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Resource Report 14 - Window Seat Media · Resource Report

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Hello and welcome to Resource Report, where we
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share with you important information about local
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nonprofits and resource organizations that support
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the community we share, produced by Pathways
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to Agency. I am your host, Rainmaker. Today's
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show features memory activist Elaine Vradenburg
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of Window Seat Media. Here's Elaine. I am here
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at Window Seat Media upstairs at the Arbutus
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Folk School building with Elaine Vradenburgh of
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Window Seat Media. How are you doing, Elaine?
1:00
I'm doing good. Thank you. So what is your position
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here with Window Seat Media and how did you come
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to be here? Yeah, good question. Well, I am the
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memory activist here at Window Seat. And that's
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essentially maybe a fancy word for oral historian.
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And I've been with Window Seat since the beginning.
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I'm actually the founder of the organization
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and the co -director. So I have I work with one
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other person, Meg Rosenberg. We're co -directors
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together here at Window Seat. And my role really
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has been around stewarding and facilitating our
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community -based oral history projects. So Meg
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Rosenberg and I are co -directors at Window Seat.
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Meg came on, I think, in September of 2021, I
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want to say. And part of the reason we were excited
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about collaborating and Meg coming on was because
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they had this idea of starting a theater company.
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And at the time we thought, oh, what if we run
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that theater company through Window Seat? So
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Brave Practice was a playback theater program
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of Window Seat. And playback theater is a form
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of improvisational theater where people share
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real stories from their life and then actors
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play them back on the spot on stage. And it's
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been a storytelling. format that I've always
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really appreciated um we did a lot of partnering
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with the HeartSparkle players which is also
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playback theater um you know before Meg came
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on and integrating playback as part of like a
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way that we can activate stories in the community
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has always been exciting to me so Meg came on
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and you know brought this theater company idea
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got you know, a group of actors together. And
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we ran Brave Practice, I think, for two or three
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years, at least two, maybe close to three. And
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it was great. Meg did a variety of workshops,
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like where people actually got to learn the improvisational
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skills. We utilized it a lot as, you know, integrated
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into our sort of the activation phase of our
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projects where we got to. do theater performances
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as an event to like share stories from our projects.
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That was really great. And then it just sort
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of naturally came to an end, you know, just shifting
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priorities. And Meg has been really excited about
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shifting into a new role in the organization
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that really utilizes their public administration
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background. So taking on. you know, in the coming
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months, hopefully taking on more of the, yeah,
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just more of the administrative end of our work,
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budgeting and fundraising and these kinds of
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things that we need to focus on really to keep
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afloat. Oh, yeah, that sounds awesome. Yeah,
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so Window Seat, I guess to back up a little bit,
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Window Seat is a community oral history and storytelling
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organization. We've been partnering with the
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community, I would say, since 2017. That was
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our first community -based And basically, we
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are really interested in, I would say, sort of
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partnering with communities to document and amplify
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stories that we don't always hear in our community.
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So partnering with organizations, with underrepresented
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communities and individuals. And all of our work
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is a very community -based process. So instead
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of me as an oral historian going out and interviewing
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100 people, we like to convene cohorts of community
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members who would like to learn oral history,
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interviewing, editing, transcription, public
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programming, all of those things that go into
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curating a sort of public history project. So
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people come together, we have cohorts, and they
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learn all these different skills. over the course
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of maybe it's a year, maybe it's two years. It
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sort of depends on the project. So they learn
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those skills and then we present stories in the
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community. That sounds fabulous. What kinds of
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stories do you present about the community? Yeah,
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great question. So our projects generally tend
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to be thematic since the beginning and we've
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done a wide variety of... projects. Let me think
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about some of them. Windows Seat started really
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by doing a lot of partnering with organizations
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that are really interested in farmland stewardship,
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working lands, farmland preservation. So our
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work really began around that theme. We partnered
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with the Community Farmland Trust and the Thurston
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Conservation District and did a variety of primarily
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video projects with those communities. So I'd
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say that was a big theme that we worked on for
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a while. We also did a theme around death and
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dying, actually, just thinking about what are
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our stories around death and dying? Where do
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they come from? And how do they impact the care
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we seek and receive? That was a really big project
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that we did that was very community driven. We
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had a whole working group that came together
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around that project. We did a series of audio
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stories. We had a variety of really dynamic,
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multifaceted community events. We did one event
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at the Lord Mansion that was an all -day event
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with various kinds of workshops and sort of non
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-traditional. I guess I would say like sort of
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progressive approaches to end of life. So things
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like green burial and home funerals, death doulas,
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all the things kind of maybe take place outside
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of larger institutional settings. Sharing that
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knowledge and just getting folks in the community
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to realize, wow, there are these other resources,
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these other ways of doing things at end of life.
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So we had all these workshops happening and we
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always have an arts component. So there was like
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a pop -up exhibit and we had a visual artist
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who had their work on display. We had a playback
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theater performance. So we had all these ways
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that you can engage both in like the learning
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around those resources as well as kind of the
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storytelling around those resources, around that
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kind of a project. And Inhale Exhale was a really big
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project we did. We also, through that project,
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engaged with a whole group of sort of younger
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artists in town, and they put on a big event
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at the Capitol Theater, and there was a dance
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performance that they put together. We had a
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lot of different... visual art in the theater
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we showed some short films it's pretty amazing
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um so we did that whole series called Inhale
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Exhale um and then what else let's see you had
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the Third 30 the Voices from the Tidelands Voices
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from the Harbor yeah we have so many different
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projects yeah so um the Third 30 was a project
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that we did um in partnership with Senior Services
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that's where it started anyway um and so we approached
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Senior Services. They had a lifelong learning
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program. And we said, hey, could we do like a
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workshop series with you around oral history
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interviewing where elders could interview other
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elders who took the class? And that's where that
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project really came about. And so it was an eight
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-week program that people could sign up for.
