(FORMERLY THE CALIFORNIA STORY FUND)

Special, theme-based grant rounds of this ongoing story-gathering effort to create a portrait of life in California were recently conducted in conjunction with our Searching for Democracy initiative. Many of the grants we awarded in 2011 through Community Stories (then the California Story Fund) were for story-based projects that examine the meaning of and challenges to democracy. 

GRANTS AWARDED IN FALL 2012

• Between Meals: Refugee Women Transition to their California Homes & Kitchens (book and discussion program)
  Refugee Transitions, San Francisco
  Project Director: Dani Fisher
  Upon arrival in the United States, many refugees, particularly women, experience feelings of isolation as they struggle to navigate the complexities of a vastly different landscape and culture. As refugee families resettle and adapt to their new homes, food is a primary mainstay connecting them to their history and cultural traditions. This project will use recipes, personal stories, and cultural artifacts to share the histories, struggles, and accomplishments of fifteen Bay Area refugee women, preserve cultural knowledge from their home countries, and highlight their expertise as caregivers and cooks. The resulting “story-based people’s cookbook” will be available in print and online, and will be accompanied by a wide range of public programming activities. $10,000
• California Water Stories (film)
  California State University Chico Research Foundation, Chico
  Project Director: Jesse Dizard
  Centered on the collection of environmental oral histories from two distinct groups – European-American growers and ranchers and Maidu elders – this project will endeavor to tell the larger story of the relationship between people and water in rural Northern California, and how settlement, infrastructure, agriculture, and development have transformed the region’s landscape. Students will assist the project director and co-director, both visual anthropologists, with research, recording interviews, and editing the material into a 22 minute video that will be aired on local public television and anchor community and campus-based screenings, discussions, and dialogues. $9,999
• War at Home and Abroad: A Community in Wartime(new media)
  Department of History/California State University San Marcos, San Marcos
  Project Director: Patty Seleski
  San Diego is home to the nation’s largest population of returning veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This project will elicit and record the testimonies of veterans, military contractors, civilian government employees and family members from the region, in an effort to document the wars’ impact on the local community. Conducted by students and faculty of CSUSM, in partnership with an extensive array of veteran’s groups and veteran-serving community partner organizations, this oral history collection endeavor will produce a digital archive, with related on- and off-campus public programs. $10,000
• Exploring the Lives of California’s Commercial Fishermen (film/exhibit/website)
  Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
  Project Director: Melissa Stevens
  Small-boat commercial fishermen who work the waters of California’s Central Coast will share stories about community, work, and the marine environment with the broader public through the means of a traveling multimedia exhibit and enhanced website. Weaving environmental, economic, cultural, and labor history along with first-person narrative accounts, the project will document, preserve, and interpret California maritime history and heritage, towards the aim of increasing knowledge and awareness on the part of urban consumers, scholars and students, and policymakers. $10,000
• Filipino Love Stories in San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara Counties, 1920-1970 (multimedia exhibit)
  Cal Poly Corporation/California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
  Project Director: Grace Yeh
  Drawing upon an extensive oral history already completed by Cal Poly students and faculty in partnership with local community organizations, this digital humanities project will share stories about how early Filipino immigrants to this agricultural region of California experienced romance, love, marriage and family life under challenges posed by the exclusionary social and legal structures of the time. The project will result in an online archive, a curated web-based exhibit, and public programs that will make this history accessible and available to the community itself as well as students and scholars. $10,000
• For the Love of Ship: Elder Volunteers on the SS Red Oak Victory (oral history/multimedia exhibit)
  Richmond Museum Association, Inc., Richmond
  Project Director: Melinda McCrary
  For the past 14 years, a committed community of elders has labored to restore the last surviving World War II victory ship built at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, previously destined to be scrapped. This oral history project and multimedia exhibit will educate the public about the history of the Red Oak and shipbuilding in Northern California, the dynamic elder volunteers – many of whom are veterans – who saved the Red Oak, and present an alternative perspective on aging, the experience of retirement, and the contributions of elders to civic society. $10,000
• From Hole in the Head to Open Space: An Environmental Legacy (multimedia exhibit/website)
  Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa
  Project Director: Diane Evans
  Nearly 50 years after two historic Sonoma County environmental battles, this project will collect video and audio stories from residents involved in the fight over a nuclear power plant at Bodega Head and the struggle for public access to the coastline in the 1960s. By sharing the stories through a multimedia exhibit, the project will educate the public about Sonoma County’s environmental legacy and invite others to consider contemporary issues around environmental preservation and citizen action. The place-based exhibit will include audio and video interviews, text, photos, and artifacts, accompanied by a web-based exhibit with images, maps, text, and video clips that will broaden the reach of the project. $10,000
• Growing a Community: Pioneers of the Japanese American Floral Industry (digital media presentation)
  Anthropological Studies Center/Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park
  Project Director: Dana Ogo Shew
  The largely-unknown story of how Japanese American immigrants to the Bay Area established a thriving floriculture industry in the late 19th century, with profound implications for California’s and the nation’s agricultural history, will be examined in this project, which will focus on collecting oral histories from surviving family members. These stories, supplemented with photographs and archival documents, and contextualized by scholarly research, will be shared through means of a DVD, a website, and public screenings and discussions at community-based organizations, community centers, schools, and libraries in the East Bay. $10,000
• I’ve Known Rivers/Bayview Hunters Point Oral History Project (multimedia presentation)
  Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
  Project Director: Shiree Dyson
