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

Oral History Center to hire someone for short-term oral history inventory project The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center, working with four local history organizations – Sharon, Kent, and Salisbury, Connecticut, and Sheffield, Massachusetts – will hire someone to conduct oral history inventories in the history organizations of the four towns.  The goal of the project… Read more

Archiving Partner, University of Massachusetts Amherst Since the opening of the Oral History Center the the University of Massachusetts Libraries Special Collections has worked with us to make our oral history practice truly sustainable. They have done so by working with us to take the oral history collections of our region, who work through the… Read more

On Friday, June 5, from 1:00-2:30 PM, join Ken Turino (manager of Community Partnerships and Resource Development at Historic New England), Pleun Bouricius (curator of the Plainfield Historical Society and President of the Mass. History Alliance), and moderator Margo Shea (Assistant Professor of History at Salem State University) for a discussion on the reopening process…. Read more

In memory of Rob Cox, Head of the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) at the University of Massachusetts Library Rob Cox died earlier this week.  We are very sad to lose such a friend and ally. Rob was an important person in the development of our Center.  He helped our then new Oral History… Read more

  Our current pandemic and Global Pause mean that all of us are living in unprecedented times. Youth Librarian Jenney Maloy would like to invite children ages 4 to 18 to share their daily experiences and thoughts to help create a historical record of this moment. Future generations will be able to visit the Procter… Read more

Essential workers Oral History Project The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College will interview people who are doing work that is deemed essential and indeed is essential.  Nurses, postal workers, grocery clerks, physicians, pharmacy clerks and pharmacists, EMTs, and others.  As many parts of our society and economy are shut down due… Read more

You may be working remotely, on furlough, not working, or just feeling insecure.  This may be a time for listening to some stories of resilience.  Most life stories, it turns out, have some of that in them. Some have lots.   Below, you will find some links to stories. And remember, soon we will be doing… Read more