Writings

Veterans, Oral History, and The Minnesota Humanities Center

My first news update — how exciting! This year, I have had the great pleasure of becoming familiar with the work of the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC), in particular its Veterans’ Voices program. This program shares veterans’ experiences through different

Spotlight Oral History

3 days 16 hours ago

Question, from Nancy Kline, "Let Me Finish: How to Stop Interrupting...and Change the World": "Where in your circles can you point to a single person who you are certain will not interrupt you when you speak? Who in your circles has ever made this promise to you? And kept it?" Answer: an oral historian! Unlike the other "professional listeners" she cites, an oral historian's goal is NOT to guide, instruct, advise, change, coach, challenge, or improve you. An oral historian's goal is to understand you. Let us know if you or someone you know needs this kind of listening-to...or if

Let me finish: how to stop interrupting… and change the world

We are all guilty of interrupting – but if we just stopped and listened, argues Nancy Kline, we could radically change the way we live…

Spotlight Oral History

1 week 2 days ago

Join me on Facebook Live this Saturday at 1pm to hear from three Minnesotans who have been working to advance social justice and preserve and extend our democracy. I interviewed Vangie and Carolina for the Women and Voting Rights Oral History Project. Nimo is joining them for what promises to be a thought-provoking conversation.

Spotlight Oral History

2 weeks 12 hours ago

Check out this article about the good work of COPAL. Carolina Ortiz, one of the women I interviewed for the Women and Voting Rights Oral History Project, is COPAL's Communications Director.

www.startribune.com/minnesota-organizers-credit-covid-19-pandemic-with-helping-mobilize-latino-voters/572688032/

Minnesota organizers credit COVID-19 pandemic with helping mobilize Latino voters

Both presidential campaigns have made outreach efforts with Latino voters.

Spotlight Oral History updated their cover photo.

3 weeks 3 days ago

Spotlight Oral History

1 month 1 week ago

In this article, Dorothy Roberts, the scholar I cited in my last post, links the long history of forced sterilization of poor Black, Brown, and Indigenous women to what is apparently occurring in at least one ICE detention center in Georgia. The past isn't past.

newrepublic.com/article/159390/immigration-detention-hysterectomy-forced-sterilization

ICE Is the New Face of America’s Legacy of Forced Sterilization

“What would it mean to give consent to be sterilized in a prison or detention center?”