  Building on a collection of personal narratives of “Black California” already compiled, through a partnership with the Smithsonian’s StoryCorps Griot Initiative, the museum will gather stories from residents, particularly elders, of the rapidly changing historic African American community of Hunters Point. In addition to expanding its oral history collection activities in the community, the museum will produce an edited volume, make stories available through its website, and organize a story-sharing and discussion program for the community during Black History Month in 2014. $10,000
• Little Kabul: Afghan American Stories (film discussion program/website)
  Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, Oakland
  Project Director: Aya Okawa
  Oral histories from Afghan Americans living in the San Francisco region, what may be the largest Afghan population center outside Central Asia, will be videotaped, edited, and shared through a website that will include content in Dari as well as English. The project will give voice to a diverse range of community members – elders, adults, and young people, both men and women – allowing this immigrant community to share their stories with Bay Area neighbors and people throughout the state in a way that will foster greater empathy and understanding of their experience. $10,000
• The Los Angeles “Who We Were” Project (new media)
  Zócalo Public Square, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Gregory Rodriguez
  Through long-form personal essays, this project will craft a new Los Angeles narrative and history that reflects its diversity and investigates the issues that unite and divide its citizens. Unexpected and untold stories that defy stereotypes about neighborhoods and backgrounds will be collected across Los Angeles, resulting in a rich archive of Los Angeles history. The essays and accompanying multimedia content will be presented on the Zócalo website and further disseminated in partnership with local NPR affiliate KCRW. $10,000
• A Man and the Mountain: Messages from Joaquin Miller’s Shasta Years (exhibit and public programs)
  Mt. Shasta Sisson Museum, Mt. Shasta
  Project Director: Jean Nels
  The realities of life in Gold Rush-era California have often been reduced to stereotypes or caricatures. This project will endeavor to present a richer, more nuanced view of that history through examining the life of Joaquin Miller, mid-nineteenth century writer, frontiersman, and advocate for Native Americans and environmental stewardship, by exploring how his story and stories about him have shaped community members’ understanding of the Mt. Shasta region and its peoples, both native and settler. The project will produce a museum exhibit, several short films, a symposium, and culminate in a community celebration. $10,000
• NWC Regalia Stories (oral history/multimedia exhibit)
  Native Women’s Collective, Arcata
  Project Director: Cutcha Risling Baldy
  Oral histories, photographs, and personal essays will be videotaped and collected to create a multimedia exhibit that will enhance public knowledge and understanding of Northwest California Native peoples, traditions, and cultures through the “life stories” and histories of cultural regalia. This project will engage a cross spectrum of generations from the Native community to interpret and document their own stories and histories. Additionally, collected materials will be archived at local educational institutions and shared on an interactive website. $10,000
• Pioneers of Watts: Shared Histories of Pride and Perseverance (film)
  Watts Labor Community Action Committee, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Gilda Green-Hagood
  Community elders will use digital stories, photographs, letters, and artifacts collected over the past four years to produce a short documentary. By sharing the point of view of long-time residents, the project hopes to educate the public about how community members view Watts and to challenge dominant representations by outsiders and media. The film will be screened at local schools and community centers, and will also be available for online viewing. $10,000
• The Raitt Street Chronicles: A Survivors Oral History (oral history/film)
  Santa Ana Public Library, Santa Ana
  Project Director: Manuel J. Escamilla
  The Library will partner with Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center to train teen community historians to collect oral histories from survivors of violence in the Townsend/Raitt neighborhood, one of Santa Ana’s most at-risk communities. These stories will enhance the public’s knowledge and understanding of the realities and daily struggles faced by first-generation Latino immigrants who continue to pursue their dreams under the constant pressure of random neighborhood violence. The interviews will be available online, presented at community screenings and discussion programs, and provide the core of a short film about the history of the neighborhood, which will also be made available online. $10,000
• Sex Workers in Sacramento: Learning Their Stories (film)
  University Enterprises, Inc. /CSU Sacramento, Sacramento
  Project Director: Dr. Vanessa Arnaud
  Sacramento State students and community members will collaborate to produce a short film about sex workers in Sacramento. By interviewing sex workers, HIV sex worker survivors, clients, law enforcement, public defenders, and the staff of community stakeholders, this project will raise local awareness, better inform the public about the challenges and complexities sex workers often face, and encourage more empathy and understanding. The film will be made available online, electronic portfolios will be created about the project and service learning, and the film will also be showcased at a campus-wide conference, “Humanities Enriched through Community Engagement.” $10,000
• Stockton Cambodian Oral History Project (film and website)
  Asian Pacific Self-Development and Residential Association, Stockton
  Project Director: Elizabeth Roberts
  The city of Stockton has the fifth-largest Cambodian population in the nation, and the second largest in California. The story of how the original refugees and their descendants are preserving their history and culture through continuing the practice of Khmer New Year celebrations every spring will be told through the media of a film and website. Employing a documentary process that will engage community youth, as well as a team of academic and community advisors, the organizers hope to strengthen intergenerational ties within the Cambodian community, as well as to deepen understanding and appreciation of the contributions made by this immigrant group to the cultural life of the region. $10,000
• Stories from San Quentin (storytelling performance)
  Marin Shakespeare Company, San Rafael
  Project Director: Lesley Schisgall Currier
  Through an autobiographical writing and theater workshop program, 20 inmates will produce a work that will share their stories of life inside and outside the prison walls. As they prepare to perform one of Shakespeare’s works, the men involved in the production will work with humanities advisors to develop a “parallel play”, rooted in their own experience, in response to themes suggested by the play. A performance for the public as well as other inmates, followed by a moderated discussion forum, will take place at San Quentin; a videotaped version will be made available online, along with the text of the stories written by the men, to allow them to share their experiences with the broader community. $10,000
