Re: New Book
Wsdmkpr@AOL.COM
Tue, 22 Jul 1997 16:48:48 -0400
In a message dated 97-07-22 14:25:01 EDT, you write:
<< It strikes me that books like this one could be written by others and
that this would be a good contribution to leave to our youth. >>
Mary, your suggestion is an excellent one because if the stories aren't told
by the people who experienced it, history is always open to interpretation!
I've been lurking here until now, but just couldn't resist "appearing" to
talk about publishing of personal life stories from WWII.
Yes, book publishing is certainly one option. But there is another way. Any
elder, or groups of elders, can come together and publish a collection of
their stories for low cost. And if you desire, can create a sort of "readers
theater" to share them.
Here's how we did it in Athens, GA.
On the 50th anniversary of the war, about a dozen elders, many of which had
been in my lifewriting classes, decided they wanted to publically document
their "untold stories." Several were POWs, others children, others
housewives. One was a concripted Ukranian who immigrated to the US in the
50s.
First, they selected which out of the many stories, they wanted to write.
They looked for the powerful ones! Then they wrote them, or dictated them for
others to write. I edited them, with their approval. Over the course of
several weeks, we polished the written format and then practiced the stories
for performance at a local Unitarian church.
Some of the elders chose to have stand-in readers for them, so we recruited
history majors from the near by university who read and served as ushers,
registration clerks, etc.
In addition to the stories, we also had a sing-along with music from WWII
era. The audience and participants received the 16-page collection which we'd
printed at a copy shop.
The university also videotaped the event and the newspapers and radio covered
it.
Although we were self-sponsored and didn't have a huge crowd, we did feel
we'd experimented successfuly with another way of sharing history. On a
personal note, two of the elders who particpate have since died, and unless
we had taken the time to do this, their stories would have died with them.
So I urge you that have similar "untold" stories -- use any format available,
just do it!
Rosann Kent
Founder, Wisdom Keeper, a clearinghouse for life story resources
PS. I'll be presenting this readers theatre as a case study to the Oral
History Association in October, so after that I'll post the official paper
here.
"We are tomorrow's past."
-Mary Webb