reece Holler -- Marion Voices & Caledonia Northern Folk Studios Thursdays, August 12th, 19th, & 26th, 8-9PM EST

A three-part introductory workshop series on folklife/folk arts covering folklife definitions, genres, & potential for justice, & basics of folklife & cultural arts documentation skills!

You've heard it in the Marion Voices name for years ... but what the heck does it *mean*? This three-part workshop combines an introduction to folk, traditional + cultural arts -- i.e., community-based arts forms passed on in cultural, occupational, or family groups -- with two documentary arts workshops teaching skills critical for documenting & amplifying the work of community-based cultural artists: photography + audio recording. Participants will learn about folk & cultural arts genres, folk arts modes of transmission, why folk arts have been marginalized, & why Marion Voices is amplifying folk & traditional arts for justice. You'll also come away with an in-depth exploration of the not-always- awesome history of folklife practice as extraction, + a reparative look at how we might more ethically + collaboratively re-think community cultural arts documentation ... together <3

No experience or equipment necessary.

Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

** Note: due to Eventbrite limitations, participants must register for each part of this three-part workshop separately. Attendance across all three will be useful for context whenever possible; but participants can register

for single sessions if they acknowledge that only short recaps of previous workshops will be provided.**

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Equity Budgeting 101

with Jess Lamar Reece Holler (Marion Voices & Caledonia Northern Folk Studios) & Sarah Dziedzic (Oral Historian & Organizer, NYC) Mondays, August 9th & 16th, 7-8PM EST

Join this crash course in how -- & why -- to pay your cultural work narrators & community collaborators to build justice for working people!

This two-part workshop is a crash course in the praxis of equity budgeting -- a "dual systems" approach to community + cultural project budgeting that insists on fair pay for cultural workers *and* community participants developed right here at the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Program in Marion County, Ohio. Based on the popular "equity budgeting: budgeting for justice?" workshop developed by Jess Lamar Reece Holler + Sarah Dziedzic, this hometown workshop is ideal for artists, non-profit leaders, city officials, & anyone responsible for a budget who wants to re-think how to center economic justice work in racial justice organizing.

Workshop includes access to the Equity Budgeting Workbook (© 2021) developed by Jess Lamar Reece Holler + Sarah Dziedzic + requires participants to bring at least one active, past or future project budget to audit + transform.

Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

** Note: This is a two-part workshop; Eventbrite limitations require

participants to register for both parts separately. The workshop will meet for one hour on Monday, August 9th & Monday, August 16th, 2021 from 7-8PM EST. Due to the nature of the workshop & its budget audit activities & self-reflective nature, registering for both parts is required. **

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS:

JESS LAMAR REECE HOLLER is a community-based cultural organizer, oral historian, public folklorist, documentary artist, & historic preservationist living & working in North-Central Ohio. Jess leads the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Program -- Marion County, Ohio's countywide folk arts for social justice program -- which she co-founded with Johnnie Jackson in 2017; & is Principal at Caledonia Northern Folk Studios: a capacity-building consultancy helping cultural organizations better align their praxes to build justice. Jess is working to rehabilitate her grandparents' 1950s grocery store, Reece's Market -- on Caledonia, Ohio's Public Square -- into a cultural heritage & social justice dreaming center for North-Central Ohio. Find Jess atcaledonianorthern.org || marionvoices.org || @reecesmarket

SARAH DZIEDZIC works as an oral historian, project consultant, grant advisor, researcher, and workshop facilitator in New York City. She has also worked as a literary memoir editor with Seven Stories Press and Autonomedia, and served on the founding board of Word Up Community Bookshop, a volunteer-run, multilingual bookstore and cultural space. She has served on the Archival Best Practices Task Force of the Oral History Association, and is co-chair of the Independent Practitioner Task Force, where she works to establish fair labor standards and build solidarity among oral historians and other cultural workers. Find Sarah at sarahdziedzic.com || @sarahdziedzic

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Afro-Futurist Funding

with Johnnie Jackson (Marion Voices & Marion City Schools) Saturdays, August 7th, 14th, 21st, 10-11AM EST

A dynamic three-part workshop & reading group introducing participants to speculative Black-led movements for economic justice & abundance.

This three-part workshop & reading group is a dynamic introduction to Black-led, Afro-Futurist aligned visions for rethinking community economics + how we fund movement work. Led by Marion County Afro-Futurist, anti-racism educator & solidary economies visionary Johnnie Jackson, participants will explore histories

of co-operative economics models in the Black radical tradition, & will explore how communities like Jackson, Mississippi + Boston, Massachusetts are experimenting towards more just worlds ... starting with community micro- economies. participants will map solidarity economy strategies onto their own communities; & will be challenged to speculatively imagine justice economies + more equitable public funding systems here in Marion, Ohio, & beyond.