• Tales of Kelly’s Cove (oral history/website)
  Western Neighborhoods Project, San Francisco
  Project Director: Stephen “Woody” LaBounty
  Tucked away in the northernmost corner of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, Kelly’s Cove quietly developed into an early body and board surfing haven after World War II. By collecting first-person narratives from Kelly’s Cove elders and a broad range of community members, this project will tell the story of San Francisco’s early role in the history of California’s surfing movement and nature-focused, spiritual counterculture. Video-taped interviews and transcripts will be shared online, archived at public libraries, and used to create historical signboard exhibits for display at the Outside Lands Music Festival and other local venues. $10,000
• Unsettlers: Migrants, Homies, and Mammas in the Mission of San Francisco (new media)
  Shaping San Francisco/Independent Arts and Media, San Francisco
  Project Director: Adriana Camarena
  Stories around interlacing themes Mothers and Sorrows, War and Migration, and Home and Eviction will be collected from Mission residents by the project director, a scholar-journalist, to tell the broader story of this diverse, eclectic, working-class San Francisco urban neighborhood. Conversations, interview transcripts, written stories, and video footage will be showcased on a participatory website, and at several public reading and discussion programs throughout the city to be organized by Shaping San Francisco. $9,850  

GRANTS AWARDED IN SUMMER 2012

• African American Youth in Oakland Oral History Project (multimedia exhibit)
  Story Bridges, Alameda 
  Project Director: Angela Zusman
  Seeking both to empower urban African American youth and provide those outside the community with insight into the lives, hopes, and dreams of these young people, their peers, and families, this oral history- and photography-based project will engage a group of 12 young men in a hands-on humanities experience. Working with a curator, the boys will learn interviewing, archiving, and writing skills, and develop a book and multimedia exhibit documenting their research. A curriculum guide will be produced to enable other youth service providers to replicate the project. $10,000
• The Ages: Stories of LGBT Elders (dramatic performance)
  Boxtales Theatre Company, Santa Barbara
  Project Director: Michael Andrews
  Aiming to bridge generational divisions and document a largely unknown aspect of Santa Barbara’s history, this project will connect LGBT high school students in Santa Barbara with LGBT community elders. Students will interview the seniors and record their stories, then, working with theater professionals, develop theater pieces for performances for local audiences; performances will be followed by discussion sessions. Both interviews and videotaped performances will be shared through the organization’s website. $7,060
• Camp to Campus (film)
  California State University, Bakersfield; Bakersfield
  Project Director: Marit MacArthur
  A documentary film will give expression to the voices of first-generation college students—children of Central Valley migrant farm workers. In addition to offering viewers insight into the lives, challenges, and accomplishments of these young people and their families, many of whom are immigrants, the film will examine the importance of higher education to the future of this traditionally agricultural region. Screenings and discussions at local high schools, libraries, social service agencies, and college campuses are planned. The documentary will be incorporated into an interactive website and linked to the widely-used Dust Bowl Migration online archive. $10,000
• Canción de San Juan: Oratorio of a California Town (music performance)
  El Teatro Campesino, San Juan Bautista
  Project Director: Daniel Valdez
  Employing the musical form of the oratorio, which combines music, choral voices, spoken narrative and visual elements—this original work by California’s renowned bilingual theater company will tell the three-hundred-year old story of the town of San Juan Bautista through the stories of its diverse peoples. The musical production will be performed in as part of an annual cycle of plays and theatrical productions in this historic mission town; a videotaped performance will be archived and shared through the Teatro’s website. $10,000
• Fernbridge: The Span of the Century (film)
  The Ferndale Museum, Ferndale
  Project Director: Wendy Lestina
  Documenting a story of civic engagement and citizen activism aimed at preservation of a cherished local landmark, this film will document the efforts of community members from many backgrounds to save a historic bridge in Northern California from demolition and, in so doing, build bridges across generational and cultural divisions in the community. The feature-length film will be used in screening and discussion events at the museum as well as in schools and cultural organizations throughout the county, and will be disseminated on the web and through on local cable and educational television channels. $10,000
• Global Taxi Driver: Driving to Democracy (dramatic performance)
  TeAda Productions, Santa Monica
  Project Director: Leilani Chan
  Immigrant taxi drivers, many of whom have fled their home countries in search of democracy and freedom, are the subjects of this story-based project which will offer a unique lens on contemporary California life. Working in partnership with the LA Taxi Workers Association and guided by a humanities scholar, company members will interview drivers and conduct additional research in order to develop a one-hour theater piece. Live performances followed by audience discussions will be recorded and made available through the company’s website. $10,000
• The HomoFiles (film)
  POWER UP Films, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Kimberly Esslinger
  What was life like for gay women living in California in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s? This feature-length documentary, sparked by the research of a humanities scholar, will document Long Beach’s post WWII lesbian community, examining the central role played by bars in the formation of culture and community. Public screenings at campuses, museums, and film festivals will be accompanied by development of an interactive website to house the film and make additional materials and resources available to the public and researchers. $10,000
• Iranian Americans in Silicon Valley: Evolution of a Community (multimedia presentation)
  San Jose State University Research Foundation, San Jose
  Project Director: Persis Karim
  Although the south Bay Area is home to the second-largest Iranian American community in California, and is one of the largest in the Iranian diaspora, this community remains largely invisible to outsiders. Seeking to break down barriers and build connections to the larger community, this oral history-based project will document and share stories from three generations of Iranian Americans, examining how they have adapted to life in America and employed its democratic institutions and forms to express themselves. Interviews will be recorded, archived, and shared through a website and radio pieces; a public forum will provide an additional occasion for learning, sharing, and dialogue. $10,000
