United States federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression
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13 episodes with federal writers project
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2 episodes with federal writers project
2 episodes with federal writers project
2 episodes with federal writers project
2 episodes with federal writers project
2 episodes with federal writers project
Episode 12 of Fragile Juggernaut turns the lens on the situation and activity of white-collar, professional, and creative workers in the 1930s and 1940s. Together with guests Nikil Saval (state senator from Pennsylvania and author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace) and Shannan Clark (historian at Montclair State University and author of The Making of the American Creative Class: New York's Culture Workers and Twentieth-Century Consumer Capitalism), Alex and Gabe dig in on a few key sectors: office workers, journalists, academics and scientists, and workers in the culture industries—art, film, radio, theater, and publishing. How did the labor movement and the left conceptualize these kinds of workers and what role they might play? What was the relationship between their organization and struggle, on one hand, and the content and function of their work, on the other?Sonically, this episode is a bit of a concept album, interspersed with excerpts from Marc Blitzstein's 1937 musical play The Cradle Will Rock (actually a higher-quality 1964 recording). Inspired stylistically by the plays of Bertolt Brecht and institutionally sponsored by the WPA (until it panicked and backed out), The Cradle Will Rock is set in Steeltown, USA: a sex worker is thrown in jail after refusing a cop free service. There, she meets academics, artists, and journalists who have been arrested in a police mix-up at a steelworkers' rally, which they were monitoring as members of the anti-union Liberty Committee of steel baron Mr. Mister. While these anti-union professionals and creatives wait for Mr. Mister to come clear things up and bail them out, they explain how he recruited them to the Liberty Committee. Also with them in jail is steelworkers' leader Larry Forman, who warns them that the cozy “cradle” where they sit will soon fall.A correction: Gabe says in the episode that the Disney strike was in 1940. In fact, it was in May 1941.Featured music (besides The Cradle Will Rock): “Teacher's Blues” by Pete Seeger.Archival audio credits: “I Want to Be a Secretary,” Coronet Instructional Films (1941); Dan Mahoney Oral History, San Francisco State Labor Archives and Research Center; Oppenheimer (2023); “WPA Helping Theaters All Black Production of Macbeth”; Isom Moseley oral history, Federal Writers Project (1941); Dumbo (1941).Fragile Juggernaut is a Haymarket Originals podcast exploring the history, politics, and strategic lessons of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the rank and file insurgency that produced it. Support Fragile Juggernaut on Patreon and receive our exclusive bimonthly newsletter, full of additional insights, reading recommendations, and archival materials we've amassed along the way.Buy Ours to Master and to Own, currently 40% off: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/366-ours-to-master-and-to-own
“From 1861 to 1876, every man committed to the Oregon State Penitentiary for ‘life' either escaped or was pardoned,” writes historian and newspaper columnist Erik Bromberg, quoting from the U.S. Federal Writers Project's “Oregon Oddities” article of 1939-1941. “Some who escaped were recaptured and then pardoned.” (Oregon Territory, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/1910c.frontier-justice-jailhouses.html)
On Nov. 28, 1938, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a stocky, animated 77-year-old attorney named George Estes to talk about Mr. Estes' recollections of working in the 1800s, first as a telegraph operator and later as an attorney for the Telegrapher's Union at Southern Pacific. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001955/)
On May 3, 1938, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a tall, urbane, professional 70-year-old mining-law specialist named J. Thorburn Ross to talk about Mr. Ross's recollections of working in old Portland for George Himes and later experience in the area of Sailors' Diggin's and Waldo. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001951/)
Sloppy Joe, Hot Brown, and the Reuben are all well-known sandwiches, and they are all named after people. Though the specific person is argued in two of these cases. Research: “Bechamel.” Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095454669 “Bechamel Sauce.” ChefIn. https://chefin.com.au/dictionary/bechamel-sauce/#:~:text=History%20of%20b%C3%A9chamel%20sauce,(wife%20of%20Henry%20II). Beck, Katherine. “The Controversial Origins Of The Sloppy Joe.” Tasting Table. Jan. 26, 2023. https://www.tastingtable.com/968736/the-controversial-origins-of-the-sloppy-joe/ Blitz, Matt. “The True Story of Ernest Hemingway's Favorite Bar. Food & Wine. June 22, 2017. https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/bars/ernest-hemingway-favorite-bar-true-story Fix, John. “Papa Wrote Here.” The Miami News. May 12, 1962. https://www.newspapers.com/image/302005791/?terms=sloppy%20joe&match=1 “Hot Brown Sandwich History and Recipe.” What's Cooking America. https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/sandwiches/hotbrownsandwich.htm “The Brown Hotel.” Historic Hotels of America. https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/the-brown-hotel/history.php#:~:text=In%20the%20early%201980s%2C%20the,obtained%20the%20building%20in%202006. “J. Graham Brown.” The Courier-Journal. August 8, 1927. https://www.newspapers.com/image/107676260/?terms=%22james%20graham%20brown%22&match=1 Kral, George. “How the Gooey, Cheesy Hot Brown Became a Kentucky Icon.” Eater. Jan. 3, 2019. https://www.eater.com/2019/1/3/18165719/kentucky-hot-brown-history-recipe-brown-hotel-louisville “LOUISVILLE'S CULINARY ICON, THE HOT BROWN.” The Brown Hotel. https://www.brownhotel.com/dining/hot-brown Manoff, Arnold. “Reuben and His Restaurant: The Lore of a Sandwich.” Federal Writers Project. 1938. https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001447/ Martinelli, Katherine. “True to Its Design, the Origin of the Reuben Sandwich Is Messy, Too.” Eat This, Not That! January 16, 2019. https://www.eatthis.com/reuben-sandwich-origin/ Matte, Lisa Curran. “The Hotly Contested Origin Of The Reuben Sandwich.” Tasting Table. Nov. 13, 2022. https://www.tastingtable.com/1095929/the-hotly-contested-origin-of-the-reuben-sandwich Monaco, Emily. “The Untold Truth of Sloppy Joes.” Mashed. March 28, 2023. https://www.mashed.com/270915/the-untold-truth-of-sloppy-joes/ “National Sloppy Joe Day.” National Day Calendar. https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-sloppy-joe-day-march-18 Ngo, Hope. “What Is Béchamel Sauce And What Is It Used For?” Mashed. June 2, 2021. https://www.mashed.com/413609/what-is-bechamel-sauce-and-what-is-it-used-for/ “Pizza Sauce Brings Italian Food to Your Table.” The Sacramento Bee. Dec. 16, 1970. https://www.newspapers.com/image/619758051/?terms=sloppy%20joe&match=1 “Philanthropist J. Graham Brown Dies.” The Courier-Journal. March 31, 1969. https://www.newspapers.com/image/109504942/?terms=%22james%20graham%20brown%22&match=1 Ramsey, Sarah. “The History of the Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich.” Wide Open Country. July 19, 2019. https://www.wideopencountry.com/the-history-of-the-kentucky-hot-brown-sandwich/ Ramsey, Sarah “Where did the Sloppy Joe come from?” Wide Open Country. May 19, 2020. https://www.wideopencountry.com/sloppy-joe/ Scotti, Ippolita Douglas. “Was bechamelle really French, or an ancient Florentine sauce?” Flapper Press. March 6, 2019. https://www.flapperpress.com/post/was-bechamelle-really-french-or-an-ancient-florentine-sauce Senyei, Kelly. “Inside the Home of the Hot Brown Sandwich.” Epicurious. April 4, 2013. https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/hot-brown-sandwich-tips Singer, Phyllis. “Sloppy joes have chapter in food history.” The Courier. June 19, 1992. https://www.newspapers.com/image/359626043/?terms=sloppy%20joe&match=1 “Sloppy Joe's Cocktails Manual.” 1932. Havana, Cuba. Accessed online: https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1932-Sloppy-Joe-s/II “Sloppy Joe History: The Origins of this Iconic Comfort Food.” Blue Apron. https://blog.blueapron.com/a-history-of-the-sloppy-jo/#:~:text=The%20Sloppy%20Joe's%20history%2C%20however,and%20the%20sandwich's%20official%20name. Taliaferro, Georgianna. “Sloppy Joe's: From Behind the Bar.” The Virginian-Pilot. March 12, 1950. https://www.newspapers.com/image/845602519/?terms=sloppy%20joe&match=1 Town Hall Delicatessen. https://townhalldeli.com/ Valdes, Rosa Tania. “Once Havana's most famous bar, Sloppy Joe's reopens after 50 years.” Reuters. April 12, 2013. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-sloppyjoes-idUSBRE93B18620130412/ “Was the Reuben Sandwich invented in Omaha?” History Nebraska. https://history.nebraska.gov/was-the-reuben-sandwich-invented-in-omaha/ Weil, Elizabeth. “My Grandfather Invented the Reuben Sandwich. Right?” New York Times. June 7, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/magazine/my-grandfather-invented-the-reuben-sandwich-right.html Weil, Elizabeth. “Who really invented the Reuben?” Saveur. Sept. 6, 2016. https://www.saveur.com/reuben-sandwich-origin-history/ Wenz, Rod. “Louisville, State to Reap Benefits of Brown Legacy.” The Courier-Journal. April 10, 1969. https://www.newspapers.com/image/109539070/?terms=%22james%20graham%20brown%22&match=1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Part 2 of 2 parts: On Jan. 3, 1939, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a slim, quick-moving gray haired 70-year-old furrier/pelt buyer named Louis Schumacher to talk about Mr. Schumacher's recollections of coming to Portland from Baden, Germany, and establishing a business buying the pelts and furs that trappers and mountain-man types would bring him to sell after their travels in the Oregon wilderness. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001956/)
On Jan. 3, 1939, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a slim, quick-moving gray haired 70-year-old furrier/pelt buyer named Louis Schumacher to talk about Mr. Schumacher's recollections of coming to Portland from Baden, Germany, and establishing a business buying the pelts and furs that trappers and mountain-man types would bring him to sell after their travels in the Oregon wilderness. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001956/)
On April 28, 1938, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a stocky, rugged-looking 74-year-old prospector and former riverboat captain named W.H. Hembree to talk about his recollections of life in frontier Oregon for a firefighter, sailor, and gold miner. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001950/)
On Nov. 29, 1938, at the Portland Odd Fellows Home for the Aged, Federal Writers Project worker Walker Winslow sat down with an 86-year-old miner and prospector named Hank Simms to talk about the life of a wandering prospector in the old American West. 'I am a miner, and for 40-50 years I have been tunneling a shaft straight into this poorhouse,' he said. 'You can't call that very good mining. Most miners is fools and I'll bet you that for every dollar lifted off the bedrock in this country two was put back on it.' (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001958/)