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And they interviewed somebody that they admired
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in the community. And then I taught them how
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to take that interview from a transcript to a
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short written narrative. And then we would have
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these really sweet little gatherings where they
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would read the stories aloud and share kind of
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what they learned through that process. So that
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was really sweet. That sounds cool. What was
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Voices from the Harbor about? Yeah. So Window
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Seat at the time, Voices from the Harbor was
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our very first public program and public storytelling
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project we did. And it happened to be a collaboration
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with the Evergreen State College. I was teaching
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at the time in the harbor, in Grays Harbor County.
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Evergreen had a... had a program out there actually
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serving the Harbor students. And one of the faculty
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at Evergreen, Stephen Buxbaum, and I collaborated
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and we wrote a grant that was administered through
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Evergreen to do a series of events in Grays Harbor
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County that was utilizing oral history interviews
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that students had been conducting. Because Stephen
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had been working with students around oral history,
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interviewing and documentation of the Grays Harbor
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community for a while. They had published a short
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book of stories from an oral history collection
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that the students had gathered. And so we wanted
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to take this wonderful source material that the
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students had produced and bring those to life
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in the community in interesting ways. So we created
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a, let's see, what did we do? We did a event
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at one of their historic theaters where we recorded
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some of the stories. We recorded actors reading
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the stories. group them together by themes of
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migrations, belonging, mentors, neighbors, and
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allies. And we played those themes in this wonderful
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theater. And so you got to listen to the stories
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and we had some sort of facilitated conversation
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after that. So we were able to share those stories
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out. We also had a community mapping project
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where we used those stories as like sites on
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the map, and then people could add their own
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stories and their own sites on the map. So we
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did a community mapping project. And then finally,
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we did a community conversation on housing and
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homelessness, which is a big issue on the harbor
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and intersects with a lot of the stories. So
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yeah, that was that series. That sounds really
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fabulous. What was the turnout for that? You
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know, the Grace Harbor community is a community
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that I noticed that's really invested in its
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history. We had a really well -engaged community
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for all of those events that we did. It was really
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kind of exciting. And it was pretty intergenerational,
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too. Is that like, would you say that that was
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a larger turnout than they usually do? Or what
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is your usually turnout for your events with
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collaborating with this? It sort of varies. I
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think some of our best attended events have been
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the Inhale Exhale series. Both of those events
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at the Capitol Theater and at the Lord Mansion
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were both really well attended. I would say that
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Window Seat does smaller events very well. And
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I think the nature of our work is really around
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connecting together through our stories. And
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so creating spaces where people feel safe to
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share, you know, personal things about their
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lives. So oftentimes that works the best in a
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smaller setting. So I think for us, we love events
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that are like 45, 50 people. A bigger event might
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be 90 people. But I think like maintaining that
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sort of intimacy feels like an important piece
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for us. Yeah, for sure. Having like, you know,
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like more informal, smaller events. Yeah. And
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I noticed something on your website talking about
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ethical storytelling. Can you talk about that?
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What that is? Yeah. So we feel really. to being
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stewards of other people's stories. So this idea
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that we don't own anybody else's story, basically
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it's on loan to us for as long as people would
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like it to be. We take the role of steward really
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seriously because we know that these kinds of
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fields of oral history, sociology, anthropology,
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all these kinds of fields that work with sort
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of quote unquote human subjects come from a history
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of exploitation and extraction, often going into
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communities and taking stories for whatever purpose
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the researcher might want them for, and often
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not to benefit the communities themselves. So
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we have like a long legacy of that within academia
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and within public settings as well. And so I
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think our fields feel really committed to righting
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those wrongs and moving forward in a way that
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feels really collaborative and reciprocal and
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so what that means for us is ongoing consent
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with our narrators so like I said you know they
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own their stories themselves they're a part of
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the whole process so um you know when we complete
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an interview it's important to go back to the
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narrator share the recording share the transcript
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give them an opportunity to make any edits they
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might want you know make sure we're -Everything
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is transcribed accurately, like names of people
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and places and things like that. But most importantly,
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then how they're represented. So obviously, you
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know, we often will take a transcript and then
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edit it down into maybe like a three minute story
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or maybe there's an excerpt on an exhibit display
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somewhere. So we want to make sure that whatever
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way we're presenting somebody's story, that they're
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comfortable with that so we'll go back and say
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hey here's what we produced with your story what
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do you think you know before it's published um
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you know for the public. We make sure that they
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sign off and say, sounds great. Or actually I'd
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like this, you know, this changed in it. And
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we have had moments where people have said, you
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know what, I'm going to withdraw from the project
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because I, you know, decided I don't want to
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participate in this anymore. And so I think that's
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okay too. You know, it's really up to them and
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we just appreciate the relationship. So we really
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try and be as relational as possible. We make
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mistakes just like anybody else, but we just
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are working towards that end of being. Relational
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or reciprocal. We've all had an experience to
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varying degrees where, you know, maybe it's a
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photograph somebody took of you and put on a
15:05
website somewhere and you like really hate the
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way you look or like. You know, I mean, it's
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important to feel like you have agency in how
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you're being presented to the public, you know.