• Living History: Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe (film)
  Pitzer College, Claremont
  Project Director:  Gina Lamb
  Driven from their Central Coast homelands in the late 1800s, members of the tribe, a branch of the Ohlone, resettled in southern California, where they assimilated into Mexican American communities. Through contemporary digital storytelling techniques, the project will explore their struggle to preserve tribal history and culture and to maintain the connection with their ancestral lands.  A campus-community collaboration, the project will involve students, faculty, tribal members, and culture bearers in creating a 20-minute animation/live action video. The film will be intended for educational and community use, and will provide a resource to state park visitors to Ohlone sites in Central and Northern California. $10,000
• Living Lowrider Culture in San Diego (multimedia presentation)
  Department of Ethnic Studies, University of San Diego, San Diego
  Project Director: Alberto Lopez Pulido
  Focusing on the tradition of car customization in San Diego’s Chicano community, this project will explore this cultural practice and its connection to democratic impulses and values, through the stories of lowriders and the community that surrounds them—women as well as men. Sociological, historical and aesthetic aspects of California’s car culture will be documented through oral history and other humanities research methods; interviews and other research findings will be incorporated into a 20-minute documentary video and website. The project will culminate with a premiere screening and discussion at the annual Chicano Park celebration in San Diego. $10,000
• The Neighborhoods of Baseball (community forum)
  Baseball Reliquary, Inc., Monrovia
  Project Director: Terry Cannon
  Using archival and community-based research, this project will explore the impact of baseball on three Los Angles ethnic communities—Mexican American, Japanese American, and African American—as well as the relationship of baseball to democracy and social and political change in American history. Building on an emerging body of humanities research, and previously successful public programs, the project will culminate with a community forum, which will bring together scholars, students, amateur players, and baseball fans of many backgrounds. Project-produced texts and recordings will be made available through the sponsoring organization’s website. $10,000
• Powerful Stories/Historias Poderosas (new media/web)
  Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, UC Davis, Davis
  Project Director: Robert Irwin
  Giving expression to a group of people who are doubly marginalized, this project will provide LGBTQ farmworkers with a safe space to share their experiences: through the technique of digital storytelling and the internet medium, individuals will be able to tell their stories yet maintain their privacy. In addition to providing a forum for story-sharing and dialogue, the project aims to counter stereotypes, foster greater acceptance of diversity within the community, and provide useful information to advocates, researchers, and social service providers. $10,000
• The Riot/Rebellion (storytelling/dramatic performance)
  Watts Village Theater Company, Los Angeles
  Project Director: David Mack
  Drawing on the stories and testimonies of witnesses, the theater company will develop several performance pieces exploring the 1965 Watts Riot/Rebellion towards the goal of preserving community memory and making the community’s history more accessible. Additional research on the event, as well as on other relevant episodes of civil unrest—the 1992 riots and the 1943 Zoot Suit roots—will be conducted by project staff and incorporated into the final productions. Performances will take place at various locations in the community, including one at the intersection where the riots started, and will be recorded and shared on the project website. Partnerships with city and county agencies, local nonprofits, schools, and other community organizations will ensure that the project has a wide and diverse audience; extensive use of social media will aim to build a youth audience. $10,000
• Show Me Your Papers: Youth, Immigration, Print-Making, and Story-Telling for Social Change (exhibit and public programs)
  National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights, Oakland
  Project Director: Favianna Rodriguez
  Stories of young activists in the DREAM movement, which seeks to expand access to public higher education for undocumented students, will be collected, interpreted, and presented through the medium of visual storytelling by Stanford students, working in collaboration with community partners and the sponsoring organization. Pop-up (temporary) and other community-based exhibits featuring their work, along with discussions, will take place throughout the Bay Area to engage the community in consideration and reflection on the nature of democracy, citizenship, and justice in the globalized society of the 21st  century. The project will be documented and shared on a project website, along with recorded interviews and images of the art work. $10,000
• The Silicon Valley East African Diaspora Project (exhibit/discussion program)
  San Jose State University Research Foundation, San Jose
  Project Director: Ruth Wilson
  This project will bring the little-known stories of recent East African immigrants, many of whom who have come to California in search of democracy, to a wider audience.  Working in partnership with individuals and organizations from the Eritrean, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Somali, and Sudanese communities, scholars, students, and faculty from SJSU will record interviews and document the experiences of these immigrants, exploring the themes of migration, settlement, obstacles, success stories, and the nature of transnational linkages in the 21st century global society.  A public forum and website will provide additional access points for the public and promote greater understanding of a growing sector of the south Bay Area population. $10,000
• Stories of Palestinian Diasporas (new media/web)
  Buena Vista Community Institute, Alameda
  Project Director: Kira Azzam
  Countering the often distorted, narrow, and stereotypical portrayals of this immigrant community, this project will elicit and share stories of Palestinian Californians.  To highlight its diversity, the project team will conduct interviews with 12 men and women of varying generations, educational and class backgrounds, and religious persuasions. The interviews will be videotaped, compiled into a DVD, and then shared through a project website, along with supplemental contextualizing information and materials. Public programs will provide additional opportunities for outreach and dialogue with the larger Bay Area community and other immigrant communities. $10,000
• We Are Where We Eat (community forum, website, radio)
  Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento
  Project Director: Maryellen Burns
  Exploring Sacramento’s “foodscape” through the stories of people who grow, distribute, sell, prepare and serve the city’s food, this project, guided by culinary historians and culture bearers, will document the region’s gastronomic heritage and the diverse cultural strands that have contributed to it. In addition to producing a radio series, which will be webstreamed and broadcast on Capitol Public Radio, the project will include a wide variety of engaging community- and library-based events and activities, as well as a culminating public forum. A project website will also house recorded interviews, maps, archival photos and documents, scholarly essays, and a food chronology. $10,000