On this day in history, July 18 1956, the Narcotic Control Act was passed. The Narcotic Control Act of 1956 and similar legislation have faced significant criticism for their punitive approach to drug offenses. Critics argue that this model of severe mandatory sentences, particularly for nonviolent drug offenses, exacerbates issues related to over-incarceration without effectively addressing the root causes of drug addiction and the societal harms associated with drug use. Instead, they posit that these resources would be better spent on prevention, education, and treatment initiatives to help curb substance misuse. Furthermore, some critics point to the social and racial disparities in the enforcement of these laws, with disproportionately high rates of incarceration for marginalized communities, which further perpetuate systemic inequalities. They also express concerns over the lack of flexibility in sentencing, asserting that the mandatory sentences can be overly harsh and fail to consider individual circumstances or the potential for rehabilitation. There is a growing consensus among critics that a public health approach, rather than a strictly punitive one, could lead to more beneficial outcomes in addressing the complex issues surrounding drug use and addiction.Owing to all of that, on this day in history a better future was lost. Countries have agreed on a "transitional safe harbor" to temporarily safeguard US companies' income from the 15% global minimum tax, or Pillar Two. This measure, effective until December 31, 2026, may help reduce domestic political tension in the US over the undertaxed profits rule (UTPR). According to the UTPR, foreign governments could levy additional taxes on a US multinational's income if it pays less than a 15% effective tax rate in the US. However, during the transition period, a company's parent jurisdiction will not face the UTPR top-up tax if it maintains a corporate tax rate of at least 20%. While this solution provides immediate relief, it does not permanently address issues causing low US income tax, such as R&D credits. The transitional period will allow the US Congress to potentially respond to Pillar Two, including considering changes to the structure of tax credits or adopting a domestic top-up tax. Finally, the guidance indicated that the transition period would not be extended.US Companies Get Temporary Reprieve from Foreign Minimum Tax (3)Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump will appear in a Florida court on Tuesday concerning charges of mishandling classified documents. Trump is charged with unlawfully retaining national defense documents after leaving office in 2021 and conspiring to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them. The hearing will consider the logistics of conducting a trial involving classified information without revealing top-secret data publicly. Trump's lawyers and prosecutors are expected to discuss deadlines for handing over classified documents that might be used as evidence. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and claims that the preservation of presidential records allowed him to retain sensitive documents even after his term. He further claims to have declassified the documents before taking them. However, a taped conversation cited in the indictment contradicts this claim. If convicted, Trump could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison under the Espionage Act, but, let me just nip that fantasy talk in the bud right now – Trump will not be going to prison. The rich rarely do and the powerful never do. Trump's lawyers to appear in Florida court in classified documents case | ReutersUber Technologies Inc. is required to face a California lawsuit claiming the company should have covered UberEats drivers' work-related expenses, according to a ruling from the state's Supreme Court. This is a significant setback for Uber and potentially other similar companies operating in California. The lawsuit was initiated by UberEats driver Erik Adolph who argued that the company misclassified UberEats drivers as independent contractors, thereby avoiding the need to reimburse work expenses as stipulated under California law for employees. Despite Adolph signing an agreement to bring his own legal claims in private arbitration, the court held that this didn't forfeit his right to sue on behalf of a larger group of workers. The decision could reduce the importance of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed companies to force individual claims into arbitration. Uber stated it is considering its appellate options, while Adolph's representation suggested this may cause companies to rethink forcing workers' claims into arbitration if large-scale lawsuits can still proceed in court. Critics of mandatory arbitration argue it discourages workers from bringing small-sum individual claims and that arbitration disputes are more likely to favor employers.Court rules against Uber in major win for California workers | ReutersOh look, its Column Tuesday – and so soon after Monday!In this week's column, I criticize tax breaks provided by many U.S. states to big film studios and advocate for the direct funding of local arts instead. I argue that these incentives, while obviously hugely beneficial to the studios, don't significantly stimulate local economies or generate expected tax revenue. The top three states leading in production incentives are California, New York, and Georgia; with Georgia having provided $1.3 billion in tax incentives to studios last year alone. I suggest that the funds spent on these incentives could be better utilized in areas such as education–or funding the arts they would purport to be intended for. I propose that funds be allocated directly to artists and creators, similar to the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, instead of filtering through studios. Finally, I criticize the premise of these tax incentives, arguing that they are not based on economic viability but are more likely a result of a mutual dependence between the states and Hollywood.Briefly, if you haven't heard of the Federal Writers Project, I invite you to look into it. It was a New Deal initiative active from 1935 to 1943 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was aimed at supporting writers during and after the Great Depression. One of its most notable works was the creation of the American Guide Series, which comprised guidebooks for each state. These books offered rich, detailed descriptions of each state's history, culture, and notable landmarks, providing an unprecedented panoramic view of the United States during a period where most Americans were unable to travel. They remain absolute gems, and can be picked up on eBay or in used bookstores for a song. I especially recommend the New Jersey and New York editions, for obvious regional bias reasons. States Should End Tax Breaks to Big Studios and Fund Local Arts Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe
Lisa and Maria joined me to talk with Michelle Shocklee about how unemployed writers during the Great Depression were put to work writing the narratives of former slaves through the Federal Writers Project. We loved Michelle and how she weaved that history into her beautiful novel, "Under the Tulip Tree." https://livesteadyon.com/Email Angie at: steadyonpodcast@gmail.comFacebook: @livesteadyonInstagram: @angiebaughman421Grab freebies and subscribe to the weekly Steady On newsletter at: https://livesteadyon.com/live-steady-on-newsletter/Looking for something not listed? It's probably here: https://linktr.ee/livesteadyonInterested in learning more about the Steady On internship program? You can find details here: https://livesteadyon.com/internship/https://www.michelleshocklee.com/index.htmlFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMichelleShocklee1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/ShellShockleeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleshocklee/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/shocklee8455/Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16492630.Michelle_ShockleeBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/michelle-shockleeInformation on the Federal Writers Project:https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/FWP slave narratives can be found here:https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/“Under the Tulip Tree” and other novels by Michelle are available wherever books are sold.Michelle mentioned:The Chosen tv seriesThe Wonder of Advent devotional by Chris TiegreenTheme music:Heartwarming by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3864-heartwarmingLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Midroll music:Ready to GoWritten by Lincoln DavisPerformed and produced by Allex
When the Great Depression hit in 1929, jobs disappeared by the millions. Unemployment lines and bread lines became common; the economy was badly wounded, and without jobs, without the machinery that made money move through the economy, its chances of recovery were slim. So, as part of the Second New Deal, and driven by a presidential order from Franklin Roosevelt, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, was signed into law on May 6, 1935. But there's another part of the Works Progress Administration that most people have never heard of, and it's kind of important in its own right. It was called Federal Project Number One, and it had one goal: To protect and preserve the artistic and cultural elements of American society. It had five divisions, one of which was the Federal Writers Project. This episode is about the extraordinary content that the program made possible.
David Taylor, video producer and writer for the Washington Post, discusses the "Federal Writers Project"; a national Black history initiative designed to record the oral history of formerly enslaved Black people.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“There's just so much rich material in Hollywood during the 1940s—which is where much of the book is set—there is just sort of an endless rabbit hole you can go down. And of course, one of the problems with writing a book about the movie industry is that sitting around watching movies technically counts as research.” We still think about Anthony Marra's incredible debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, years after first reading. His newest novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, is an epic story of family secrets, love and war, loyalty and reinvention that cuts between Hollywood and Mussolini's Italy in the 1930s and 40s—and it's the August B&N Book Club pick. Anthony joins us on the show to talk about mapping stories, the landscape of exile and imprisonment, the importance of humor, research and rewrites and snappy dialogue, his literary inspirations (including Zadie Smith and David Mitchell), and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book reviews from Marc and Becky. Featured Books (episode): Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels by Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration Rules of Civility by Amor Towles Featured Books (TBR Topoff): West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays). A full transcript of this episode is available here.
