Oral History

 

In my experience, I would characterize oral histories as verbal accounts of situations, history, or feelings. For me to get a type of idea of what oral histories are my professor made us (my classmates and I) look for oral history projects. An oral history project that I found was the NYC Trans oral history project. It is hosted by the New York Public library (NYPL). There are a plethora of interviews that you can look at. In my case, I listened to Yanyi

In the oral story, he talks about his life living as a trans person, identity, childhood, and much more. From this oral history, I realized how important oral history is. In the case of this particular project, it is a platform where trans people can express themselves and tell their stories. I think that’s very important because we can get a sense of what life is like for them. And, through educating ourselves we can create this open dialogue and have more discussion.

After we listened to our respective oral history projects our professor then assigned us to do the same. I found it to be very interesting. It allowed me to ask questions about my friend that I hadn’t asked before. It also gave me some insight into how my friend feels about me, which was heartwarming (you have to watch the video to find out. ). One thing I will say is it did feel a little bit more formal from both sides. I understood that I should treat it as a normal conversation, however, both of us didn’t necessarily talk the way we normally do. I think the reason why is because other people would be listening. With that said, I don’t think it took away from the genuine feelings we had or statements we said. Another aspect was recording at my home. I live with my parents and my two siblings who are three and five. So you can imagine that there’s going to be times where they can be very noisy. I also live in Brooklyn, New York so there are always random sirens or things happening. However, if it did happen I would just pause the video or just continue as nothing happened. However, there was a situation where my brother interrupted me and I didn’t cut it on time. I also didn’t edit it out. I do think it adds this quirky/realistic feel to the interview. So if you do listen to the video you very well may catch that.

I chose to interview my friend Atta. I was honestly torn between my grandmother and Atta, however, I ultimately chose the latter. Simply because I knew she would be more open to the conversation. There was also no language barrier because Atta speaks English. I would’ve had to translate from Haitian Creole to English which can be a little time-consuming. And, while I do speak Haitian Creole there are some words that I have a very hard time understanding. In part due to me being born in America and using English more (school, interviews, writing, etc.) Lastly, as previously stated I don’t think that my grandmother would’ve been as comfortable being recorded especially with some of the questions that I asked.

I don’t think that it taught me anything new about her personality. We share a lot of secrets with each other so there wasn’t anything that was truly shocking to me. However, I learned that her favorite memory is one of my favorite memories of her. So that was a very sweet moment for me, even if she doesn’t realize it. (Yes, you have to watch the video to find out)

When comparing oral history to photographs or written history. I think about how oral history (in this age) allows for people to be connected to us wherever they are. To elaborate, my friend is currently at her campus in Fairfax, Virginia. To be honest, it’s truly incredible that I was able to talk to her via a long distance. I have talked to people on the phone for most of my life. However, making the realization that I can reach someone far away is cool. In regards to photographs and written history, it captures a snippet of time. Which is more visual, whereas oral history captures an auditory sense of time. You can argue that this is a superficial way of looking at it. I wouldn’t disagree with you. As I spend more time in my digital humanities class, I’ll be able to give more of an elaborate answer or description. For now, I would argue that it captures an auditory sense of time. When you’re listening to oral histories you’re able to hear background noise (if you don’t have proper equipment) some of these noises can be birds chirping, sirens, the static, wind, etc. There’s also a sense of authenticity because you hear what is coming directly from the individual's mouth. I would say that it’s a lot less hard to make up with what an individual said. 

With that said here is the video if you haven’t seen it already

Also, if you have the time please be sure to check out my classes digital Humanities blog