• Women of the Pacific Northwest: The Suffragette Movement and Beyond (storytelling performance)
  Playhouse Arts, Arcata
  Project Director: Jacqueline Dandeneau
  Stories about women of diverse cultural backgrounds, generations, and viewpoints who have helped shape the region’s history will be brought to life through this community-participatory theater project. Drawing upon both archival research and community story sharing circles, and working in partnership with community organizations and local academic institutions, the project team, based at the Arcata Playhouse, will develop a work for performance, hoping to raise awareness and discussion of issues facing women in Northwest California—past and present. $10,000
• The Worlds of Bernice Bing (film)
  Asian American Women Artists Association, San Francisco
  Project Director: Jennifer Banta
  A 45-minute documentary film will examine the contributions of Bing, an abstract expressionist artist of Chinese American heritage, active in the post-WWII Bay Area arts scene, through the stories of people who knew and worked with her. Bing challenged the barriers of gender, race, and sexual orientation, and fought to make art accessible to all Californians, contributing to the democratization of the arts in the 1960s, which has had lasting effects. Screenings and discussions in the Bay Area are planned, as well as theatrical and festival distribution. A project website will showcase the film and collateral materials. $10,000
• Youth Journeys through California (community forum, website, radio)
  Covenant House California, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Laura Guichard
  Challenging the stereotypical narrative of victimization, this project will encourage a group of homeless youth to examine their experience through the lens of American journey stories, and literature of travel, adventure, and self-realization.  After reading and discussing works of literature with a scholar, and learning filmmaking from experienced professionals through a partnership with HBO, the young people will develop short films which will be screened and discussed at various community and educational settings, entered in film festivals, and webcast through the project’s and partner’s websites. $10,000 

GRANTS AWARDED IN 2011

• Beijing, CA: The Fight Over Confucius Classrooms
  Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Philip W. Chung
  What does it really mean to embrace the rich and diverse cultural tapestry of California’s peoples? The documentary, Beijing, CA, seeks to answer that question by examining both the acceptance of and opposition to Chinese language classrooms in the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District. Beijing, CA will be screened at a community event and panel, cultural institutions, community organizations, universities, and schools throughout the state. The film will also be submitted to national and international film festivals. $10,000
• Calling This Home: A People’s History of Refugee Settlement to the Bay Area
  International Rescue Committee – San Francisco, San Francisco
  Project Director: Lauren Markham
  Since 1975, the International Rescue Committee has resettled over 30,000 refugees in the Bay Area. This multi-media oral history project will tell the dynamic stories of those resident refugees who have fled international conflict and human rights abuses to rebuild their lives in the Bay Area, while also exploring the unique personal, social, and political challenges faced in the process. Corresponding curriculum, along with an interactive website, will be available for use by educational institutions, community organizations, and the general public. $10,000
• The Comic-Con Kids: Finding and Defining Fandom
  The Campanile Foundation (San Diego State University), San Diego
  Project Director: Rob Ray
  A unique aspect of California culture that grew out of the counter-culture movement of the 1970s, finding expression through graphic narratives, science fiction, and fantasy writing, Comic-Con attracts hundreds of thousands of participants to its annual gatherings in San Diego. The project team will interview and record oral histories with Comic-Con’s founders, which will be shared, along with primary and secondary materials, on the project’s website. Public programs will provide opportunities for community members, scholars and archivists to explore related topics. $10,000
• Democracia: The Impact of Community Service Organization in California
  Regents of the University of California/UC San Diego, San Diego
  Project Director: Gretchen Laue
  The little-known story of the Community Service Organization (CSO), a civic action organization that engaged and empowered Mexican Americans across California during the 1940s and 1950s, will be brought to light through this project. The project will develop a website to house an extensive oral history collection as well as primary and secondary source materials and educational resources. Public programs to be held in San Jose, Hanford, and the Imperial Valley in 2012 will provide opportunities for story-sharing and dialogue. $10,000
• The Democracy of Inclusion
  Arts Council of Kern County, Bakersfield
  Project Director: Jill Egland
  Giving voice to a community whose voices are seldom heard, emerging filmmakers from the Kern Film Workshop, a vocational program for young people and adults with developmental disabilities, will work with a team of professional filmmakers and humanities advisors to document stories about participation, tolerance, and inclusion elicited from Kern residents. The film premiere in Bakersfield will be followed by screenings and discussions throughout the county; broadcasts and distribution will reach wider audiences. $10,000
• Fostering Democracy
  A Home Within, Inc., San Francisco
  Project Director: Amanda Herman
  Fostering Democracy is a creative non-fiction writing and photography project by foster youth that will chronicle their personal journeys in the California foster care system, explore their roles in the democratic process politically and personally, and examine how related actions can influence their futures. The project will culminate with a public book launch and exhibit and a series of signings and readings by students in Bay Area bookstores. A selection of the book will also be available as a downloadable PDF on the project website, along with featured images and text from the exhibit. $10,000
• “I Have A Story to Tell”: Creating Engagement with L.A. Histories
  Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Yusef Omowale
  A year-long project pairing professional storytellers with community residents will investigate and document the history of social change in South Los Angeles, and contribute to revitalizing oral traditions with deep cultural roots. Working with humanities advisors, including scholars and archivists, “griot teams” will develop dramatic presentations. The story performances and accompanying community dialogues will be videotaped and shared on the project website, along with curriculum materials for use by educators. $10,000
