Many thanks to Goddard Riverside for the blog post about my "Tell Us Your Stories" workshop and book and audio party! You can read "Story Workshop Captures Older Adult Memories" (July 24, 2024) on Goddard's website and in their latest email. Here's an excerpt:
"I'll never forget Mrs. Heller. Because I lived far from school. And I had to walk a long distance. And a lot of it was uphill. And I was a little girl."
That's how one story started at "Tell Us Your Stories," an event at our Columbus Avenue Older Adults Center in June.
With the AC keeping everyone cool during a heatwave, and refreshments available, participants and guests sat around and listened to carefully crafted personal stories. It was the culmination of a 3-month reminiscence, oral history and storytelling workshop facilitated by artist-in-residence Tricia Vita with the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's SU-CASA program.
The stories were organized by theme, such as Objects, Home, and Earliest Memories. There were tales about breaking windows while playing stickball, treasuring a set of your mother's Fiestaware, and meeting your tennis partner—and then husband. Some participants read, while those who were absent or preferred not to read could play recordings of themselves.
Vita recorded the audio to create a SoundCloud page where the recorded stories could continue to live. To her surprise, the participants enjoyed reminiscing in front of a microphone.
"Being in the writer's room, this was a different—freeing—experience, of speaking it versus writing it. It was a different spirit," said Maureen Allen Holder, a workshop participant.
One of the goals of the workshop, Vita wrote in the introduction to the book, is simply "making participants realize their memories matter." Judging by the rapt attention paid to each story, that goal was met.
Blog post continues here.