Dear Friends,

October has been full of learning and inspiration. I traveled to Portland with Board member and Evergreen faculty, Sonja Wiedenhaput, to attend the annual Oral History Association conference. We were offering a workshop on using oral history as text in the classroom. On our first night in town, Sonja and I ate Ramen while trying to pick from the incredibly rich array of presentations, workshops, and listenings sessions.

Over the three days I learned about how oral history serves as critical research to inform public policy decision-making, filled in critical gaps in my knowledge of archiving best practices from sessions presented by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagũez's Oral History Lab, and experienced a beautiful sonic installation called Setting the Table. I was particularly inspired by the work of Don't Shoot PDX and the powerful ways the seeds of narrative change are planted from family archives. And, the discussion of Chicago Footwork with Dr. ShaDawn “Boobie” Battle was an important reminder that community memory is stored and expressed in the body. It was rewarding to see our work within the context of this large and diverse field. I left inspired and ready to apply what I gleaned to our work in the South Sound.

Also this month, our friends at the After Violence Project just launched a Community School, and I am taking a 5 week course called Pedagogy as Practice. I've taught numerous workshops and courses over the years, and it's exciting to have an opportunity to refine and revamp workshop agendas and syllabi with insights from others who are zooming in from all over the continental US and Puerto Rico.

It's a gift to be in learning environments where we can infuse fresh ideas and inspiration into our work. I want to thank everyone who came to our listening session at the Olympia Library last week. This, too, served as an opportunity to listen anew to the community wisdom housed in our archive. We have one more planned for this fall on November 21st. Please join us!

I also wanted to share that Heartsparkle Players launched an exciting new history project earlier this year, and we are honored to provide technical support to the group along the way. Debe Edden, the long-time artistic director of the Heartsparkle Players, has been a generous collaborator of Window Seat for over 10 years. Not only have we collaborated with the Heartsparkle Players on several playback performances, Debe has deeply engaged in our oral history projects, attended events and workshops, served on our board, and provided mentorship and guidance to us since our very first organizing meeting in June 2015. We deeply admire Debe for the skilled way she holds space for people to tell stories stories with vulnerability, humor, joy, and grief, and the many actors who "played those stories back" onstage over the years with such love and care. The Heartsparkle Players is a gift to our community and we look forward to learning more about their history and the lives they have touched!

More details on this project and the upcoming listening session below! Thank you for following along and being a part of our community.


Until soon,

‍
Elaine Vradenburgh
Director

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