• A Landscape Full of Stories
  North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, Nevada City
  Project Director: Shana Maziarz
  Untold stories of the logging, ranching, and mining history, along with those of current residents of the San Juan Ridge community, will be documented and shared in A Landscape Full of Stories, a multi-media project and public exhibit. The exhibit, reception and community dialogue at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, along with an interactive website and online exhibit, will enhance the public’s knowledge of the region’s contributions to greater California history, cultures and peoples. $10,000
• Look to the Source: Intergenerational Talk Story with Pacific Islander Elders
  Pacific Islander Health Partnership, Garden Grove
  Project Director: Juliet McMullin
  With over 282,000 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NWPI) in California, Look to the Source, will tell the compelling storied of community elders through the native oral history tradition of “talk story” sessions conducted by Pacific Islander youth and young adults. This project will enhance the greater public’s understanding of the effects and importance of the NWPI community’s efforts to preserve cultural knowledge and practices, and will be presented at community and university events and on an interactive project website. $10,000
• The Lunch Love Community Documentary Project
  Citizen Film, Inc., San Francisco
  Project Director: Helen De Michiel
  Seeking a healthier eating environment for their children and other Berkeley public school students, a passionate group of Berkeley residents struggled to create the Berkeley Food Policy and Lunch Initiative over a ten-year period. This ten-minute web series will tell the story of these committed residents and explore the role of civic engagement on food advocacy. The series will screen throughout the Northern California region, in conjunction with panels and community discussions. $10,000
• Making Public Spheres in South Los Angeles: Storytelling Community Organizer Struggles to Create Democratic Spaces in South Los Angeles
  Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism/University of Southern California, Los Angeles
  Project Director: George Villanueva
  Despite its often dystopian portrayal in the media, South Los Angeles has a rich history of civic engagement that will be documented by students and scholars from USC’s community-based research initiative, The Metamorphosis Project, using interviews, photography, and videography. Community activists and organizers will share stories about efforts to preserve and expand public spaces and spaces for democratic participation in the neighborhood, which will be recorded and interpreted through the project website, a physical exhibit, and on- and off-campus public programs. $10,000
• Rhythm of the Refugee
  Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Oakland
  Project Director: Holly Alonso
  Oakland’s Cambodian refugee community discovers the power of traditional music and cultural practices in the process of healing after the Cambodian Genocide in the three-part radio documentary, Rhythm of the Refugee. Recorded segments will premiere at a public event and discussion at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, along with being aired on a number of public radio stations throughout the Bay Area. $10,000
• Sharing Our Stories: Diversity in the Inland Empire
  Crafton Hills College, Yucaipa
  Project Director: Tom Bryant
  Responding to the growing diversity of western San Bernardino County, dramatized stories from community college students will provide a way for residents to reflect on the changes and challenges, including prejudice and intolerance, faced by people of many different cultural backgrounds. Performances and accompanying discussions will take place at the college, high schools and community settings throughout the region in fall 2012; a videotaped performance will be archived online to reach wider audiences. $10,000
• Soul Calling
  Fresno Art Museum, Fresno
  Project Director: Linda Cano
  For many years, the Hmong peoples have used “Paj ntaub” (traditional Hmong story cloth) to tell the rich stories of their community. The Fresno Art Museum will present the exhibit Soul Calling, a five-month public exhibit at the museum focused on this unique cultural tradition. Activities will include an accompanying photo exhibit, a community discussion and panel, educational artist workshops, music and dance performances, and literary readings. $10,000
• There It Is - Take It: Looking Back at 100 Years of the Los Angeles Aqueduct
  Friends of the Eastern California Museum, Independence
  Project Director: Kim Stringfellow
  There It Is – Take It, a web-based multi-media project and self-guided car audio tour, will examine the complex, and often controversial, social, political and environmental history of the Los Angeles Aqueduct through the diverse perspectives of cultural geographers, historians, biologists, activists, environmentalists, native speakers, and residents of Los Angeles and the Owens Valley. The project will be designed for a variety of age groups and include an online forum for public discussion, along with a free download of the audio tour. $10,000
• An Uncommon Commons: The Power of Public Place
  West Marin Commons/On The Commons, Point Reyes Station
  Project Director: Elizabeth Barnet
  Outdoor gathering places have long played a major role in communities throughout California and beyond. Uncommon Commons is a short documentary that will explore the concept of outdoor public community space in community building, civic engagement and activities of participatory democracy. The film will be screened at a West Marin conference and panel, educational institutions, and community and governments organizations, along with being submitted to national film festivals. $10,000
• Voices of the Timber Industry
  Timber Heritage Association, Eureka
  Project Director: Renee Ross
  Although Native people have played a major role in the development of Northwest California’s timber industry, their contributions are little known. This oral history project will address that gap, as well as enlarge our understanding of California’s environmental history and culture, by gathering stories from local Native and non-Native loggers and millers that will be archived and shared through the project website. Public programs at community and tribal cultural centers will expand understanding of the diversity of views on land and resource use. $3,506
• The Water Writes Mural Project: Klamath River
  Estria Foundation, Oakland
  Project Director: Nancy Hernandez
  A collaboration between artists, tribal members, fishermen, environmental advocates and other residents, and humanities advisors, this project will share the natural and cultural history of the Klamath River through a mural to be installed in downtown Arcata. One of 10 water-focused mural projects around the world being implemented by the sponsoring organization, the mural will document an important chapter in California’s environmental and political history and serve as a springboard to community conversations about the future of the river. $10,000
• We Are Not Your Dumping Ground: Youth Stories of Environmental Justice from the Streets of South Sacramento
  Ubuntu Green, Sacramento
  Project Director: Charles Mason, Jr.
