How has life during the pandemic connected us as Vermonters? How have the protests for racial and social justice impacted you personally?
Listening in Place for Civic Action will focus on the crises of 2020 as an opportunity to reflect and learn from the social unrest, vulnerabilities and sacrifices experienced across the state and nation. This workshop will introduce and demonstrate the tools of Listening in Place, an initiative of the Vermont Folklife Center. It was launched at the early stages of the pandemic as a way to share our common experience and to create a record of how Vermonters are responding to this unprecedented time. Now calls to support Black Lives Matter and pledge greater commitments to eradicate racism in all its forms have propelled many of us out of lockdown and to re-evaluate how we stand for justice for our communities. This workshop is an open call for anyone who desires to prioritize these concerns.
Participants will be introduced to the therapeutic value of sharing and listening to common human experience, using tools of ethnographic interviewing and observation. The workshop will present the steps to initiate and record an interview and will cover content such as developing conversation topics and prompts, inviting a conversation partner, the set up and practice of digital recording, and creating a welcoming environment to guide the conversation. A live demonstration of an interview with a community rights activist will offer a chance for participants to continue the work of developing their civic voice and power.
The workshop will leave participants with the opportunity to contribute to the Sound Archive, an open access, crowdsourced audio collection of responses to the pandemic and 2020.
This workshop is for anyone interested in a basic introduction to the concepts of ethnographic inquiry and conducting interviews, with a focus on remote recording techniques. This includes students, educators, community members, staff members of organizations doing cultural, community and social-service work or anyone looking to make a first effort at remote recording and media-production. The tools presented will be free to access (we will also discuss some paid options) and there is no requirement to submit your recordings to the VFC archive. The skills offered may also be put to use in participants’ independent documentary projects.
Instructors: Alexandra (Sasha) Antohin, VFC Director of Education; Mary Wesley, Audio Producer and VFC Education & Media Specialist