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Absolutely. So whether it's a journalist or,
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you know, an organization that's snapping a picture
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of a program that you're participating in, it's
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always important to get people's feedback. And
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it does take extra time. You know, it's easier
15:25
to have somebody sign a release form and never
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see them again, you know. Like, it's easier to
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do that, to just know, oh, I have their photo
15:31
release. It's fine. But it's just like, again,
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it's like, well, this is a person that you have
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a relationship with. And sometimes, you know,
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taking the time to go back and saying, hey, we're
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going to put this on the website. What do you
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think? You know, it's just a nice little move
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to take. Absolutely. I, like, appreciate that
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very much. Yeah. And I think the idea of ongoing
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consent is that, you know, you might have an
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intention with a story. Say, you know, we're
15:57
doing a project and we know we're going to produce
15:59
an exhibit. So we ask permission and, you know,
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we get the sign off from folks and the exhibit
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goes up. And then maybe a year later we say,
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oh, this is a great story. We want to do X with
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it. Well, it's important to go back to the person
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and say, hey, we have this new way we might want
16:13
to use your story. Is that OK? You know, just
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knowing that people's relationships to their
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stories change over time and they might like
16:19
forget that's even there and decide, oh, you
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know, actually, I don't want that up there anymore.
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You know, so it's important to sort of circle
16:26
back with people. And I think on the flip side
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of that. Again, if you think about it as a relationship,
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it's an opportunity to check in with that person
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and see what they're up to and just sort of revisit
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that relationship with them, too. Absolutely.
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I mean, it can happen that they think of a new
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detail to that story that they forgot to tell
16:45
you the first time, and it might be like a game
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changer for the direction that might take. Yeah.
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Yeah, and I think one good example, you don't
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always know the kind of impact that errors can
16:58
make too. So one example that I give is that
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I was working on this project. This is sort of
17:03
a precursor to Windows Seat. It was one of the
17:04
pilots that I did before we founded Windows Seat.
17:08
And I was working with a bunch of geoduck farmers.
17:11
And I had put together an exhibit that was going
17:14
to be in Seattle at the Folklife Festival. And
17:17
I shared the panel with one of our farmers. And
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geoducks are grown sometimes in these PVC pipes
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that are put in the beaches. And they have to
17:26
be a certain size, like whatever the permitting
17:32
or whatever it might be called requires that
17:35
they're a certain size. And I got the size wrong
17:39
on the exhibit panel. It was just like a typo,
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I think. And she picked it up and she said, oh,
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you need to change this because we would get
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in a lot of trouble. It was published and they
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found out that we were growing geoducks in the
17:52
size of PVC pipe that was too small. And it wasn't
17:55
that they were actually growing them in too small
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PVC pipes. It was just that I made like a typo
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on the panel. And so it's like an example. It
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would have never crossed my mind, but they could
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have actually gotten in a lot of trouble. That's
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really important. Yeah. So you don't know, like
18:07
you could have the best intentions. And even
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if it's a small typo, there could be something
18:11
in there that you just don't know about. For
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sure. What is the impact that you look for with
18:24
your work? A couple things come to mind. One
18:29
of the biggest things that we're interested in
18:32
is expanding the archive. So, for example, right
18:37
now we're doing a pride storytelling project,
18:39
which is about documenting local LGBTQ history
18:43
here in Thurston County. There's a lot of history.
18:48
And a lot of it kind of lives in people's like
18:50
the physical items, like the archival items,
18:52
like newspapers and different things live in
18:55
people's like attics and personal homes. There's
18:59
not a whole lot in physical archives or in the
19:02
library, and there's not a lot of interview content.
19:05
And so we convened a cohort of queer storytellers
19:10
essentially to do that documentation work. So
19:13
they're just finishing their first year of doing
19:15
interviews and they interviewed 18 people in
19:17
the community, which is great. Next year, we'll
19:19
have a year of public programming. So we get
19:21
to share out some of those stories. But I would
19:24
say, you know, having that documentation effort
19:27
so that. It's accessible. We're partnering with
19:31
the Timberland Regional Library, so we'll have
19:35
some of those stories and materials available
19:36
for future researchers to be able to check out
19:40
at the library. So that feels like an impact
19:42
that we're hoping to make is just creating more
19:45
primary source materials that are accessible
19:48
around particular histories that are less documented
19:52
in town that are important. There's been a lot
19:55
of contributions from the LGBTQ community here
19:58
in town, and we want to share and celebrate those.
20:00
So that's, I guess, one impact that is a goal
20:05
of ours. We also, with that project in particular,
20:10
this idea of bringing people together across
20:13
generation feels really important. So we had
20:16
an event on June 3rd where we got to celebrate
20:19
that first year of research. It was a pretty
20:23
inter-generational group. We had somebody who
20:25
was probably late elementary school who shared
20:28
a story all the way up to somebody in their 70s
20:30
or maybe close to 80s. So it feels really good
20:34
to have people from different generations in
20:37
the same room together because we know that history
20:39
comes alive and feels relevant when it's pulled
20:42
from the past into the future, when we're gleaning
20:44
from what happened before that can bring us into
20:48
the next. iteration of where we're going. So
20:50
I think that feels like a really big piece for
20:52
us. I'm trying to think of other kinds of impacts.
20:57
Those who don't remember their history are doomed
21:00
to repeat it. Exactly. We know that history is
21:03
cyclical. It's not linear. And so we often go
21:08
in these cycles. And I think one of the biggest
21:11
themes that came out from the Pride Storytelling
21:12
Project is this idea of the sort of cycle of
21:16
fight and celebration. So it's like injustice
21:19
happens. We're going to fight to get our rights.
21:23
We're going to celebrate. And then here's the
21:25
next one, you know, and just like in times like
21:27
we're in right now to sort of normalize that
21:30
for people, like, oh man, there's like so many
21:32
like bad things happening in the world, you know,
21:35
or in our nation in particular around people's
21:38
rights and liberties. People are tired. People
21:41
are tired of having to go through these patterns
21:43
again and are hoping that maybe this time we
21:46
can escape that cycle and do something different.
