FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2009
Contact:
Maura Hurley, Public Information Manager
California Council for the Humanities
415-391-1474, ext. 308
mhurley@calhum.org
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Council for the Humanities announced today the recipients of its California Story Fund grant program, which supports documentary projects that capture community-based stories. The Council awarded $199, 931 to 21 projects in 16 towns and cities, from San Diego and Los Angeles to Weed and Tule Lake.
The projects will involve the gathering and public presentation of stories through exhibitions, films, recorded interviews, websites, public forums and theatrical presentations. Among the communities represented are Asian American farming families, Weed’s long-standing African-American community, people who “live off the grid” near the Salton Sea, and Karuk tribal elders.
The Council received an unprecedented 171 applications for California Story Fund support, which made the proposal review more competitive than ever before. Ralph Lewin, the Council’s executive director, said, “We believe this very diverse set of story projects will find resonance throughout California and add depth to our understanding of the richness and complexity of the state.”
The California Story Fund grant program is part of the Council’s multiyear California Stories initiative. The grant program has supported 286 projects, including the 21 listed here, since its inception in January 2003. The Council is in the process of redesigning some of its grant programs based on new strategic goals. Prospective applicants should check the Council’s website for information.
A complete list of the newly funded project follows. Click here for more details.
Banteay Srei — HOLGA (Hopes, Obstacles, Love, Gratitude, and ... )
Asian Health Services, Oakland
$10,000
Project Director: Nhuanh Ly
This is an intergenerational story collection and photography project for young Southeast Asian women in Oakland involved in or at risk for sexual exploitation. The young women will have an opportunity to interview and talk to female elders and each other about their refugee and survival experiences.
Berkeley Fellowship Oral History Project
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Berkeley
$7,000
Project Director: Lena Richardson
This project will document the stories of a church that forms a progressive spiritual community in the heart of Berkeley. It will use intergenerational story circles, with young congregants interviewing church elders to document their activism for social and political causes.
“The Creeks of Salinas: The Gabilan Watershed Experience”
Monterey Bay Women’s Caucus for Art, Aromas
$10,000
Project Director: Jennifer Colby
This project tells the story of the Gabilan Watershed in the Central Coast of California through photographs, prints and poetry. Students at local schools and a team of community artists will create an installation to make more people aware of life in a watershed.
“Ecology Emerges”
Counterpulse, San Francisco
$9,000
Project Directors: Chris Carlsson and LisaRuth Elliott
This oral history project will document the ecological activist movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. The subjects will be 12 people who have helped shape the city in the past half-century.
“Exploring Community, Worth and Life on the Slabs”
Center For Religion and Civic Culture/USC, Los Angeles
$9,999
Project Director: Matt Gainer
Using documentary photography and oral histories, this project will look at how community is maintained in Slab City, near the Salton Sea. The project will explore the impulses that lead people to live “off the grid,” and the methods they use to create a sense of community.
“The Farmers’ Table: Asian Americans and Agriculture in the Golden State”
Asian Culinary Forum, San Francisco
$10,000
Project Director: Thy Tran
The stories of three Asian-American farming families will be captured and aired on public radio and featured on a companion website. The project will also sponsor a live cooking demonstration and discussion at a San Francisco farmer’s market.
“From the Quarters to Lincoln Heights”
Weed Revitalization Coalition, Weed
$10,000
Project Director and Filmmaker: Mark Oliver
This project will use oral history and historical documents to tell the story of the long-standing African-American community in Weed, Siskiyou County. The aim is to assure Weed’s African-Americans their proper and unique place in history.
“Gone Through Fire: Modjeska and Silverado Canyons and the 2007 Santiago Fire”
Center For Oral And Public History/CSU Fullerton
$10,000
Project Director: Diane Ambruso
This project will collect the stories of residents who showed resourcefulness and independence in response to the Santiago Fire that in 2007 burned almost 30,000 acres and destroyed 14 homes in two small communities in the Santa Ana Mountains 10 miles east of Irvine.
“Hyampom Oral History Project”
Hyampom Community Council, Hyampom
$5,482.10
Project Director: Lisa Brey Randolph
This project will record the stories of several elders of diverse backgrounds in the Siskiyou County community of Hyampom. The stories will be woven into a one-hour audio-photographic program, which will be presented to the Hyampom community.
