California Story Fund
Movement and Migration:
Our Family Journeys
Zimmer Children’s Museum
Los Angeles
Project Director: Shifra Teitelbaum
L.A. youth to gather and record their families’ stories of movement and migration for radio broadcast
The project will involve young interns at the Zimmer Children’s Museum, Los Angeles, in a series of media literacy and oral history workshops to learn how to gather and record their families’ stories for radio broadcast.
The interns will be drawn from schools in South Los Angeles, Central Los Angeles and the neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles, where Latino students predominate. In addition to the Zimmer Museum, the project will take place at two other venues: the Southern California Library for Social Students and Research and the Autry National Center.
Over the course of six sessions, the young people will be introduced to the fields of oral history and ethnography, learn interviewing and technical skills, and prepare presentations for recording. The presentations will include the students’ written narratives and possibly incorporate parts of the interviews.
The project aims to connect the personal and family stories of youth to the larger, public history of Los Angeles and the region. “The youth will gather their family stories and explore commonalities and differences between their stories and those of other youth in the project — and between their stories and diverse migration stories of the past,” Project Director Shifra Teitelbaum said.
The project will culminate with a public form in Los Angeles in February 2008, where participating youth will present their stories and talk about the process of gathering them. Attendees will also have a chance to hear portions of the radio broadcast and participate in a discussion about the stories. A CD of the stories will be available at the event.