21:50
Yeah, I think there's that for sure. And there's
21:53
also, like, a lot of wisdom from people who've
21:56
been through those cycles to say, like, this
21:58
is what I do to feel resilient. This is what
22:00
I do for hope. This is what I do to, like, take
22:02
care of my neighbor, you know, when these things
22:04
are happening. Get the important takeaways. This
22:06
is what worked in the past. Maybe that will work
22:09
now. Well, these things didn't work. But, you
22:12
know, so maybe we need to try something else
22:14
this time, you know, and look at that. past landscape
22:17
and compare it to where we are now there's a
22:20
lot of validity for that yeah yeah so I think
22:23
that's a big piece is sort of learning from the
22:25
past and moving into the future and then there's
22:28
always a sort of community building aspect of
22:32
our work I mean we get people together our work's
22:35
often about like you know communal listening
22:37
to a story and then reflecting and you'll see
22:41
like A story is told, you know, we might share
22:43
a story from our project and then it'll spark
22:45
a memory from somebody else and they'll share
22:47
something. And it's like this, that's where the
22:50
memory activism, that title comes into play.
22:53
It's like we're activating people's memory. We're
22:55
like remembering in new and different ways. We're
22:58
uplifting those stories that we don't often get
23:00
to hear collectively in public, maybe. Maybe
23:04
they're more private stories. So all of those
23:07
things feel really, really important and help
23:09
us feel rooted in this place, connected to each
23:13
other. It helps to sort of stave off isolation
23:16
and makes us feel like we matter. All of us matter.
23:22
So, yeah. For sure. Windows Seat, just to be
23:32
transparent, is actually really struggling financially
23:34
right now, like a lot of nonprofits. We're trying
23:40
to shift away from grant funding, relying so
23:44
heavily on grant funding, as we've done for the
23:47
past three or four years, to more community -based
23:50
support. But the process of doing that transition
23:54
from grants to community -based fundraising is...
23:57
isn't really keeping up with itself if that makes
24:00
sense um and so yeah we're just sort of barely
24:04
staying afloat financially so that's another
24:07
thing that people need to know that you know
24:09
that's an important thing to share yeah yeah
24:12
you hear that everybody all my listeners let's
24:15
let's give Elaine some love here with windows
24:18
seat media so um just to give you a sentence
24:22
um um The last two budget years, I think 50 %
24:27
of our budget came from grants that were not
24:30
renewable. And so we're trying to catch up with
24:33
that with community -based funding. And during
24:35
COVID times, there was a lot of money that was
24:38
dispersed to nonprofits to help them weather
24:41
that storm. And I think nonprofits... took advantage
24:45
of that, but then also like, well, it's not renewable,
24:48
you know? So we're trying to kind of catch up
24:50
with community -based fundraising. So that's
24:53
a big piece that we could always use help with.
24:55
You know, whether you want to host a fundraising
24:58
dinner at your house, we've been doing that and
25:00
that's been really fun. Just making a donation
25:03
online. Donations of time and resources are really
25:09
welcome as well. So if there's a particular skill
25:11
set that people have that would like to donate
25:13
their time towards that, that's always welcome.
25:16
Simply participating keeps it moving, keeps it
25:19
going. Yes. Fuels the projects. Exactly. I mean,
25:23
I think it comes back to our mission of just
25:24
really wanting to build capacity within our community
25:27
to document and share its own stories. I mean,
25:29
that's our mission, essentially, is for people
25:32
to have the tools and the resources to document
25:37
their own history and then share it. So that
25:42
we have, because we know that the archive has
25:45
huge gaps in it, you know, we know our history
25:48
books are written from what's in an archive.
25:50
And so if there's big gaps, if big, if there's
25:53
like communities that are left out of our archive,
25:56
they're not necessarily written into the history,
25:58
right? And there's so many different people who
26:01
live in our country, you know, in our communities,
26:04
so many different people, so many different stories.
26:07
And I think that we really lack a lot of We have
26:10
some, like, historical organizations in town,
26:13
like the Bigelow House has been here forever.
26:15
They will be a historical society. You know,
26:17
there's some places in Tumwater. But, you know,
26:20
Lacey, the Lacey, City of Lacey has a museum.
26:24
The folks working there are really wonderful.
26:27
But I think that, you know, growing the... I
26:31
don't know how else to say it, like the history
26:33
of heritage sector, I think in our community
26:35
and for window seat to play a role in that. And
26:39
our role really being a community based community
26:41
led history making role would be amazing to me
26:46
where you could see like the archive just growing
26:49
and the ways that people engage and share those
26:52
stories grow. And the way that we think about
26:55
history being really generative and. dynamic
26:58
and exciting i think that would be exciting um
27:01
we've also talked about curriculum so last year
27:07
was the first year we did a summer institute
27:08
for educators um where we taught educators how
27:13
to um use oral history interviewing and documentation
27:17
skills in their classrooms um and one of the
27:20
there's a team of i think three educators from
27:23
reeves middle school and they um They wound up
27:27
doing their own oral history project with their
27:29
eighth graders. And that was really exciting.
27:31
Yeah. And so also thinking about like how, how
27:35
can our work be utilized by local educators so
27:39
that the stories that we document can become
27:43
a part of local curriculum feels like an exciting
27:45
prospect to us. Like actually those stories be
27:48
used as texts because we think about, you know,
27:52
the people in our community as knowledge holders.
27:56
And they have a lot of wisdom to share. People
28:00
sharing wisdom just from the things that they've
28:03
lived through feels really important. And so
28:05
I think knowing that those stories are accessible
28:09
for people to learn from, students to learn from,
28:12
feels important. So there's an archival piece.