“From 1861 to 1876, every man committed to the Oregon State Penitentiary for ‘life' either escaped or was pardoned,” writes historian and newspaper columnist Erik Bromberg, quoting from the U.S. Federal Writers Project's “Oregon Oddities” article of 1939-1941. “Some who escaped were recaptured and then pardoned.” (Old Oregon Territory, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1910c.frontier-justice-jailhouses.html)
In this episode, Amy Stich interviews Kathy Roulston on interviewing in qualitative research. This conversation is great for both beginners and advanced researchers. The following is a transcript of the conversation. Amy Stich 0:11 Hello, everyone. Welcome to qualitative conversations Podcast Series hosted by the qualitative research special interest group of the American Educational Research Association. I'm Amy Stich and associate professor at the McBee institute of higher education at the University of Georgia and affiliated faculty with the qualitative research program here at UGA as well. I also currently serve as the CO-editor of the six newsletter with one of our students here at the Institute Erin Leach as a guest host today I'll be interviewing Dr. Kathy Roulston on interviewing. Dr. Roulston is a professor in the qualitative research program at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Her research interests include qualitative research methods, specifically qualitative interviewing and analysis of talk in interaction. Her most recent books include interviewing a guide to theory and practice. That's published with sage just coming out in 2022. And Exploring the Archives A Beginner's Guide for Qualitative Researchers co authored with Kathleen de Morais, and published by Myers education press. Outside work Kathy enjoys working with fiber and textiles, and exploring the creative pleasure of spinning hand dyeing and weaving. Dr. Roulston thanks so much for joining us to discuss a topic that all of our qualitative listeners will very likely know at least a little something about an interviewing may even be something that some of our more experienced listeners may at times take for granted as an all too familiar tool for data collection, rather than a method that provokes very meaningful, often critical methodological questions that I know you're going to talk about today. So why don't we just start by you telling us a little bit about your scholarly interests and interviewing and how you got started?Kathy Roulston 1:57 Thank you, Amy, for that lovely introduction. So I first became interested in the methodological aspects of interviewing when I was doing my doctoral studies at the University of Queensland in the 1990s. I had conducted quite a few qualitative interviews prior to that as part of my master's degree in the early 90s. But when I did those interviews, I really saw them as a transparent means for gaining information about the world. So when I was doing my doctoral studies, I was learning about ethno methodological approaches to analysis from Dr. Carolyn Baker. And I took a very puzzling excerpt from an interview that I had conducted in my earlier study, and I reanalyzed it. And then this analysis helped me to get a better understanding of the performance of work that goes into the construction of interview data, in the ways that interviewers and interviewees produce interview data together, and then also how, as a researcher, it's possible to cut and categorize the interview transcripts in a way that can generate findings that can actually distort the ways in which the talk was produced. So I think there's quite a lot of writing about that now. But Dorothy Smith wrote an article back in the early 70s, called theorizing as etiology. And I used that to think about how coding based approaches to data analysis can hide how researchers contribute to the generation of interview accounts. And, of course, I've done methodological work on research interviews since that time, and I still am very intrigued by how research interviews get done.Amy Stich 3:54 It's so interesting. And that's a really lovely transition into some of those deeper methodological or substantive questions surrounding interviewing. Can you talk to us about some of the recent developments in interviewing?Kathy Roulston 4:08 Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Amy. So, over the last couple of years, I've been trying to keep up with new developments in interviewing. And I have to say there's an incredible range of innovations that qualitative researchers can use to inform their work. If you look at the methodological literature, interviewing history of any interviewing historically, you'll find that some of the strategies that are now being frequently used by researchers are not actually new. But I think what really surprised me when I started to look at the methodology, methodological literature is that in the last 10 years, there's just been an enormous amount of publishing in this area. So I kind of think about this in several different ways. So there's methodological work that is looks at particular approaches to conducting interviews, there's writing that talks about working with particular populations. And then there's work in which scholars are using new theories, to re theorize what it means to do into an interview and what interview data are. And then researchers are also taking out all of the new modalities that we use in everyday life to conduct interviews that differ from, I guess, early ideas of a research interview as a formal place based and in person interview. If you'd like I could talk a little bit in more detail about those four different strands. Amy Stich 5:44 That would be great. If you don't mind. Yes, please. Kathy Roulston 5:47 Sure. Well, in terms of how researchers approach interviewing, I think you'll see a lot more writing on how researchers who use interviews can account for sensory awareness. Now, the most familiar approach would be the use of visual methods. But people are also using sound, smell, taste, touch, and so forth. And then there's also a range of writing that examines materiality as it emerges in interviews. People bring objects to interviews that are used as prompts to talk about research topics. Sometimes the researchers bring those sometimes the participants bring those. And then researchers have looked at how technologies such as recording devices show up within interview talk, how people orient to those and what that means in an interview. And then, of course, we're quite familiar, I think now with the use of images in work, whether that's moving images, use of videos that people orient to, or still images, and then sometimes the researchers can bring those images to the interview, or they might engage participants in generating or bringing their own images. Now, there's also writing on various forms of graphic elicitation. Researchers can ask participants to draw diagrams or timelines, and then they talk about those within the interviews. And you'll see work where researchers attending to place in space in interviews. And then they might do this through go-alongs, in which interviews go along with their participants in cars or public transport. And then, of course, in walking interviews. Now, as I mentioned earlier, ethnographers have used these kinds of interviews for very long time, things like walking interviews, but I think what is different now is researchers do not necessarily find their work as ethnography. And then you'll see researchers using new technologies, such as global positioning systems, in conjunction with those mobile methods, and also creating maps in relation to walking interviews and mobile methods. And that they you'll see these in articles. Now, as a second strand of writing, you'll see a lot more attention now to culturally relevant approaches to research. And obviously, that's probably long overdue. Researchers will find lots of guidance about how to work with specific populations. And I'll just mention a couple here. So how to interview children around play based approaches. So you can see work where researchers using toys or puppets, you'll see research interviews used in inclusive ways with people with disabilities, and the various solicitation advice, or elicitation devices people use. There's work on use of American Sign Language with the deaf community. And then of course, there's much work on how to work with people from other cultures. And I think some of this work does use participatory approaches, where the participants participants themselves are key stakeholders in the development of the research topics, they might serve as co researchers or even peer interviewers. So the peer, the participants are co participants with the researchers and they might act as interviewers with other people. And then, of course, because researchers are increasingly conducting research in countries other than where they might present their work, you'll see a lot of research that's methodological to do with interviews on translation, interpretation, and what that means for issues of data analysis, the ethics and representation. And then, of course, there's more writing on how to conduct interviews with elite populations or how to recruit those for interviews and so forth. But I think if you look at the methodological literature that's been published probably over the last 75 years, I think probably almost any population can emerge a special in some way. So if what ever group you are choosing to conduct interviews with, it's just well worth looking at what methodological literature you might locate that can support your work. And I encourage listeners to think about that. And now moving on to theorizations of interviewing, there's a good deal of writing that draws on concepts from post structural and new materialist writing, and it reconceptualize as what interviews are and how we might think about them, and some of this critical of interview research as well. Although there's loads of critiques you could find that have gone on for decades about interviewing. So researchers have used concepts from Deleuze and Guattari book 1000 plateaus, such as the assemblage the fall the rhizome to rethink interviews and interview data. And then you also see ideas such as diffraction and interaction from scholars such as Karen Berard and cartographies, from Rosie Bradotti, applied to thinking about interviews. And then I guess, just to finish off, talking about some of the strands of literature on qualitative interviewing, there's a host of work which looks at the modalities in which interviews are conducted. And of course, because we've all been living through the COVID pandemic that started in 2020, I think probably all of us have turned to online interviews as a way to continue our research during the pandemic. But I think we also need to recognize that researchers have always made use of new technologies to conduct interviews. So when recording devices first became popular in the 1930s, audio cassette recorders for those of us who were interviewing a couple of decades ago, and telephones, and mobile telephones. And then of course, moving into the 2000s, we have digital recording devices. And then, of course, what we're doing right now, which is an audio recorded interview over the internet. And I actually I've seen some researchers from folklore studies, use podcasting software to record internet interviews. So if you're not interested, there's actually some pretty cool tools out there. But I think we'll see now use of synchronous online meeting rooms such as zoom, which we all know about, to interview people across physical distance. But you'll also see researchers making use of asynchronous tools. And of course, we've had email for a very long time. But these taxpayer base tools such as WhatsApp, and I used for both individual and group interviews. And then just to wrap up some of the methodological issues. I think what I've really noticed in the last year or two is the rapid replacement of manual transcription of interviews. So for example, you might be familiar with Express Scribe or ink scribe, which were tools to help us with manual transcription. But now these are really been taken over by voice to text software. Now, voice to text software has also been around for a few decades. But it's never been entirely taken up because it wasn't that accurate. But now that artificial intelligence has been applied to the voice to text software, the accuracy is probably over 90%. And so I think you'll see people using tools such as Otter.AI or [...]