Our first event, Giving Voice to Experience, explored the potential for oral histories to serve as a resilience-building tool for communities. We curated a short program of excerpts from the 40+ oral histories Harbor students have collected through the Evergreen Program, Community Connections. Grouped together by theme – Transitions, Mentors, Neighbors, and Allies, and Belonging – the stories explored what draws us here, what gives us strength in our daily lives, and what holds us here. We recorded the stories in the KAOS studio (with the help of some local actors, pictured left) and added simple images, sound effects, and text to the stories. Over 50 people gathered in the beautiful Driftwood Players Theater in Aberdeen to listen to these stories of courage and loss, struggle and hope, community and family. Between each theme, students and their narrators, along with local historians reflected on their experience with the process and practice of oral history.

Listen to the Collection