28:15
There's an educational curriculum piece that
28:17
feels exciting. Being fully resourced to run
28:21
cohorts in a really effective way. that's intentional
28:26
where the cohort members really get training,
28:30
they get financial resources. So we've, you know,
28:32
we pay our, you, you got some, a stipend, a small
28:35
one, but each year we try and increase the stipend
28:38
so that cohort members are actually getting paid
28:41
for their time and their effort. So, you know,
28:44
I guess those would be a few about the archive,
28:46
about the education and curriculum, about the,
28:50
just a really well -resourced cohort. So I think
28:54
those are some of them. Another thing on our
29:03
agenda really is to, you know, we have almost
29:08
10 years now of archival materials that feel
29:11
like they need a more permanent home. And so,
29:15
but unfortunately in our community, we don't
29:17
really have. repository, like an archive. We
29:20
have the library, and they've been wonderful
29:22
partners to us, and we're excited to get publications
29:25
of our stories in the library, but it's not an
29:27
archive. Evergreen has an archive, but I think
29:31
in some ways it's sort of, I think, mission -driven
29:33
by Evergreen, so to the extent that our stories
29:37
make sense there, I'm not sure. And then the
29:39
Washington State Archive is really for government
29:41
documents mainly. So I think... I think one of
29:46
the things is like, what do we do with this,
29:48
these materials so that they're accessible, like
29:50
to the public long -term and not just the short
29:53
stories, but like the full length archive of
29:56
materials, like all the long form oral history
29:59
interviews. So I think that's a question in my
30:01
mind, like what, what can we do? Like, how can
30:05
we get all that organized? Like that would be
30:06
amazing to have that organized and put someplace.
30:09
So I think that's a big piece is like the archive.
30:12
And I mean, I guess for me, it's like, The permanency
30:15
of an archive where you, I mean, to me, like
30:19
what's interesting about archival materials is
30:21
they can come out at any time and you can make
30:23
sense of them at any moment. Like 50 years from
30:26
now, you can make sense of something that was
30:27
recorded today. We can make sense of something
30:29
that was recorded. You know what I mean? Like,
30:31
so they're not like static. It isn't static materials,
30:34
but you're like re -engaging with them. That's
30:36
what makes history exciting is if you're re -engaging
30:38
with them in the present. So I think the archive
30:41
feels like a piece. Now I wanted to ask you,
30:53
do you partner with other organizations? You've
30:55
mentioned already that the word partner has come
30:59
up. So talk about that a little bit. Yeah, well,
31:03
Windows Seat is very much of a community -driven,
31:06
partnership -based organization. We always have
31:08
been. So all of our projects have been partnerships,
31:11
I think, essentially. And, I mean, our most recent,
31:16
this price retailing partner. Pride Storytelling
31:19
Project is a partnership with Capital City Pride.
31:21
And the need and interest in that really came
31:25
from that organization anyway. I mean, they're
31:27
the ones who said, we're not finding this research
31:30
in the library, you know, and came to Meg and
31:32
said, Meg, you know, I hear you do this stuff
31:35
at Windows Seat. What can we do together, you
31:36
know? So I think a lot of, we'd like to be responsive
31:40
to community needs. We did the Olympia Music
31:44
History Project. That was a couple of years ago.
31:47
And that was an idea of one of the heritage commissioners
31:50
who said, you know, we've got this great history
31:51
here in town. You know, music, Olympian music
31:54
history is internationally known as like a place
31:57
where amazing things happened. I mean, still
32:00
happen, but I think particularly that moment
32:02
in the 80s and 90s in Olympia. And so like people
32:05
plant a seed and then, you know, we responded
32:08
and I partnered with a librarian in town, Kelsey
32:12
Smith. um and she did more of the archival research
32:17
library -based research and I facilitated the
32:20
the oral history collection so working with a
32:23
team of eight or nine musicians who did all the
32:25
interviews and they did like 30 some odd interviews
32:28
over the course of like three or four months
32:30
it was pretty incredible so then that organization
32:33
that that group sort of spun off and created
32:35
their own non -profit now you know because of
32:38
that sort of beginning seed that was planted
32:42
so it's really exciting to see them like off
32:44
and running and using those skills that we kind
32:47
of helped share with them early on and they have
32:51
a beautiful website now and a lot of those interviews
32:54
are now you know just accessible to the public
32:57
and one of the things that's exciting about that
32:58
project is Olympia music has been covered you
33:02
know over the years by various people but I think
33:06
that this project is unique in that it's like
33:08
by Olympia for Olympia kind of so I think a lot
33:12
of people have come in and wanted to like interview
33:14
various people but I think the fact that the
33:18
people who were doing the interviews were local
33:21
residents themselves kind of had it just adds
33:23
a different flavor to it um so that was a partnership
33:27
um trying to think of the other ones I mean our
33:31
partnership with for the Third 30 was Senior
33:33
Services And I think what's exciting is, you
33:36
know, with Senior Services was that was early
33:38
on. It was the Senior Services project was like
33:41
the first time I tried out this community -based
33:43
model where I was like teaching people to do
33:46
the interviews themselves. And so I hadn't even
33:48
tried it yet in the community. And I went to
33:50
them, Sara, who was the..Sara Rucker Theissen, who
33:54
was the lifelong learning person at the time.
