FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 14, 2005
Julie Levak, Director of External Affairs, California Council for the Humanities
(415) 391-1474
jlevak@calhum.org
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Council for the Humanities announced today the second major campaign of California Stories (www.californiastories.org), a multiyear initiative that aims to strengthen communities and connect Californians by uncovering personal and community stories that tell the story of today’s California. California Stories Uncovered, led by young people and culminating in April, will ask people across the state to tell and listen to stories that uncover the reality beneath the headlines, statistics, and stereotypes about California and its people.
Teenagers, immigrants and refugees, and critically acclaimed writers are some of the many participants who will share their stories through photo essays, student-produced audio/visual interviews, live performances, reading and discussion groups, and hundreds of events at schools, community centers, and libraries around the state in April.
“California Stories Uncovered is our state’s largest cultural dig, exploring the dreams that brought our families here, the realities we encounter, and the ways living in California continues to change us,“ said Jim Quay, executive director of the Council. “If our official history is in a textbook, Uncovered is the letters home, family snapshots, story-telling, and personal prose that tells an authentic, intimate story about who we are and where we came from.”
California Stories Uncovered offers multiple projects, venues, storytellers, and sources of inspiration. Some of the various projects culminating in April are:
California Stories Uncovered is the second major campaign of the California Stories initiative that began in 2002 with Reading The Grapes of Wrath, an unprecedented reading and story-sharing program that brought together tens of thousands of Californians in hundreds of venues across the state to read the same book and discuss their own California experiences.
“When people tell their stories and others listen, a trust and understanding develops that changes community dynamics and allows people to work toward solutions for California’s most pressing concerns,” said Quay. “Young people, who demographically represent California’s future and are often new arrivals caught between their old and new homes, are uniquely equipped to uncover the stories of today’s California.”
Today in California, half of all Californians were born outside the state, and 26 percent of Californians were born in another country. “The youth of California reflect our diversity, and young people are both learning and living history,” said Quay.
For more information or to learn how you, your family, or your students can participate, visit: www.californiastories.org. This program is supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the James Irvine Foundation. It is also supported in part by QUALCOMM and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
About the California Council for the Humanities
The mission of the California Council for the Humanities is to enrich California's cultural life and strengthen communities through public use of the humanities. A state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Council has supported and created programs that bring Californians together around their history and culture for more than 25 years. For more information, visit the Council's website at www.californiastories.org or contact the Council's administrative office at (415) 391-1474.
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