As we begin to work with Manos Unidas, we look at other projects that can help us create a project that makes sense to them. They have a grant from Mass Humanities to do the project, and we at the Oral History Center will be the “Humanities Advisor” on the project.
One project, by Reinout Van Wagtendonk, radio journalist, was Accents, Voices of our Immigrant Neighbors. Reinout did this series for the Berkshire Eagle.
At BCC, many years ago, working under a grant from Mass Humanities, BCC also worked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum to gather stories. This was coordinated by Toni Buckley, and featured story gathering events, at which the story teller, that is the community member who wished to contribute, brought an object that represented something of importance to him/her and then told a story.
Manos Unidas interviewees also will include objects in the storytelling, and in the end, they will mount an exhibit.
But interviewers in the Manos Unidas project will interview people from Central and South America, in Spanish, about their experiences of emigration and immigration. We are pleased to be involved with this project.