33:56
And I just pitched this idea, let's try. it you
33:59
know so I think one of the things that I love
34:01
about Olympia is like those opportunities where
34:04
you you put an idea out there and then somebody
34:07
says yes and you don't know where it's gonna
34:08
go but I think like I feel really grateful for
34:11
those moments where You know, I've suggested,
34:14
like, what do you think about this? And somebody
34:16
has said yes, and we tried it. And, you know,
34:18
sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But
34:19
it's always exciting when people are up for something
34:21
new. It's always an experiment. It is. Resource
34:25
Report was an experiment. Yeah. And look where
34:27
we are. You're, like, number 14. Yeah. Yeah,
34:32
totally. Yeah, and speaking of the different
34:34
episodes, you mentioned Olympia History Project,
34:37
name dropped, Kelsey Smith. all of that Olympia
34:42
History Project thing and your partnership with
34:44
Windows Seat Media was, in fact, that was something
34:46
that was brought up when I interviewed Markly
34:48
Morrison in our ninth. Yeah. Excellent. So it's
34:53
really cool to have that cycle back around and
34:55
be brought up again. It's so cool coming full
34:58
circle. What would that look like to get involved?
35:08
in a cohort project? Each cohort has a slightly
35:12
different format depending on the project. The
35:17
current cohort, the Pride Storytelling cohort,
35:21
is a two -year project. And so year one was documentation.
35:25
Year two is public programming. It runs from
35:28
about October to June. And the idea is that cohort
35:32
members meet once a month. So I meet with them
35:34
once a month. And our meetings are... two and
35:38
a half hours long. And during that time, they
35:40
learn the skills that they need to, like for
35:44
the year one documentation, we looked at, you
35:47
know, we learned oral history interviewing skills.
35:50
We talked a lot about storytelling ethics, transcription,
35:55
recording, like thinking about, you know, the
36:00
technical aspects of doing a good recording.
36:03
And then there was a lot of outreach, too, just
36:05
that folks did in terms of thinking about who
36:08
do we want to interview. And early on, we did
36:11
a lot of thinking about project design. You know,
36:14
what is it that you want to focus on? What kinds
36:17
of essential questions are we going to explore
36:19
together as a group? And then, you know, how
36:21
do we take these overarching essential questions
36:23
and then each come up with their own interview
36:25
questions based on who we're interviewing? So
36:28
we sort of went through that whole process. And
36:30
then next year, we'll do the public programming.
36:33
And this year, we're actually hoping, if all
36:37
the funding comes through, each cohort member
36:40
will be able to propose, like, this is the project
36:43
that I want to do. And we'll be able to give
36:45
cohort members a certain amount of money to do
36:48
each of their projects so that they can create
36:50
a little budget. You know, I know that I'm going
36:52
to do an exhibit and printing is going to cost
36:54
this much and I want to pay myself X amount,
36:56
you know. So we're hoping that part of this is
36:59
like the professional development skills. So,
37:01
you know, we're supporting folks in learning
37:03
how to propose like a project and thinking about
37:06
the budget, what that budget would look like.
37:07
And, you know. If you're doing an event, like
37:10
what venue are you going to use? And can you
37:12
get that as an in -kind donation? And, you know,
37:14
all those kinds of things. So that sounds like
37:17
grant writing skills. It is. Yeah, there's some
37:19
great writing skills in there for sure. Specifically
37:22
around podcasting. And at this point, I think
37:25
all of our cohort members are going to continue
37:27
as far as I know. But we will have space for
37:30
probably one or two more people. And I think
37:32
the things that we're particularly excited about
37:34
is people who want to work on the podcast. So
37:36
that would be a way to plug in. And if people
37:39
are interested, just kind of signing up for our
37:42
newsletter, and we'll probably hear about applying
37:45
to be a cohort member in the next, I would say,
37:48
month. Where do people meet? So right now we're
38:00
housed at Arbutus Folk School. We've been here
38:02
for about a year. We love it. We love being here.
38:05
It's so wonderful to be in a space where people
38:09
are creating art all the time and craft, engaged
38:14
deeply in a craft. It's really exciting. And
38:18
it also feels really good to offset the folk
38:20
school's rent with our rent. So that feels great.
38:25
And we've also really valued the partnership
38:29
we've had with the YWCA and particularly the
38:32
Liberation Collective. So the Liberation Collective
38:35
is a space that's housed at the YWCA in their
38:39
Friendship Hall, but it's its own entity. And
38:44
they provide space for groups who are needing
38:48
space for workshops and different things. So
38:51
that's where our cohort meetings currently happen.
39:04
People who want to come and work with you in
39:06
the cohorts, do people need to come in with already
39:11
having some skills or experience working with
39:14
media or interviewing or anything like that?
39:18
I would say no. I mean, I think I don't have
39:23
an expectation that people will have skills already.
39:26
I do. have an expectation that people are open
39:30
to learning and wanting to try new technologies
39:33
and have some comfort level with trying new technologies.
39:38
I think if you're somebody who like really doesn't
39:41
like the computer or doesn't like to work with
39:44
software that maybe audio editing is probably
39:46
not your thing. You know what I mean? But I don't
39:48
expect you to know, um, how to do audio editing
39:51
beforehand. Um, if that's the thing that you're
39:53
going to be working on. Um, I think it would,
39:56
I think the main thing that I, I hope from folks
40:00
is, um, yeah, just, uh, an openness to learning,
40:05
an openness to learning. this practice of oral
40:08
history which is different it's a different um
40:10
it's a different approach to interviews than
40:14
a lot of journalism is or even like we produce
40:18
so much content now for social media where people
40:21
are being interviewed and then you create your
40:24
shorter little thing and it's like under two
40:26
minutes or whatever this is not that and so I
40:29
think it's like um We're not it's not content
40:33
creation. We're not doing content creation. You
40:35
know, we're doing oral history interviews that
40:37
become content for public programming or podcasts
40:40
or whatever. So I think it's shifting that frame
40:42
in people's minds. So I think if they're open,
40:45
if you're open to like this new this other way
40:47
of doing interviews and. grounding that I like
40:52
the interview itself and this idea of the importance
40:54
of the archive and the importance of the interview
40:57
process, which is like a one -on -one conversation
40:59
over an extended period of time. It's not 15
41:02
minutes. It's usually an hour, 90 minutes, you
41:04
know? So if you're interested in that idea, then
41:06
I welcome people, even if they have no experience.
