Conversations on the Commons invites you to: 400 Years and Beyond: Commemorating historic events in the twenty-first century October 23, 2020, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. A Conversation with Linda Coombs, program director at the Aquinnah Cultural Center, Desiree Mobed, Director at the Alden House Historic Site, and Michelle Pecoraro, Executive Director of Plymouth 400After… Read more

The Berkshire Museum presented panel discussion on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020. Judith Monachina, Dennis Powell, and Len Kates discussed the NAACP Oral History Project and the exhibit at the Museum that featured that project.  The panel was seen on PCTV, live, and also via the Museum’s virtual conferencing platform, Ring. Craig Langlois, Berkshire Museum Chief… Read more

Conversations on the Commons invites you to: Archiving Your Gigabytes: Preserving COVID-19 and Other Digital Collections October 9, 2020, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. A Conversation with Veronica Martzahl, Digital Records Archivist at the Massachusetts Archives, Kathie Gow, Curator of the Hatfield Historical Society, and Vanessa Formato, archivist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Covid-diaries,… Read more

Do-It-Yourself Oral History •Do you have school-age kids at home? •Are you a teacher looking for a virtual project? •Or,  are  you just feeling stuck in place? It may be time to tell stories Learn some do-it-yourself oral history practices • Interview tips • Recording technology • Safe Storage • Professional protocols September 30, 4-5… Read more

The Sheffield Historical Society will present an outdoor exhibit celebrating Mum Bett, the first slave to successfully sue for freedom, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday to Sunday, Aug. 21 to 23, on the Society grounds, 159 Main St., next to the Town Hall parking lot. The exhibit is a collaboration with the Trustees… Read more

Beginning Aug. 28 and running through Nov. 3, actors of stage and screen will do a marathon Read In of Black Reconstruction in America.  By W.E.B. Du Bois Here is a link to the Read In Series site: https://thereadinseries.com/ Here is our podcast about how the Read In happened: a talk with MiRi Park about… Read more

Conversations on the Commons invites you to: Reopening, Part III: Planning for the fall A conversation with Lesley Herzberg and Katie MacDonald It’s official: we’re now in Phase III. While some places are staying closed through the summer, others are back to welcoming the public, with modifications. In these unprecedented times, history organizations across the… Read more

On July 25th our first in a series of anti-oppression workshops will be taking place and we invite you to join us! Oral history has a strong tradition as a progressive practice, focused on amplifying marginalized voices typically giving powerful platforms to speak in public. Oral historians have documented the stories of struggles for justice… Read more

If you are a subscriber to the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center blog or are working on a history organization project related to Black Lives Matter,  please come to this meeting.  And if you would like to talk with me about it beforehand, please email: jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu I will be helping to lead the discussion, and… Read more

If you are building an oral history collection and would like people to know about it, let us help you get the word out.  We are creating a page on this site to link to oral history projects from the region.   We can also talk with you about archives and safe storage for your… Read more