. But I think it's always advisable to double check any kind of transcription. So that whether you use a transcriber, whether you transcribe these manually, or you use a voice to text program, I think it's just good practice to listen to the audio recordings, check the transcriptions and just ensure that what you've put in your transcript is accurate.Amy Stich 14:32 Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, despite having a vast array of these technological advancements that assist us throughout the research process. I don't know that anything will ever really replace the need for us to deeply engage with our data and meaningful sustained ways that of course result in more meaningful interpretation. You know, in other words, I don't know that technology were will ever necessarily replace the qualitative researcher, but that's probably a topic for another podcast. So now despite having all sorts of advancements in the field, can you talk about some of the persistent challenges that qualitative researchers face and learning to interview? Kathy Roulston 15:13 So I think teaching qualitative research, interviewing for about 20 years now, and I've also done some research on that. And I've got a project going on right now to do with that. And I also recognize that some scholars argue that you don't need to teach interviewing. And that's because as interviewers, and speakers, we use our ordinary language skills to conduct interviews. And I agree that that's what we do. We use our ordinary language skills when we ask questions about our participants. But I think one of the challenges for novice researchers is not that they don't know how to ask questions and conduct interviews, we are surrounded by interviews every day, we listen to them all the time, we see them on television, and so forth. I think the challenge is learning to become a really good listener, and thinking about what to say next. And so when I look at transcripts, I find that novice interviewers are challenged to listen well. And that's because sometimes they're thinking about the next question to ask. And I know this, because I asked them to reflect and that's what they say in reflections that was really hard for me to listen, because I was I didn't know what I was going to say next. So what happens is a couple of different issues, things can happen. So the interviewer can fail to unpack what an interviewee has said, by not asking any follow up questions. So rather than asking a follow up question on what's just been said, they move directly to the next question, without regard to whether an interviewee has fully explained the topic. And what happens then if you just move to the next question on the interview guide is your interview ends up being really short? Right? So we know from narrative inquiry and narrative research that people very frequently give the abstracts of the story first. So they tell you the short story. And then as an interviewer, it's up to you to ask thoughtful follow up questions to get more detail about an interview is meaning making now. And a related problem for novice interviewers is when they do try to ask follow up questions, they can come out as long convoluted and MultiPad questions, they might ask five or six questions, because thinking on the spot of what to say next. So what's interesting, when I've looked at how people answer those kinds of questions, is they do a pretty good job of handling these enormously complicated questions. So I think, though, that sometimes interviewees interviewers rather, they don't need to do that much work. There's ways to ask their follow up questions, just one at a time. And then that actually, I think might help when it comes to data analysis. Because if an answer has been in response to a multi part question, the analyst has to go through a good deal of analysis to think through, in what ways their question has been answered. Right. So I think, another issue, and I think this, potentially is related to the fact that we all are very familiar with interviews as a genre. But sometimes I find that novice interviewers are really challenged to recognize the implications of their own actions as interviewers. And I think it's important for every one of us weather where we've done a lot of interviews or a few interviews, we just need to be really aware of what we say, and then what happens next as a result. So I think some new researchers come to qualitative researcher thinking that they can be neutral and not impact what gets said. But it's been well known for decades that it's not really possible to not impact what gets said. So even researchers who use standardized survey interviews, find it very difficult to avoid engaging with interviewees because interviewees ask questions of them as they go along. So I guess my point is, even if you follow In a script, it's just very difficult to follow that when it comes to actual real life interaction. So when qualitative researchers are asking questions in open ended or semi structured interviews, whatever they do is going to enact what gets said next. And that even includes whether you say nothing. So even if there's a silence, so for example, if you were to ask a question, you open a slot for the interviewee to say something. And if you pause long enough, the interviewee will do something. And the next turn actually might be asking a question as to what it is that you want to know. But yes, so whatever interviewers do does impact what goes on. And I think each of us needs to recognize whatever it is that we do, and how that impacts what gets done. And think about our own, I guess, natural language skills and how we speak to one another and listen to one another.Amy Stich 21:13 Right, excellent points. And again, a really nice transition into my next question about the interviewer or the person and some of the qualities that might make for a quote unquote, good interviewer. So Dr. Roulston, can you talk about what constitutes a good interviewer?Kathy Roulston 21:31 Sure. Thanks for that question, Amy. So I have talked to other researchers about this. And that was one of the questions I asked them. And then I've also looked at accounts from professional interviewers who have talked about that topic. And I think there's a good deal of agreement on what a good interviewer does. So firstly, they prepare well for interviews, interviews, they're good listeners, they treat the interviewee with respect. They understand that to conduct a good interview, you have to be flexible. So what what works in one situation is not necessarily going to work in another. And I've seen several places, good interviewing practices likened to the improvisatory qualities of jazz. So sometimes you just have to make stuff up. And then, my good friend and colleague, Judith Price Lee, she reminded me quite a few years ago now that you just need to be skeptical of advice, including the advice I've just given. Sometimes I think advice is appropriate, and sometimes it's not. And perhaps interviewers just need to attune themselves to the specific context in which they're working, and also the people they're talking to, to figure out what's going to be a good interview in this situation.Amy Stich 23:04 That's great. I love that advice. And think it's appropriate in this context. So to be a good interviewer, really to be good at anything, it would also seem one would benefit from a great deal of experience and learning from what we might deem to be failures in the field or what we might at the time call, you know, a quote, unquote, failed interview. Can you tell us about any of your own experiences with you know, quote-unquote, failed interviews, or any interviewing disasters that you've had? ...Kathy Roulston 23:45 So I think because I'm a methodologist, I tend not to write off interviews as failures. Because I think if something is goes really terribly wrong, and interview, then that gives that will give me something interesting to unpack now, unpacking that failure might actually be quite painful. But I'll share some of my disasters. And as I think about these, I think all of them were because of my own lack of preparation, which I guess is the for the first rule of good interview. Be prepared. So I have conducted a couple of interviews that I think they were great interviews. But when I went to download them or transcribe them, I didn't have a recording. So that is every researchers worst nightmare.Amy Stich 24:46 I can relate to that. I've had that nightmare.Kathy Roulston 24:50 So the first happened when I did my master's degree so I was using one of those digital Walkman switch antiques now but it files and records. But in that case, I was able to reschedule the interview, I had a very kind participant who agreed to be interviewed for a second time. But I think what happened there was the spontaneity that occurred in the very first interview was lacking in a second. And of course, that's foreseeable. But more recently, this is probably maybe a little over 10 years ago, I think. I failed to generate a complete recording on a digital recorder. And what had happened, I'd been conducting back to back interviews all day, before an evaluation study. And the space on my digital recording device, it had a little desk in it filled up in half the interview, and I couldn't reschedule this, that there was no possibility. So what I did, as soon as I could, I wrote down as much information as I could for memory. And since I've read more on the history of interviewing, I think what's interesting about that is, this is how anthropologist used to record the interviews via hand, during the interview and all after. So there's one account by anthropologists who [...} Patternmaker. In 1966, she was looking back on her career. And she wrote about going back to her car after her interviews and writing as many notes of what the interviewees had told her as she could. And it so happens, because I'm interested in archival work, too. I've had a look at some other handwritten notebooks from a field worker who lived in Athens where I live. She conducted interviews as part of the Federal Writers Project. And she her handwritten notebooks. It's all in pencil. They're just incredibly detailed notes about interviews. And I have to think that before people had, I guess, ubiquitous access to audio recording devices, they probably had better strength of recall than perhaps we do, because we just typically rely on our audio recordings. But I guess back to your question around it. I think both of these disasters could have been avoided, if I did a backup recording device. That's what I do. I take them on an iPad or an iPhone or something and record it as well. I don't know when I have others to talk about it. I nobody want to know.Amy Stich 27:51 I think we will all love to know more.Kathy Roulston 27:55 Okay, so this is one of my embarrassments. So in another case, I, the interview, we selected the place where we were going to conduct an interview it interview and I had not met her prior to the interview. So we met for the first time. And we arranged to meet at a cafe in another county, and that I was not familiar with. So I showed up early. And I was just horrified to find that this cafe had closed. The person I was interviewing had obviously not been there for a while either. And so she was very surprised. So he we were in a strip mall in an County I wasn't familiar with trying to locate another place to conduct an interview. And I ended up recording this conversation in an open area in a grocery store, which had like a little eating area with tables and chairs. So as you can imagine, this was not a great setting, and it was not a great start to the interview. That's what I recall. I don't remember much about it. I do have a worst one.Amy Stich 29:11 Oh, yes. Thank you for your honesty.Kathy Roulston 29:16 Yes. So. Yes. So this one I, I guess was at a very busy point in the semester. And I had arranged to interview someone. And when I went to conduct the interview, I went to their office, which was on my campus, and they came to my office and our offices and two different buildings a couple of miles apart. So obviously that interview didn't get done. And that was incredibly embarrassing, because it was clear that I hadn't done enough preparation to double check the location that we're both on the same page. And I think that just goes to show that no matter how busy you are, you just need to really be systematic about checking the equipment, and then ensuring that both you and the interviewee know where you're going, that there is a place a space to meet, where you plan to meet, and just double check everything along the way. So I tried to do that now. But I've made errors along the way.Amy Stich 30:25 That's great. And as much as we may learn from our failures, it is of course wise to try to avoid them. Yeah, so. So Dr. Roulston, who were some of your favorite interviewers? Sure,Kathy