  In partnership with local community organizations, Sacramento Unified School District, and UC Davis Center for Regional Change, the sponsoring organization will assemble a team of young people from South Sacramento to document community efforts to achieve environmental justice. Using humanities research methods and digital media, guided by academic and community scholars, youth will record stories, develop online and physical exhibits, and organize public programs, including intergenerational story-sharing events, to preserve and share a history of community engagement and democratic participation. $10,000
• Wende Moments: A Multigenerational View of Immigration by the Soviet Jews to Los Angeles During the Late 1970s and Early 1980s
  Wende Museum, Culver City
  Project Director: Ljiljana Grubisic
  Focusing on the experiences of five multigenerational families, this oral history-based project will document the story of Soviet Jewish immigration to California, exploring, among other issues, how this community has responded to opportunities for political participation afforded by American democracy. Interviews will be recorded and edited into a video documentary, to be screened and discussed through a series of programs and events planned at local museums, universities and in community settings and made available through the museum’s website. $10,000
• When Dreams Are Interrupted (Sacramento and San Diego)
  Purple Moon Dance Project, San Francisco
  Project Director: Jill Togawa
  Through a series of site-specific performances, followed by community conversations in each city, this project will share stories of Californians of Japanese-American ancestry who were forcibly removed from their homes during WWII. Part of a larger multidisciplinary and multimedia collaboration between historians and performing artists to document California’s historic Japantowns, the project will document the rupture of these communities, and invite audiences to better understand these experience of loss, as well as reflect on and voice their own responses. $10,000
• Changing Neighborhoods, Changing Communities: Boyle Heights and the Phillips Music Company
  Grand Performances, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Leigh Ann Hahn
  During the middle years of the 20th century, The Phillips Music Company of Boyle Heights provided a place where Japanese-, Jewish-, and Mexican-American residents of this Los Angeles immigrant enclave both encountered each others’ cultural traditions and invented new ones. This oral history-based project will produce a live multimedia performance in summer 2011 at Grand Performances, a free outdoor concert venue, featuring storytelling, poetry readings, and musical performances. It will also create an interactive website to share project-produced materials as well as archival materials documenting the history of this vibrant multicultural community. $10,000
• Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975
  Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Mary Sutton
  The interpretive exhibit, Decade of Dissent, is focused on 50-60 political posters produced by diverse social movements in California and will document the importance of poster art in developing and promoting the ideals of democracy. Curatorial annotations and artists statements will help visitors explore the relationship of art and activism. The exhibit will be presented in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood and supplemented by panel discussions, storytelling events, high school exhibits, a youth poster/printmaking workshop, and an online exhibit. $10,000
• Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and the Three People’s Principles
  Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco
  Project Director: Francis Wong
  A Chautauqua-style living history performance series about Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the Founding Father of modern China, will examine the influence of American society and democratic values on his political philosophy. The interactive format allows audiences to interrogate the scholar-performer, both in and out of character, providing an engaging, entertaining and accessible public humanities experience. Primarily focused on the Chinese American community of San Francisco, especially young people, presentations will be made available to other communities on an ongoing basis, and a videotaped performance will be recorded and shared online through the sponsoring organization’s website, along with contextualizing material. $10,000
• Growing Leaders: Youth, Gardening and Governance in Richmond, California
  Urban Tilth, Richmond
  Project Director: Doria Robinson
  A community-based research project and video documentary will tell the story of how disenfranchised Richmond youth have grown to become leaders of a local youth gardening movement. The DVD and accompanying educational materials will be distributed to area high schools and youth advocacy groups to encourage discussion about civic and youth engagement in community gardening projects. A local organic nursery, Sunnyside Organic Seedlings, will also be hosting a community screening and celebration. $10,000
• Hayward’s Gay Prom
  Friends of the Hayward Public Library, Hayward
  Project Director: Laurie Willis
  This teen film project will explore the 15-year history and significance of the city’s annual gay prom in a democratic society. Public screenings and discussions will encourage dialogue about the unique challenges faced by LGBT youth in the greater community. In addition, the film will be distributed to student clubs and teachers throughout California through the Youth in Motion Project, aired on local cable, and available for viewing on the library’s free channel on Blip TV. $10,000
• The Khmer Youth Archive Project
  Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Gena Hamamoto
  This female, youth video project will document the experience of Long Beach Khmer immigrants and refugees, and explore the unique social challenges faced by this marginalized community. The videos will be screened at a community/media event as part of a larger campaign to raise awareness and involve the greater Long Beach community, along with a post-screening discussion and Q&A. Videos will also be available online and housed at several local archive centers. $10,000
• New Birth of Freedom: Civil War to Civil Rights in California
  Center for Oral and Public History/CSU Fullerton
  Project Director: Benjamin Cawthra
  This multimedia exhibit juxtaposing the Civil War and Civil Rights eras will explore the distinctive role California has played in shaping the nation’s ongoing struggle for equality over the last 150 years. Both the exhibit and accompanying public programs will bring to light stories from Southern California communities, particularly those of African-, Mexican- and Japanese-Americans in the region, exploring the themes of democracy, participation, and equal justice under the law. Educational outreach materials and an online component will further extend the reach of the project, which coincides with national observance of the Civil War sesquicentennial. $10,000
• Poetry for Democracy
  poetryXchange, Huntington Beach
  Project Director: Sue Cronmiller
  Poetry writing workshops, organized around the theme of democracy, will be provided to El Sol Academy middle-school students by faculty and students at UC Irvine in partnership with poetryXchange. Student work will be shared with public audiences in a series of literary events including poetry readings, open mikes and Q&A sessions in Orange County, along with a weblog providing an ongoing portrait, overview and chronicle of the project. In addition, students will be invited to travel with the Merage Foundation to Washington, DC to read their poetry at the annual National Leadership Awards Dinner in June 2011. $10,000
• Resurrected Histories: Voices from the Chicano Arts Collectives of Highland Park
  Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Kathy Gallegos
  The tension between individual expression and social responsibility in a democracy will be examined through the stories of Chicano community artists active during the 1960s and 80s. Young people from the community, working with scholars and a filmmaker, will interview the artists about their experiences, focusing on the themes of engaged artistry, the role of public art, democracy, personal expression and social needs. The short videos they produce will be screened at an exhibit focused on art of the period, and shared online through the sponsoring organization’s and the videographer’s websites. $10,000