Participants will need to have access to the Money as Medicine Workbook. Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

** Note: due to Eventbrite limitations, participants must register for each part of this three-part workshop separately. Attendance across all three parts is helpful but not required **

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

JOHNNIE LEWIS JACKSON is a Marion County anti-racist educator, solidarity economics visionary, & community organizer for justice & abundance. Johnnie is co-founder of Marion Voices + serves as Diversity & Equity Supervisor at Marion City Schools, where he runs the Harambee program for boys of color, & builds capacity for young people's futures through building culturally-sustaining pedagogies & teaching racial justice.

Marion Voices Summer Institute: Diversifying Your Board

with Francisco "Paco" Ollervides (ECO Center -- Caledonia, Ohio) Monday, August 23rd, 5-6PM EST

Wait: your organization is committed to racial justice work ... but your non-profit board is all white? Learn how to ethically diversify.

Hold up: you're committed to racial & social justice work ... but your non-profit board is all white?

You'd be surprised how often this is the case. Uh-oh. This one-part workshop is designed for non-profit leaders, board members, & community members interested in non-profit board service. Taught by a nationwide consultant in board diversification, inclusion, & equity strategies for environmental non-profits across the county, this workshop sets out best praxes & leading-edge ethical strategies on how to diversify your board -- & also covers what *not* to do. The workshop will also touch on strategies to resist burn-out, tokenization, & the emotional

labor of "integrating" all-white board for community members of color who are eager to serve. come ready with your real questions; & ready to set aside your hang-ups & excuses, & get to work.

Registration is required; contact Marion Voices for questions or accessibility requirements.

** Note: This is a single-part workshop; the workshop will meet for one hour only on Monday, August 25th, 2021 from 5-6PM EST **

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

FRANCISCO "PACO" OLLERVIDES is a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion leader who has worked to build capacity for environmental organizations across the united states for 20 years. Trained in biochemistry with a Phd. in whale bioacoustics, Dr. ollervides serves as the first Executive Director of Green Leadership Trust -- a nationwide non-profit helping place people of color as leaders in environmental non-profits. Today, he co-runs ECO Center -- an outdoor education center -- with his wife Emily in Caledonia, Ohio.

Marion Voices Summer Institute: The Inner Work of Anti-Racism

with Whitney Gherman (Cypress & Oak) Tuesday, August 24th, 6:45-8PM EST

Learn about the way racism roots in the body, alongside body-based approaches to help sustain racial justice practice for the long haul.

All of us have had to learn how to survive a system based on power & oppression. For white bodies, the effects have not been as consequential; yet we suffer from the anesthesia of power indicated by senses of constriction, urgency, disconnection, or collapse. In this workshop Whitney Gherman will introduce a body-based approach to effectively engage in long-term racial justice practices. Drawing from Resmaa Menakem’s somatic abolitionism & Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory, participants will consider what it takes to move toward & sustain anti-racist action, even under the same old pressures. In follow-up materials, the facilitator will provide practitioners with self-led practices to help confront racism's deep histories & to use ancestral recovery as a means for healing shame. This workshop does not replace anti-racism training or learning directly from those impacted by racism.

All are welcome. Advanced registration required. ContactMarion Voices for questions + accessibility requirements.

** Note: This is a single-part workshop; the workshop will meet for one hour & fifteen minutes only on Tuesday, August 24th, 2021 from 6:45-8PM EST **

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

WHITNEY GHERMAN is white and of French & German ancestry. She practices anti-racism at the intersection of healing, justice, & art. Her work (cypressandoak.org) addresses white supremacy as the social trauma that it is. She practices mutual aid through donating a portion of her time & income to groups that are local, with whom she has relationships, & through sliding scale fees.

ABOUT MARION VOICES:

The Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History program is Marion County, Ohio's countywide folk + cultural arts for social justice program. Based at the Marion County Historical Society, Marion Voices was co-founded in 2017 by Marion County cultural worker + documentary artist Jess Lamar Reece Holler & Marion County anti-racist educator + community organizer Johnnie Jackson; in the 3.5 years since, Marion Voices has grown to be a vital part of Marion County's social justice + cultural heritage ecology. Marion Voices exists to amplify Marion County's underheard cultural heritages to catalyze justice dreaming; & to help grow livelihoods for cultural heritage arts in Marion County while building culturally-affirming opportunities for marionites that build critical pride-in-place. For more, visit marionvoices.org