Roulston 30:38 I would have to say that Terry Gross, who broadcast the program, fresh air, which is on National Public Radio in the United States, she's one of my favorite interviewers. If you listen to her, she, these interviews just seem to be so smooth. About I think she has published a couple of books on interviewing and in her introduction to those books, you'll learn more about how she does those. And you just need to be aware that she has a team that produces those interviews, and they're also not aired live, right. So the editorial team smoothes out the talk. And they also might even resequenced, the questions and answers. And then just as another note, and I think this is encouraging to all of us. She also has had some pretty challenging interview, and you can look around for those. So I guess as someone who has, she's literally conducted 1000s of interviews. It's just useful to know that she runs into problem interviews as well. And then I think what we can all learn from this is that to do a good interview entails collaboration on the part of both interviewer and interviewee. So interviewees can be uncooperative, for all kinds of reasons. And sometimes we might never really know what those reasons are. But I think in other cases, we might also consider why an interviewer might be reluctant to talk to us. And then, as a good researcher looking into the reasons that might be occurring, and why it is that people might might not be answering our questions. So that's something to think about. Right, right. And then we asked me about favorite interviews. I'm not sure he's one of my favorite interviews. I think I really like looking at his interviews to see what he does. So that's Sacha Baron Cohen. And of course, he's not a broadcast interviewer. And he's not a research interviewer. And he's also not necessarily generating information as researchers do. Because as, like, as a comedian and a satirist, he's doing something else altogether. So you probably have seen him in his various television shows and films. So he disguises himself to interview both ordinary and very famous people, is pranked quite a few policy, very famous politicians so far to say, I, I've seen Maureen Dowd of The New York Times has interviewed him and about what his work and what he's trying to do there. And he describes his aim as to expose hatred, bigotry and racism through those kinds of interviews. So I think what I enjoy about listening to comedians and satirists when they interview is how they upset out expectations of what an interview is, and also, quite often what's appropriate to ask. And then, of course, interviewees wide awake to what's going off on quite often. And so sometimes they'll just walk out of the interview, and just refused to participate. Rather than to avoid these embarrassing interactions, which some of these interviews are designed to elicit, and I'm not suggesting that researchers design interviews to do this kind of work. But I think what I find interesting about them, is it how it really helps us to think about the purpose of asking questions of one another.Amy Stich 34:39 Absolutely. Yeah, those are such interesting choices. Have you heard Terry Gross interview Sacha Baron Cohen on fresh air?Kathy Roulston 34:48 No I haven't. Amy Stich 34:49 You know that's a two for one for you. Kathy Roulston 34:52 Have they actually interviewed him? Amy Stich 34:56 Yes, she has. She has You guys, I've learned, I believe, just early this year. Yeah. So you might want to check that out.Kathy Roulston 35:04 Thank you very much. I appreciate that.Amy Stich 35:08 Absolutely. So before we end today, I think many of our listeners will also appreciate hearing some of your top tips for conducting interviews. So what advice would you give to those just starting out?Kathy Roulston 35:18 Well, I may repeat myself, so forgive me Sure, of course. But I think first, I think it's really helpful to for every one of us as interviewers to recognize and natural language skills. So if any listeners are those people who like to sit and listen, and he might be very introverted, it is actually going to be easier for you to listen to participants, and you are very unlikely to interrupt them, because you'll be listening. And because that's the natural way you engage in interaction. Now, if you like talking, and you like telling stories, it might actually be very challenging for you not to contribute to the talk. Now, I don't want to be understood as saying that there's not a time and place for telling your own stories as part of an interview. And if anyone wants to take conversation approach to interviewing, that's probably going to happen. But I think what I am trying to say here is that it's useful to recognize that what your talk does for the generation of interview data. And so for example, if you tell your stories, in response to what your participant is saying, these are actually there's a name for these kinds of stories, have the sociologists have called them second stories, which match a story that's just been told. Then when it comes to analyze your data, you as a researcher really have to be fair to your participant by counting for your own talk in the analysis and interpretation. And thinking about what your part in the generation of that talk was. So that's one, one thing, I think, is helpful for all of us. And then of course, this goes without saying, we just need to be listened to our participants respectfully. And I clearly if we're using interviews, we're seeking to learn from others. And it's our responsibility to just really be respectful. Now, I think that doesn't necessarily mean we need to agree with them. So sometimes participants say very disagreeable things that we might really disagree with. Sure. But I think the in that case, then we need to think about how we can be fair in how we represent them, when we write up our findings. And, of course, representing our findings is an probably a topic of another podcast, too. But there's actually methodological work out there now, which, like really thinks about what happens when we interview people with whom we might disagree. I guess the other thing to think about in interview is to really recognize that interviewing is performative. So people want to represent themselves to one another particular ways, for specific purposes. So even though research interviews are information generation, typically we are wanting information about some research topic. It's you can also ask what kinds of actions are being done in an interview. So for example, your interview is justifying or excusing the actions or they could be complaining about something or praising something or complimenting something. So that's just another order of data analysis, which the sociologists, Holstein and Gabrielle have written about, for quite some time, since the mid 1990s. They talk about analyzing both how interviews get done in as well as what gets said in those interviews. And then I think maybe, just to finish up here, there's more methodological work, which really calls on researchers to examine the search methods and how they might consider the participants needs very deeply in how they examine their topics. I've got one good example here, from Castro Dale. This is an article published in 2018 in qualitative inquiry, so he intended to use mobile methods in a study but the When he talked to his participants, they preferred formal sit down interviews. So even though we might have preferences for how we're going to conduct interviews, I think more and more researchers are writing and talking about how they design their interviews, research with their participants preferences in mind. So I guess a good interview can look really easy. But I, we can't ever really predict what's going to happen past the second term. So I advise all of us to be open to be flexible, and relaxing. Just enjoy yourselfAmy Stich 40:39 full again. That's wonderful advice. Thank you again for sharing your expertise with us today. And thank you, listeners for joining us for this edition of qualitative conversation.Kathy Roulston 40:51 Thank you very much me. I've really enjoyed talking to you. Amy Stich 40:55 Thanks so much, Kathy.
These volumes of slave narratives are the product of the Federal Writers Project sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Work Project Administration. They consist of verbatim records of personal interviews with former slaves conducted during 1936-1938. "These life histories, taken down as far as possible in the narrators' words, constitute an invaluable body of unconscious evidence or indirect source material, . . . The narratives belong to folk history—history recovered from the memories and lips of participants or eye-witnesses,” This is volume two for the state of North Carolina. Genre(s): Biography & Autobiography, Short non-fiction --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3daudiobooks0/support
Voting rights suffered a defeat in the Senate this week, but really it's just the latest battle in a continuing struggle—and if anything, it clarifies the real problem: the filibuster must go, at least for voting rights legislation. John Nichols says it's now up to grassroots groups to go to work on reluctant Democrats during the July 4 break. Also, here's an idea: Create a new Federal Writers Project, hiring a thousand out of work writers and journalists to document American lives during the pandemic year. It's in a bill proposed in the House by Los Angeles Representative Ted Lieu. David Kipen explains; he's former director of literature for the National Endowment for the Arts, and it was his idea. Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.
Newsom Announces New Stimulus Checks, Incentivizing Vaccines, 21st Century Federal Writers Project
This is an episode in our weekly series titled 'Primary Source Tuesday.' Each Tuesday we have a reading from a particularly interesting historical item. Sometimes it's a historical tidbit that wasn't quite beefy enough to make a full column out of; other times, an especially interesting old newspaper article; frequently it's a short story from one of the frontier literary magazines that thrived in Oregon at the end of the 19th century. Today it's a lengthy interview with a garrulous, tall-tale-telling old Telegraphers' Union man, George Estes, who spoke at length to WPA writer Andrew Sherbert about the old days, when he was the lead negotiator across the table from Southern Pacific Railroad brass. and the time he persuaded Nicholas II, Czar of All the Russias, to intervene with a recalcitrant telegrapher who needed to be persuaded to join the union. (For text and PDFs, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001955/)
This is an episode in our weekly series titled 'Primary Source Tuesday.' Each Tuesday we have a reading from a particularly interesting historical item. Sometimes it's a historical tidbit that wasn't quite beefy enough to make a full column out of; other times, an especially interesting old newspaper article; frequently it's a short story from one of the frontier literary magazines that thrived in Oregon at the end of the 19th century. Today it's an interview by Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Unit writer Sara B. Wrenn, conducted on Dec. 7, 1938, with an old piano player and onetime commercial fisherman named Charles L. DeLashmutt at his home in Lake Oswego. Ms. Wrenn titled it "Dancing in the 1880s," because Mr. DeLashmutt started out talking about playing piano with his two fiddle-playing brothers at country dances; but he goes on to talk about gillnet fishing on the Columbia Bar in the 1890s, and the old Astoria Shanghaiing culture. You can find the transcripts of the interview at the Library of Congress's Website, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001973/ , or with an Internet search for 'WPA Writers Oregon Dancing 1880s.'
This is an episode in our weekly series titled 'Primary Source Tuesday.' Each Tuesday we have a reading from a particularly interesting historical item. Sometimes it's a historical tidbit that wasn't quite beefy enough to make a full column out of; other times, an especially interesting old newspaper article; frequently it's a short story from one of the frontier literary magazines that thrived in Oregon at the end of the 19th century. Today it's a transcript of WPA writer Andrew C. Sherbert's 1938 interview with a prosperous elderly financier named J. Thorburn Ross at his office in Room 1405 of the American Bank Building in downtown Portland. Sherbert was there to learn about the early mining lore of Waldo, in southern Oregon. But arguably what he learned about that mining district was no more interesting than what Ross’s own personal story.
