The Third Thirty:December Story Circle
Beginning in December, we will share excerpts from The Third Thirty Oral History Project interviews through a monthly virtual story circle. After listening to a short audio story, story circle participants will have opportunity to reflect and share their own stories in response to a question or theme in facilitated large and small group conversations.
The Third Thirty is a community oral history project that invites Thurston County elders who were living here in the late 1960s and 1970s to share their memories and stories of those times. This was a period of sustained unrest – the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the anti-war movement, tribal fishing rights – and it was a time of possibility and creativity as many worked together to collectively revise the story about who we are, what we value, and how we want to live together. We’re curious how people experienced, understood, and created (community, art, legislation…) during this moment in this place.
JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST STORY CIRCLE
Sunday, December 6, 2PM via zoom
Free, donations appreciated
Pre-Registration Required: Register Here
Featured Story & Theme
How do we move from fear to courage to action?
We begin our series in Selma, Alabama (before moving to our experience here in Thurston County) to explore the question, how do we move from fear to courage to action?
We will listen to a theatrical reading of the memoirs of Rose Goodman, Dave Evans, and an unidentified man from California about their experiences participating in the March 1965 voting rights march from Selma toMontgomery, Alabama. The March culminated after continued struggle for AfricanAmericans to secure the right to vote – despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – and after the murder of Jimmie Lee Johnson, an African American who was shot by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a voting rights demonstration in February 1965. This is one of many stories of the AfricanAmerican struggle for equal rights and about the people who came to help in the struggle.
These memoirs were gifted to Lonnie Locke, a Thurston County elder who grew up in Alabama during this time. The memoirs were the inspiration to forge friendships in a collaborative way with community partners to work on Looking Back, Moving Forward. Its mission is to promote dialogue on racism and through taking action eliminate identified systemic racism in our community. We served on the strategy team for the project as a collaborative partner.
This event is presented in partnership with Looking Back, Moving Forward. We are grateful to begin our series with this important story. Thank you Lonnie and all our friends at Looking Back, Moving Forward!
Project Funders – We Thank You!
This project is funded by the Thurston County Heritage GrantProgram, the City of Olympia, The Freas Foundation, and Humanities Washington and the National Endowment for the Arts CARES Act.