“Karuk Voices”
Karuk Tribe, Happy Camp
$10,000
Project Director: Ruth Rouvier
This project will provide an opportunity for Karuk teens and young adults to work with tribal elders and produce short oral history videos of the elders’ lives and experiences. The project is being conducted in partnership with the tribe’s Youth Leadership Council.
“Kaweah Land and Arts Festival: Celebrating the Stories of the Kaweah Watershed”
Sequoia Riverlands Trust, Visalia
$10,000
Project Director: Niki Woodard
This project will celebrate the region of the Kaweah Watershed by telling stories of the land through local art, literature, poetry, storytelling, history and natural science. The goal is to help bring the community together around a shared idea of better land conservation and stewardship.
“Lao Oral History Archive”
Center For Lao Studies, San Francisco
$10,000
Project Director: Vinya Sysamouth
This project will use audio and video digital media to record interviews with a variety of Lao émigrés about their immigration experiences. An online public archive will feature the interviews along with photos and historical documents.
“Lifestages: Recollections and Reflections”
Playwrights Project, San Diego
$10,000
Project Director: Cecelia Kouma
This multigenerational program aims to transform seniors’ life experiences into theater, with professional actors performing staged readings for schools and the community.
“Marin Mind/Scapes: Stories of Art, Nature and Wellness”
Anne T. Kent California Room/Marin County Free Library, San Rafael
$10,000
Project Director: Marilyn L. Geary
This project will collect and present the stories of Marin County artists, some of whom have been diagnosed with mental illness. The stories will address how the creative process has affected the artists’ lives and how the landscape of Marin County has influenced the participants’ art and sense of well-being.
“Memories of the Grove: An Oral History of Folk Music and Cultural Activism in 1960s Los Angeles”
Ash Grove Music, Los Angeles
$8,450
Project Director: Victor Cohen
For 15 years, beginning in 1958, the Ash Grove club in Los Angeles provided a venue where people could play, learn about and listen to traditional folk music. This project will document club goers’ experiences, recording for current generations the significance of the folk music community to the culture of Los Angeles in the 1960s.
“Oral History and Micro Documentary: Bridging Generations of Filipinos in the San Francisco Bay Area”
Center For Filipino Studies/CSU East Bay, Hayward
$10,000
Project Directors: Soledad Rica Llorente and Efren Padilla
This oral history project will involve several generations of San Francisco Bay Area Filipinos in an effort to foster understanding and renew connections for people in this community. The stories will be turned into micro-documentaries, which will be featured on the Center for Filipino Studies’ website.
“Re-Alisal — the Histories Beneath the Headlines”
Alisal Center for the Fine Arts, Salinas
$10,000
Project Director: Luis “Xago” Juárez
Initiated and carried out by lifelong residents of East Salinas, this project asks the question, how does a community tell its own story? A small team of researchers/performers from the group Baktun 12 will gather stories for a theatrical people’s history of the area.
“Sister Aimee: The Musical”
Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles
$10,000
Project Director: Lisa Marr
For this project, youths in a series of after-school workshops and weekend classes will create an experimental narrative film on the life and times of the radio evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson. The film will combine politics and social and cultural history to examine McPherson’s role as a leader of national significance in the 1920s and ’30s.
“Two Spirits: Queer Native American Women”
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, San Francisco
$10,000
Project Director: Madeleine Lim
This project will collect and present stories by and about Native American two-spirit women in California (lesbians, bisexuals and transgender women). Activities will include filmmaking workshops, screenings and discussions, and the creation of a study guide.
“Untold Stories of Japanese-American Dissent”
Tule Lake Committee, Tule Lake
$10,000
Project Director: Barbara Takei
During World War II, 12,000 Japanese Americans at Tule Lake, Siskiyou County, protested their unjust incarceration and were stigmatized for the their dissent. This project will add first-person stories of these events to the website of the forthcoming Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument.
“Women, Faith and Action: Asian Pacific Islander Women and their Faith-Based Activism in the 1960s-70s”
Pana Institute, Berkeley
$10,000
Project Director: Kathleen S. Yep
This project will uncover and document through interviews, digital archives and public forums the stories of Asian-American and Pacific-Islander women activists who, informed by their spirituality and religious traditions, were engaged in the U.S. movement for civil and human rights in the 1960s and ’70s.
The California Council for the Humanities connects Californians to ideas and one another in order to understand our shared heritage and diverse cultures, inspire civic participation, and shape our future. The Council envisions a California where people know that the humanities are essential to leading a meaningful life, understanding the world, and envisioning the future.
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