41:08
Yeah. Cool. What if you happen to have somebody
41:13
that comes in with like a lot of experience and
41:16
skills? Well, I love that too. So a good example
41:21
of that was the music project. So with the Olympia
41:24
Music History Project, I hosted, I think it was
41:28
like a, I want to say it was like a four hour
41:30
training on a like a weekend. And that was it.
41:33
So like so many people in that room already had
41:36
a lot of experience. So instead of like meeting
41:39
every week to like go through the process, we
41:42
had this sort of like intensive, let's learn
41:45
all the things together and share. So it was
41:48
also like there was a lot of skill sharing during
41:50
that training where people shared their own experience
41:54
and tools and techniques and interviewing. So
41:57
it felt much more like an exchange. And then
41:59
once we had that, people were just sort of off.
42:01
And we did a lot of like checking in and, you
42:04
know. There was a lot of communication back and
42:06
forth with different interviewers, but it didn't
42:08
feel like a weekly class necessarily. And it
42:13
was great. Does it cost anything to participate?
42:24
Most of our programs are free. So most of our
42:28
events are free. When we do workshops like our
42:31
Summer Institute, which we're doing again this
42:34
year. So at the end of August, we have another
42:37
Summer Institute. Those are typically for, you
42:42
know, you have to pay to be a part of those workshops.
42:45
But the nice thing is, is if you're an educator,
42:47
so we're a clock hour provider. So if you're
42:50
an educator, you can get your clock hours from
42:51
participating. And often the educators also have
42:55
opportunities where they can get a grant to take
42:57
the um take the program so if you go on our
43:00
website i think it's called like a WEA grant
43:02
or something like that but if you go on your
43:04
website it'll it'll say what the grant is how
43:07
much does it cost to participate in those particular
43:10
programs um you know we always do a sliding scale
43:13
so we'd like to have like one price point that's
43:17
you know if you're if um If cost is prohibitive,
43:21
like, here's what you pay, this is the actual
43:24
cost, and then if you can pay above that, it
43:26
helps to support the people who can't pay the
43:28
actual cost. A pay -it -forward. Yes, we usually
43:30
do that. Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds
43:39
like each... different round of the program that
43:43
you're in with a different group of people, there's
43:46
a lot of room for flexibility and adaptability
43:49
to that. It sounds almost like here's the plant,
43:54
here's the project, and then let's see how that's
43:58
going to play out and how we can work with these
44:03
different people and their individual skills
44:06
and needs that they bring and make this work.
44:16
So you have a very low barrier entry for community
44:20
members coming in to work with you. Like literally
44:22
it could be anybody. I mean, this is a crazy
44:26
wild example, but like what if you had like a
44:30
government administrator wanting to do this in
44:33
their off time? Or what if you had a really driven
44:37
houseless individual, for example? Yeah. Those
44:43
are two major extremes. Yeah, I mean, I think
44:46
we maybe unconsciously have, I mean, now that
44:51
you, now that you're talking about it like that,
44:52
I'm realizing, yeah, like, we don't really have
44:55
a lot of requirements for people to participate.
45:04
And I guess like I was saying before, it's more
45:06
of just an openness to learning and a commitment
45:09
to the field. Because I think that's the big
45:12
piece is that it's not Elaine coming up with
45:14
these like this framework or these ethical guidelines.
45:19
It's not me. It's a field that I'm connected
45:21
to and that I was trained in. And so I think
45:23
it's like we need to be enough that we don't
45:27
want to question. Because, I mean, things change
45:31
because we question them, right? So it's important
45:33
if we notice something within the field that
45:36
we're like, hey, that doesn't sound right, that
45:38
we question it and we think about it. But that
45:40
this work belongs to a larger field of practice
45:44
and that there's groups all over the U .S. doing
45:47
this work. Amazing groups. You know, even here
45:52
in the Northwest, Wanawari up in Seattle. It's
45:57
an amazing organization in the Central District,
46:00
and they're doing lots of things, but one of
46:03
the pieces that they do is called the Black Spatial
46:07
Histories Institute. I hope I'm saying that right.