• The Search for Equality: LGBT Stories of Democracy in Action
  Media Arts Center San Diego, San Diego
  Project Director: Patric Stillman
  The film, The Search for Equality: LGBT Stories of Democracy in Action, will document first-person stories from San Diego’s LGBT community that explore the basic principles of democracy, inequality, and community activism. Public screenings, community events and dialogues (in partnership with the San Diego Public Library) will help lead to a greater understanding of the social and political challenges faced by LGBT people. In addition, all stories will be available on the Internet and 100 DVDs, along with discussion and research guides, will be distributed to local non-profits and public libraries throughout the state. $10,000
• So Near/So Far: Navigating the Passage to Democratic Futures
  Photo4Change/Tides Center, San Francisco
  Project Director: Sarah Bachman
  A series of workshops will offer training in reporting, photography and radio production to Pescadero high school students and recent graduates. With a focus on stories examining the rights, responsibilities, and benefits of participating in a democracy, stories (written, audio, digital photography) will be posted on the websites of Puente and Photo4Change, and broadcast on KPDO, a local public radio station. Stories that focus on youth labor issues may also be posted on the website of Child Labor & the Global Village. $10,000
• Somos Parte de la Democracia?: Culture, Democracy, and LA’s Day Labor Community
  Cornerstone Theater Company, Los Angeles
  Project Director: Lorena Moran
  Members of LA’s innovative day laborer theater troupe, Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras, will reach out to their community to elicit stories that will reveal the meaning of democracy for people whose voices are rarely heard in public discourse about immigration and citizenship. Funding will support training of ensemble members in documentary methods and techniques; the resulting videotaped interviews will be shared on a new website and compiled, with commentary, on a DVD; stories to be gathered will also provide material for the development of future works of community-based theater to be performed by the group. $10,000
• Stories of the Spill
  Earth Alert, Inc., Port Hueneme
  Project Director: Janet Bridgers
  The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill catalyzed grassroots activism around Prop 20, a citizen-sponsored initiative whose passage created the California Coastal Act and encouraged passage of federal environmental legislation. The project will gather stories from locals who remember the spill, along with those of citizen activists, policy makers and legislators who participated in making change through the democratic process. Geared for community and educational use, the 28-minute film will also be made available through cable, broadcast and internet distribution to raise awareness of the significance of this instance of direct democracy and its legacy for California and the nation. $9,665
• Tai Chi Chats, Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project
  API Cultural Center, dba Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Oakland
  Project Director: Roy Chan
  A series of conversations at Madison Park will spark story sharing by Oakland Chinatown residents about their use of public space for cultural, social and recreational activities. A multimedia exhibit (visual narrative, cultural map, and video), public events, and an online archive will provide means for the project to share these stories with the broader community. The community voice expressed through storytelling, cognitive mapping, and visualization exercises will foster citizen participation in the planning process, inform city planners’ work, and illuminate the value and meaning users attach to the park. $10,000 
• Take Me to Your Leader: California Indian Traditional Chieftainship and Democratic Practice
  Heyday Books, Berkeley
  Project Director: Margaret Dubin
  This publication will examine political leadership of California tribes and the role of the modern Indian chief. Tribal leader interviews, and additional essays on the subject of tribal history and traditions, will be published as a 12-page supplement to the quarterly magazine News for Native California. A public panel and interactive blog will provide a broader cultural and historic context for democracy within tribal governance, and the supplement will also be distributed to schools for classroom use and discussion. $10,000
• Talk Story: Democracy - How Immigrant Senior Citizens View American Democracy
  EngAGE: The Art of Active Aging, Burbank
  Project Director: Tim Carpenter
  California is home to many older immigrants whose voices are seldom heard; this project will enable a group of these seniors to share their stories of fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams of freedom, the meaning of the power to vote and make political change with the larger community. Workshops at three low-income housing facilities will empower residents to share stories about immigration, citizenship, and participation. These stories will be developed into spoken word pieces and performed in community settings; recordings will be broadcast, streamed and archived on KPFK radio and the sponsoring organization’s website to a listening audience of 250,000. $10,000
• Tenderloin: Stories of Transformation
  Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Historical Society, San Francisco
  Project Director: Joey Plaster
  The political awakening of the GLBT community is the subject of this project documenting the historical moment in which GLBT people entered the political sphere, led by a coalition of community and faith-based leaders in San Francisco in the early 1960s. GLBT youth living in the Tenderloin today will learn about their community’s history through participation in project-related oral history and archival research activities. The project will produce an exhibit, a multi-media web-based component, and public history programming for general audiences as well as homeless GLBT youth in San Francisco and faith communities across the country. $10,000
• Through the Ages High School Residency, Performances, and Podcast
  About Productions, Pasadena
  Project Director: Rose Portillo
  Approximately 25 high risk Latino students from a continuation high school, many of whom are unfamiliar with their community’s rich history of civic engagement and political activism, will develop writing, communication and research skills by interviewing Chicano Movement leaders from the 1960s and 70s. Working alongside experienced theater artists, the young people will write short plays based on their research and perform two staged readings at Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles in early 2012, for the school community as well as general audiences. The performances will be recorded for podcasting, shared on the web, accompanied by online discussions. $10,000
• Woman Inside: Narratives from America’s Incarcerated Women
  Voice of Witness, San Francisco
  Project Director: Mimi Lok
  An oral history and book project will explore the role of democracy in the lives of women in the U.S. prison system through first-person narratives. Following completion of the final manuscript, the book will be published by McSweeney’s Publishing and distributed to over 100,000 high school students throughout the U.S in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves. In addition, books will be available in bookstores and libraries in every major U.S. city, and a partnership with Justice Now will result in a series of readings, panels and workshops at women’s prisons in California and throughout the U.S. $10,000
• World Premiere Production of Tom Jacobson’s The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), Talkback Series and Small Exhibition
  Circle X Theatre Co., Los Angeles
  Project Director: Timothy Wright
  An original theater piece will explore a dark chapter in California history—the 1871 massacre of 19 Chinese Americans in LA’s first race riot—through dramatized first-person narratives and commentaries drawn from historical archives. Post-play “talkbacks”, an informational website, and a small exhibit will provide additional learning and discussion opportunities for a
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