Michelle Shocklee stops by the podcast and chats about her life, her writing, and her newest release, Under the Tulip Tree.Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena’s banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena.As Frankie recounts her life as a slave, Rena is horrified to learn of all the older woman has endured—especially because Rena’s ancestors owned slaves. While Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?You can buy the book here.Liz and Michelle were also part of the novella collection, Mail-Order Brides, which you can buy here.Visit Liz's website and check out the Christmas novella collection she mentioned, A Joyful Christmas.
Athletes protest police shooting of Jacob Blake, why some areas experience more extreme heat and today is the anniversary of the Federal Writers' Project.
Zora Neale Hurston was more than a novelist and bright voice of the Harlem Renaissance--she was also an anthropologist and folklorist. She made a name for herself in New York and the Caribbean--and also spent formative years in Baltimore. David Taylor says Hurston was creative and brave; he wrote about her in Soul of a People, his chronicle of the Federal Writers’ Project during the Depression. Then Anokwale Anansesemfo, president of the Griots’ Circle of Maryland, says Hurston’s spirit was formed in the African-American town in East Florida where her father was mayor.
Creativity in Dark Times: Artists and Writers of the New Deal - David A. Taylor Smithsonian Associates Artist Interview Series Welcome to The Not Old Better Show. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and this is episode #456. When the U.S. and world economies collapsed into the Great Depression in 1929, creatives of all kinds faced a bleak future. The Jazz Age was dead. Among government programs designed to spur the economy back to life, President Franklin Roosevelt included the Federal Writers' Project and the Federal Arts Project. No one expected an American renaissance. Yet FDR said, “One hundred years from now, my administration will be known for its art, not its relief.” And yet another quote I love, for many reasons: HARD TIMES: Somebody once said that the great oxygen of the US is optimism. What happens if we can't breathe, or eat, or go to work, go outside? We need arts. That of course, is our guest today, David A. Taylor, who'll be appearing via Zoom at the Smithsonian Associates presentation, Creativity in Dark Times: Artists and Writers of the New Deal. Check out the web site for Zoom details. Artists and writers comprised the Federal Writers Project and produced scores of travel guidebooks, histories, and a trove of thousands of life histories including the narratives of former slaves. Artists supported by the government produced landscapes, murals, street scenes, portraits, sculptures, and abstracts. Author David Taylor looks at some of the artists and writers for whom the government's programs gave them a new purpose: recording American life. Some later ranked among the most creative minds of the 20th century as screenwriters, poets, bestselling novelists, ands artists. They included recipients of the National Book Award, the National Medal of Arts, and the Nobel Prize for Literature. David A. Taylor will discuss with us how, in focusing on America, those artists could stir controversy, seen in censored travel books, banned works, and murals denounced by citizens' committees even up to the present. By tracing how these artists and works cut against the grain of public opinion and convention, Taylor examines art's power in shifting American identities. David A. Taylor teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University and was lead writer and co-producer of the Smithsonian Channel documentary Soul of a People: Writing America's Story. Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show, via internet phone, David A. Taylor. Please go here for more information about David A. Taylor's upcoming presentation at Smithsonian Associates: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/creativity-in-dark-times-artists-and-writers-of-new-deal
In 1945, Ralph Ellison went to a barn in Vermont and began to write Invisible Man. He wrote it in the voice of a black man from the south, a voice that changed American literature. Invisible Man is a novel made up of black voices that had been excluded from the historical record until, decades earlier, he’d helped record them with the WPA’s Federal Writers Project. What is the evidence of a voice? How can we truly know history without everyone’s voices? This episode traces those questions — from the quest to record oral histories of formerly enslaved people, to Black Lives Matter and the effort to record the evidence of police brutality. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Federal Writers' Project, established by President Roosevelt in July 1935 as part of the New Deal, provided jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. Australian authors Jeff Sparrow and James Bradley discuss whether a similar literary stimulus package could work today.
Today we talk about the New Deal, and the Great Depression.
From 1936 to 1938, the Federal Writers’ Project collected stories from people who had been enslaved. The WPA Slave Narrative Collection at the Library of Congress is a valuable resource; these oral histories are also problematic. Interpreting these narratives within literary and historical context, students can develop primary source literacy. Historian Cynthia Lynn Lyerly outlines unique insights these texts can add to your curriculum.
Catherine A. Stewart is the author of Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers' Project, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016. Long Past Slavery examines the history behind the collection of more than 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people, as part of the New Deal's Federal Writers' Project. Stewart pays close attention to how the ex-slave narratives represented a site of contestation between many people who had competing visions of what America's past looked like, and what the future could hold. From Black interviewers to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to the formerly enslaved themselves, Stewart illustrates how these narratives were a battleground over national memory, Black identity, and Black citizenship. Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College. Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies
Catherine A. Stewart is the author of Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016. Long Past Slavery examines the history behind the collection of more than 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people, as part of the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. Stewart pays close attention to how the ex-slave narratives represented a site of contestation between many people who had competing visions of what America’s past looked like, and what the future could hold. From Black interviewers to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to the formerly enslaved themselves, Stewart illustrates how these narratives were a battleground over national memory, Black identity, and Black citizenship. Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College. Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Catherine A. Stewart is the author of Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016. Long Past Slavery examines the history behind the collection of more than 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people, as part of the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. Stewart pays close attention to how the ex-slave narratives represented a site of contestation between many people who had competing visions of what America’s past looked like, and what the future could hold. From Black interviewers to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to the formerly enslaved themselves, Stewart illustrates how these narratives were a battleground over national memory, Black identity, and Black citizenship. Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College. Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Catherine A. Stewart is the author of Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016. Long Past Slavery examines the history behind the collection of more than 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people, as part of the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. Stewart pays close attention to how the ex-slave narratives represented a site of contestation between many people who had competing visions of what America’s past looked like, and what the future could hold. From Black interviewers to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to the formerly enslaved themselves, Stewart illustrates how these narratives were a battleground over national memory, Black identity, and Black citizenship. Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College. Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Catherine A. Stewart is the author of Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016. Long Past Slavery examines the history behind the collection of more than 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people, as part of the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project. Stewart pays close attention to how the ex-slave narratives represented a site of contestation between many people who had competing visions of what America’s past looked like, and what the future could hold. From Black interviewers to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to the formerly enslaved themselves, Stewart illustrates how these narratives were a battleground over national memory, Black identity, and Black citizenship. Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College. Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“From 1861 to 1876, every man committed to the Oregon State Penitentiary for ‘life’ either escaped or was pardoned,” writes historian and newspaper columnist Erik Bromberg, quoting from the U.S. Federal Writers Project’s “Oregon Oddities” article of 1939-1941. “Some who escaped were recaptured and then pardoned.” (Oregon Territory, 1850s) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1910c.frontier-justice-jailhouses.html)