46:11
And they do a similar cohort model. It's a two
46:13
-year process where they have folks doing oral
46:17
history interviewing and they're doing public
46:18
programming. Then to the North, certainly the
46:22
Wing Luke Museum is an amazing example of a community
46:26
curated museum that really is deeply embedded
46:30
in oral history practices. The Vanport Mosaic
46:33
to the South in Portland, similar group. The
46:38
After Violence Project, which started out in
46:41
Texas, but now is kind of all over the place,
46:44
really documenting the experience of... individuals
46:48
and families who've been impacted by state violence
46:50
and incarceration doing really, really important
46:54
work. But there's examples all over. So I think
46:58
of us as a part of this larger field. That's
47:01
an underrepresented field, but we're there. We
47:05
exist. What if you were to work with the it's
47:20
a program at evergreen working with, um, the
47:26
incarcerated students. Oh yeah. Gateways for
47:28
Incarcerated Youth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and,
47:32
you know, maybe help get their stories out and
47:36
learn skills, skills learning. Yeah. That's a
47:39
good idea. I mean, I think there's this level
47:41
to this layer around like trauma informed interviewing
47:46
and practices that feels like a, I feel like
47:50
our work is trauma -informed, but I think we
47:53
have some work to do around working with particular
47:56
populations that are maybe more vulnerable in
48:01
that respect. Because there's a lot of ways that
48:05
interviewing can cause harm to people, can re
48:09
-trigger trauma, depending on what kinds of questions
48:12
that you ask. And if you're somebody who hasn't
48:14
experienced something, Like this has come up
48:17
a lot with like interviewing with houseless folks,
48:19
for example. If you're somebody who hasn't gone
48:22
through that, and then you do an interview with
48:24
somebody who has, you could ask, like unintentionally
48:27
ask a question that could be really painful to
48:30
that person or re -traumatize them. And so I
48:33
think there's a piece around that too, where
48:35
it feels important. And I think that's part of
48:39
our... ethical storytelling I was going to say
48:42
it circles back to that and also just our framework
48:45
where our projects we try to have our projects
48:50
be done by people who are directly a part of
48:53
the community that they're documenting so like
48:55
all of our with our pride storytelling project
48:57
I mean all of our cohort members doing the interviews
49:00
identify as part of the LGBTQ community and so
49:05
that feels important because there's a level
49:07
of like understanding more I think of like um
49:11
yeah of just what giving agency to their stories
49:17
and their voices exactly for sure yeah so I think
49:20
there's there's that that piece for sure yeah
49:32
this is an amazing uh community resource that
49:34
you have Elaine um you know Working with supporting
49:39
people and sharing their own stories and looking
49:42
at how their stories fit in with the greater
49:47
story, collective story of the community. Thank
49:51
you. Is there anything else you would like to
49:55
share? Well, I think the only thing else I'd
50:00
want to share is that it really feels like all
50:03
of our work has been a collective effort. I think
50:07
about all the people along the way who've said
50:09
yes to different things, who've been on our board
50:12
and been incredible advisors or, you know, creative
50:15
collaborators, collaborated with so many talented
50:18
people who, you know, done artwork for exhibits
50:22
or produced like original music for the podcasts,
50:26
you know, created like this group of dancers
50:29
who created this whole dance performance for
50:31
our Inhale Exhale project. It's just exciting
50:34
to have opportunities to put out an invitation
50:38
and say, you know, what do you think? And have
50:41
people join and add their own creative flair
50:44
to whatever we're doing and get some fulfillment
50:47
of whatever goal that they might have. So working
50:49
collectively feels really important and exciting
50:52
to me. And I hope that that's always at the center
50:55
of our work. Because I think, you know, Window
50:59
Seat and our projects in general really center
51:03
on this idea of collectivism. as opposed to individualism.
51:06
So our oral history projects in general are hoping
51:09
to uplift this idea of collective organizing,
51:17
working together, and that we're all part of
51:21
an ecosystem, and that all of our roles matter,
51:24
that everybody has a role to play in social change.
51:28
All of those roles are important and needed,
51:30
and they're all interdependent. that's any more
51:34
important than the next person, you know, and
51:37
just really leveraging that. So I think in our
51:40
own work, we try and emulate that as well in
51:43
the way that we organize our projects. So I would
51:47
say that that's a big piece. And I should also
51:50
say, I should say that our overarching project
51:54
or theme of all of our work is Community Roots.
51:59
And Community Roots is a project that really
52:01
explores how people come together to make change
52:04
and create new possibilities for themselves and
52:06
their neighbors. And it really focuses on organizing
52:09
efforts and artists often intersecting with each
52:14
other. So we know in our community that community
52:17
arts and community organizing are very aligned
52:19
with each other and intersecting. And so Community
52:22
Roots serves as sort of our overarching project
52:25
and all the things that we've done sort of underneath
52:27
that speak to that bigger, bigger theme and bigger
52:31
project. So we have this bigger theme and then
52:34
we might focus on a particular topic or community.
52:37
The Pride Storytelling Project, LGBTQ community,
52:40
Inhale Exhale is really around how are we taking
52:43
care of each other in this, you know, non -conventional
52:45
way at the time, end of life. Third Spaces, which
52:50
was our original community roots project, you
52:53
know, is thinking about access to space, who
52:55
has access to space and the importance of space
52:57
in relationship to community organizing and making
53:02
art together. It's a community. So all of our
53:05
projects kind of fit under that overarching theme
53:08
of community roots and organizing and art making,
53:13
I guess. So Community Roots is like the umbrella
53:24
project for all these smaller sub -projects.
53:26
Yes, I would say so. What's the best way to reach
53:29
out? Yeah, so I would suggest we send out a monthly
53:34
newsletter that has all the details of everything.
53:37
So signing up for our newsletter on our website
53:39
is a great way to stay in touch. We're also on
53:42
Facebook and on Instagram. a place where we're
53:47
posting updates and just different things for
53:52
people to be aware of. Those are the two best
53:54
or the three best ways I would suggest. Awesome.
53:58
Yeah, pretty simple. Oh, thank you so much. Thank
54:02
you. It was fun to be here. It was amazing for
54:13
me to have Elaine on Resource Report because
54:16
I actually interned with her. To have your own
54:20
experience working with Elaine, visit www.windowseatmedia
54:26
.org and you can shoot Elaine an email at elaine
54:31
@windowseatmedia .org or call 360 -754 -6506.
54:42
Don't forget to sign up for that newsletter.
54:50
That's it for today's resource report produced
54:53
by Pathways to Agency. Pathways to Agency, we
54:57
are driven by the belief that everyone should
54:59
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55:02
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Report offers information about existing and
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55:42
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55:50
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55:53
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