On this episode of The African American Folklorist, I share the story of the born free, African American Traditional Music Practitioner Elijah Cox, who was a fiddler, Buffalo soldier, and recorded in 1935 at the age of 93 for the Library of Congress Elijah Cox was also interviewed and recorded for the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, which now lives can be found of the Library Of Congress Website. As I share the story of Elijah, I make the case that he was and utilized the tools of the folklorist. Written, Produced and Edited by Lamont Jack Pearley - Credits for sound design & Music Elijah Cox - Run up on The Mountain, Slavery Days, Can’t put the saddle on the ol great mule Lamont Jack Pearley - Blues Journey & Underground Slide Excerpts from "Fife and Drum Music of the American Revolution: Military Music in America series, vol. 1," produced by the Company of Military Collectors & Historians, Washington, D.C. with George P. Carroll, Director of Music -- from about 1976. (Improved audio from my earlier upload of this same.) https://www.underthehome.org Music Performer: Sturbridge Colonial Militia Music License Original Source: Sound Clip of Gunfire Original Source: Painting Title: Battle of Bunker Hill ember 1941 (part 2 of 6) Contributor Names - Lomax, Alan, 1915-2002 (Interviewer), Sturz, Elizabeth Lyttleton (Interviewer), Johnson, George (Interviewee), Jones, Lewis Wade, 1910-1979 (Interviewer) Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956 (Interviewer), Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Transcriber) Created / Published Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 1941 Railroad Song, Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Gibson, Gus (Performer) Created / Published Georgia, 1941 Negro blues and hollers, Contributor Names, Stearns, Marshall Winslow, compiler. Lomax, Alan, 1915-2002, recordist. Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967, recordist. Jones, Lewis Wade, 1910-1979, recordist. House, Son, performer. Edwards, Honeyboy, performer. Martin, Fiddlin' Joe The Boll Weevil, Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Ezell, Buster (Performer) Created / Published Georgia, 1941 Coon Gi'nt (Coon jive), Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Stripling, Sidney (Performer)Created / Published Georgia, 1941 Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham, Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Unidentified vocal quartet (Performer), Created / Published, Fort Valley, Georgia, 1941 John the Revelator, Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Heavenly Gate Quartet (Performer), Created / Published Nashville, Tennessee, 1941 If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down, Contributor Names - Work, John W. (John Wesley), 1901-1967 (Collector), Heavenly Gate Quartet (Performer) Created / Published Nashville, Tennessee, 1941 Remember to Subscribe to the podcast and the Newspaper! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jackdappabluespodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jackdappabluespodcast/support
This week, we talk about Cullen Baker, a man who rarely met a problem he couldn't solve by shooting it. We'll discuss his various horrifying exploits through the Civil War and beyond, his tendency to marry Marthas, and the most Mark Twain day of your life. Plus, old timey real dolls, Shakespearean insults, and a country fair that defies basic human decency by celebrating a terrible, terrible racist. Don't forget about our Patreon, where you can get OTC business cards, access to bonus Old Tiny Crimeys, and exclusive early access to new full eps! You'll be our heroes if you give us a 5-star review! You can also follow us here on Podbean, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you're at it, hit us up on our FB group, Twitter, Reddit, or Insta to talk Old Timey Crime. And remember, don't be a standard issue douchebag who turns into a horrible human being. ________ Sources: Kathy Weiser-Alexander . “Cullen Montgomery Baker: A Very Bad Man.” Legends of America. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/cullen-montgomery-baker/ Bill O’Neal. “Ex-Rebel Cullen Baker Was a Post-War Murdering Madman.” HistoryNet. https://www.historynet.com/how-tennessee-born-killer-cullen-baker-hit-his-stride-after-the-civil-war.htm Boyd W. Johnson. “Cullen Montgomery Baker the Arkansas-Texas Desperado.” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Wikipedia geneaology.com "Ten Deadly Texans" Daniel Anderson, Lawrence Yudon tomrizzo.com in2013dollars.com fairsandfestivals.net "Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slave Narratives in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives Part 6 by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Project Administration for the State of Arkansas"
Bara den som sitter i isoleringscell dygnet runt är helt förhindrad att göra ont. Lars Hermansson läser en bok om kvinnliga slavägare och efterlyser fler nyanser i vår berättelse om ondska. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna Att ondskan är en man i en patriarkal världsordning comes as no surprise, kunde man travestera den amerikanska konstnären Jenny Holzers patenterade truism Abuse of power comes as no surprise. Men maktmissbruk är förstås inte uteslutande en manlig defekt. Det saknas inte grymma kvinnor i historien, från Herodias som krävde Johannes Döparens huvud på ett fat till den ökända tyska fångvaktaren i bland annat Bergen Belsen, Irma Grese, som gärna piskade ihjäl sina offer. Jag ogillar verkligen kålsuparteorier som vill relativisera maktmissbruk genom att påtala att inte heller offret var en ängel. Men idealisering av utsatta grupper är lika illa. För att värna gruppens renhet väljer somliga att hymla med att en och annan medlem av den egna gruppen faktiskt inte är helt tadelfri. En strategi som poeten Athena Farrokhzad gav uttryck för i sin recension av den danske poeten Yahya Hassans debutdiktsamling i Aftonbladet när hajpen kring boken var som störst. Hassan beskriver i boken bland annat hur han och hans syskon misshandlas av deras far, som är muslim med ursprung i mellanöstern, en berättelse som Dansk Folkeparti säkert älskade menar Farrokhzad i sin recension. Och sammanfattar att det står var och en fritt att välja strategi, men att hon för sin del aldrig skulle skriva om, citat en förövare som ser ut som jag, det vill säga är mörkhårig och skulle kunna ha sitt ursprung i mellanöstern, antar jag att hon menar. För inte var väl genus en parameter i sammanhanget? Jag tror Farrokhzad har rätt i att danska rasister gillade att Hassan skrev om sin våldsamme muslimske far, eftersom det bekräftade deras världsbild, men jag tvivlar på att boken värvade några nya rasister, jag tror inte bra poesi kan göra det, inte dålig poesi heller, såvida den inte förvandlas till statspropaganda. Däremot tror jag att den sorts strategispel Farrokhzad förordar göder de fördomar högerpopulismens framgångar vilar på. Jag vägrar sluta tro att alla tjänar på öppenhet i längden, och att folk faktiskt kan tänka själva. Att vara ett subjekt, att ha, som det heter, agens, det vill säga makt att agera, inte bara reagera, måste även inkludera möjligheten att göra ont. Jag tänker på det när jag läser den amerikanska historikern Stephanie Jones-Rogers They were her property om kvinnliga slavägare i den amerikanska södern. I bokens inledning redogör hon för det fördomsfulla forskningsläget genom att berätta om ett resereportage från sydstaterna publicerat i New York Tribune 1859, där reportern James Redpath försöker förklara det starka stödet för slaveriet hos söderns vita kvinnor, med att de, bundna som de var vid hemmets härd, aldrig hade bevittnat slaveriets mer motbjudande drag, aldrig närvarat vid auktioner, inte sett hur svarta slavar piskades ute på bomullsfälten. Det är, menar Jones-Rogers, en patriarkal förminskning av kvinnor Redpath ägnar sig åt här, och som historiker, kvinnor som män, fört vidare ända till ända fram till idag, naturligtvis med undantag som Jones-Rogers redogör för. Genom att lyssna till slavarnas egna utsagor i det så kallade Federal Writers Project, före detta slavars berättelser nedskrivna mellan 1936 och 1938 på regeringen Roosevelts initiativ, snarare än till förhärskande föreställningar om kvinnors milda sinnelag, genom att studera lagstiftning och dokument, helt enkelt bedriva forskning, framkallar Jones Rogers en annan bild av den vita slavägande kvinnan i den amerikanska södern. En kvinna som själv håller i piskan, och som med beslutsamhet och sinne för business köper och säljer sin egendom på slavauktionerna. Detta hade bland annat, visar Jones-Rogers, att göra med arvslagstiftningen. Enligt förstfödslorätten, som avskaffades i USA först på 1780-talet, kunde inte kvinnor ärva mark. Så för att inte göra dem helt lottlösa testamenterade föräldrarna ofta sina slavar till dem, eller skrev över dem på dem som vi skulle säga idag, när de giftes bort. Jones-Rogers spårar i denna arvsordning en makt- och arbetsdelning. Männen hanterade marken och dess gröda, kvinnorna hemmet och slavarna. Tidigare forskning har uppmärksammat den avvikande kvinnan, änkan eller den ogifta slavägaren, men Jones-Rogers menar alltså att även gifta kvinnor hade agens när gällde slavhanteringen, många av dem var aktiva såväl i misshandeln som utfordringen av arbetskraften, naturligtvis olika mycket beroende på de unika omständigheterna. En speciell avdelning i maktutövningen var tituleringen av slavägarnas barn. Den slav som glömde att säga Master eller Missis före barnets egennamn straffades ofta hårt. Rebecca Jane Grant glömde en gång att titulera en fyraårig pojke Master Henry, och piskades med en för ändamålet nyköpt piska och sattes sedan i stupstock där hennes matmor bröt flera av hennes ben. Säkert hörde just denna slavägare till de grymmare, men exemplen i boken är tillräckligt många för att eventuella fördomar om att kvinnor inte är förmögna till sadistiskt våld ska upplösas som troll i solsken. Det går verkligen att diskutera begreppet agens, vem har det, och vem har det inte? Bara gud, om hen funnes, och kanske stormrika psykopater i laglösa länder, har väl absolut agens. Alla vi andra är bundna av någonting. Lagar, förordningar, normer, hänsynstaganden, det egna känslolivet. Men handlingsutrymmet, som kanske är ett bättre ord än agens, varierar förstås enormt. Bara den som sitter i isoleringscell dygnet runt är helt förhindrad att göra ont. Vilket bland andra den italienska författaren Primo Levi vittnat om i sin självbiografiska skildring från utrotningslägret i Auschwitz, "Om detta är en människa" även i Auschwitz fanns fångar som brast i solidaritet med sina olycksbröder och systrar, och skodde sig på det som fanns att sko sig på. Är Jones-Rogers studie av kvinnliga slavägare i den amerikanska södern kontraproduktiv för den feministiska kampen? Behöver vi inte veta att även kvinnor kan vara förövare? Jag tror det är precis det vi behöver. Nyansering, gråskalor, motsatsen till demonisering och den lynchjustis som ibland följer i dennas spår. Makt, våld och ondska är inte utbytbara begrepp. Men våld är maktutövning, ondska (om begreppet ens är användbart) förutsätter något slags våld, om inte annat psykiskt sådant. Makt missbrukas dagligen och stundligen, av män såväl som kvinnor. Men just sexualiseringen av offret är kanske ändå en specifikt manlig defekt. I alla fall lyser sexuellt våld med sin frånvaro i Jones Rogers exempelkatalog. Fast kanske var 1930-talet, då merparten av Jones Rogers material samlades in, inte moget för den sortens berättelser. Lars Hermansson, författare och kritiker
MSM 431: Be Careful Where You Step, This Show Has Holes. Jokes You Can Use: Eileen Award: Twitter: John Meehan @MeehanEDU Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Middle School Science Minute: Covey Denton From the Twitterverse: #mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. And as Troy says, “The Twitter never stops!” Resources: Comic Master http://comicmaster.org.uk/comicmaker/js/main.html Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/ Web Spotlight: Memorization https://connectedprincipals.com/archives/23396
Hilda Polacheck, a WPA writer, interviewed Louis T. in June 1939 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930’s. Louis T. was a Polish Jew. Below is an excerpt from the interview, which can be found in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940.
Notes: THE ACCORDION DOG was collected from a Berea College student in 1976 and has since been heard in Strasburg, Virginia and a couple of other places. My source did not liken the dog to an accordion—that is my invention. Two friends told me a “dirty” version, one from his childhood in Cherokee County, North Carolina in which the dog is in a car which wrecks and both dog and its owner end up in the hospital. The owner, when he comes to, sees the dog on the rug next to his bed and asks the doctor if that is his dog. The doctor answers in the affirmative to which the man says, “What’s that collar thing around his neck?” Is this the original tale? See also Botkin, A Treasury of American Folklore, rev. ed., New York, Crown Publishers, 1975; “Fay Hubbard’s Dog” pp 511-512 from Idaho, A Guide in Word and Picture, Federal Writers’ Project, 1937. Also, Fireman’s Fast Lane Hound, Crown Publishers, 1944, Chicago Dentist Folklore by Jack Conroy, Manuscript for WPA Federal Writers’ Project.
Holly Baker explains her ongoing effort to produce a curated online exhibit featuring folk songs and folklorists from communities of color throughout state of Florida, collected by the Federal Writers Project during The Depression Era.
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zora Neale Hurston collected folklore and stories from communities throughout the rural south. Her stories were some of the first that represented black people with pride, and not with a feeling of distance or exoticism. *for links to Zora Neale Hurston's recordings with the Federal Writers' Project, check babesofscience.com Music in this episode: Tilly Lend Me Your Pigeon performed by Zora Neale Hurston Mule On The Mount performed by Zora Neale Hurston F.I.B by Ben McElroy Eola by Alex Fitch Coloured Lead Crayons by Bleak House Cylinder Six by Chris Zabriskie Papageno Drunk by Ergo Phizmiz Isolated by Kevin MacLeod Dream Blaze by Little Glass Men Betrayal, Lies and Disaster by The Losers Mama Don’t Want No Peas No Rice performed by Zora Neale Hurston The First by Scott Gratton
This week on StoryWeb: Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora Neale Hurston, who hailed from the all-black town of Eatonville, Florida, is probably best known for her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But what many readers don’t know is that Hurston was first and foremost an anthropologist and folklorist. After she left Florida, she studied at Barnard College with the great anthropologist Franz Boas. He helped her understand that her subject matter, her field of study, should be her own people – the working African Americans of Florida. Hurston immersed herself in her fieldwork, traveling to and spending lots of time in the turpentine camps of Florida. She was very much a participant-observer anthropologist, an approach some say she took to an extreme when she went into training as a voodoo priestess in New Orleans and Haiti so that she could fully document this secretive subculture. If you’re curious about her anthropological experiences in Florida and New Orleans, her 1935 book, Mules and Men, is a must read. Despite the fascinating work she was doing, Hurston wasn’t satisfied being solely an anthropologist. She knew there must be more she could do with the rich African American culture, stories, and songs that she was documenting and that she had been immersed in as she was growing up. As luck would have it, Hurston was at Barnard College (in New York City) in the 1920s just as the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak. She befriended poet Langston Hughes, and it could be argued that her friendship with Hughes was every bit as influential in her creative and professional life as was her relationship with Boas. In fact, until they had a deep, permanent falling out, Hurston and Hughes were collaborators, creating together The Mule-Bone, a play that was never produced. Of all her work – memoir, short stories, plays, anthropology, and novels – none stands out nearly as much as Their Eyes Were Watching God. When it was first published, the compelling story of Janie Crawford was criticized and dismissed, primarily by male reviewers. Hurston and her work eventually fell into obscurity. She died in 1960, penniless and alone, in the St. Lucie County Welfare Home. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida. In the early 1970s, Alice Walker – an outstanding African American writer in her own right – went on a journey to rediscover the great Zora Neale Hurston. She wrote about her literary inspiration in her 1975 Ms. magazine essay, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston.” Through this essay, Walker almost singlehandedly brought back interest in Hurston’s work. In 1978, with Hurston’s literary reputation on the upswing again, the University of Illinois Press reissued Their Eyes Were Watching God. Now the novel is frequently taught in classrooms around the country and is widely recognized as one of the defining classics of African American literature. Before I come to the end of this episode, I want to give you just a taste of this marvelous novel. What follows is the “pear tree” scene, which appears in the novel’s second chapter. Hurston is writing about the young Janie, who has just had her first kiss. It was a spring afternoon in West Florida. Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard. She had been spending every minute that she could steal from her chores under that tree for the last three days. That was to say, ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously. How? Why? It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness. She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dustbearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. From there, the novel goes on to trace Janie’s lifelong search for the bee to her own blossom, which she finally discovers when she meets Tea Cake Woods. Ready to explore Hurston’s work yourself? If you haven’t done so already, you simply must read Their Eyes Were Watching God. It’s available online in a free PDF – but of course, this is a book you’ll love so much that you’ll want to buy a hard copy to keep in your collection. To explore Zora’s work and life fully, you’ll want to visit the Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive, which is chock full of great resources. Also fun are the Hurston-related collections available online at the Library of Congress’s American Memory Project. Her work as a folklorist for the Federal Writers’ Project in Florida is featured in the Florida Folklife collection. And in Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress, you’ll find ten plays written by Hurston but mostly unpublished and unproduced. Finally, you’ll definitely want to take a virtual tour of the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail. Visit thestoryweb.com/hurston for links to all these resources and to watch a video of Alice Walker talking about her journey to discover Zora Neale Hurston. I’ll close this episode with a recording of Zora Neale Hurston singing “Halimuhfack,” a “jook” song she learned on the east coast of Florida as part of her work for the Federal Writers’ Project in Florida. In the clip, Hurston also explains how she collected this type of song. The clip runs just over two minutes and ends rather abruptly (so don’t be surprised!). To listen to Hurston sing other songs and tell other stories, visit the Library of Congress’s Florida Folklife collection and enter “Hurston” as your search term. Without further ado, here’s Zora Neale Hurston singing “Halimuhfack.”
Excerpts from historian James H. Madison’s address at the Leadership in History Awards banquet at the 2009 AASLH Annual Meeting. Madison laments the state of interest in history in his home state of Illinois. He equates this lack of pride in the past to an American populace that is more interested in the practical and the immediate. He selects six short topics that speak to the hope for entrepreneurial creativity that was prevalent in historic times. These case studies include: Howard Peckham, Eli Lilly, Federal Writers Project, Scholarship, Professionalism, Technology, and Education. Download at: http://resource.aaslh.org/view/james-h-madison-awards-banquet-speaker-2009-aaslh-annual-meeting/
This episode explores the Great Depression writings of the great poet, May Swenson. We explore Swenson's work for the Federal Writers Project, a radical piece of New Deal legislation that put hundreds of unemployed writers back to work creating city guidebooks, cultural essays, and oral histories in the mid 1930s. Swenson joined the folklore unit of the Federal Writers Project, interviewing a series of department store workers, immigrants and factory employees at the National Biscuit Company. Photo: National Biscuit Company Building, 15th St. & 10th Ave., NYC. http://www.loc.gov/item/00650317/ You can find her collected poems at this link: https://www.loa.org/books/381-collected-poems This episode also included music by Kevin MacLeod. "Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Moonlight Hall" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
Listen as the accounts of 7 former slaves are brought to life through the voices of talented local actors. These recordings make up just a portion of the full stories recalled by James Grumbles, Marry Anne Patterson, Rosina Hoard, Sallie Johnson, Sallie Wroe, Sam Mason, and William Owens. Today their full recollections and those of 63 other former slaves from Austin and Travis County can be found at the Austin History Center. The stories were collected by Alfred E. Menn in 1937 as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Today the clippings are featured as part of the current exhibit at the AHC, “Divided City: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Austin”. Full transcripts of the entire 70 interviews and photographs of many of the interviewees can be found at the AHC.
May 15, 2014. The 75th anniversary of "These Are Our Lives," a book of life histories from the Federal Writers' Project and a seminal volume from the New Deal era was celebrated during a Books & Beyond program. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6429
In less than a decade, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agencies radically transformed Los Angeles as they did other American cities in a successful, but largely forgotten, effort to extricate the nation from the Great Depression. In addition to building the region's cultural infrastructure of schools, libraries, and museums, the Federal Writers Project left us a vivid freeze frame description of what Southern California was like just before World War II. Author David Kipen discusses the recently republished Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels and geographer Gray Brechin shows the public works that revolutionized the lives of millions 75 years ago.
I decided to blog some reading ideas for next semester's English 104 class. The theme, "What is an American," will be used again. Please feel free to suggest resources.Potential Readings:What is an American? J. Hector St. John CrevecoeurWhat is an American? Time Magazine, 1948What is an American? Harold IckesWhat is an American? Peter Ferrara, Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University School of LawWhat is an American? Edward L. Hudgins, CATO InstituteWhat is an American? CNNThe Circus People (Federal Writers Project) with video clip of Maude Cromwell, trapeze artistTo Kill an American (Video)I will add some more later.
On Nov. 28, 1938, Federal Writers Project worker Andrew Sherbert sat down with a stocky, animated 77-year-old attorney named George Estes to talk about Mr. Estes' recollections of working in the 1800s, first as a telegraph operator and later as an attorney for the Telegrapher's Union at Southern Pacific. (For text and pictures, see https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001955/)
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