I’ve been dipping into What Poetry Brings to Business (University of Michigan Press, 2010) by Clare Morgan with Kirsten Lange and my friend and fellow oral historian Ted Buswick; this promises opportunities to reflect on life, creativity, and work. Paul Tough’s Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America profiles the project that is the model for the U.S. Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods initiative. Harlem Children’s Zone was featured this week on NPR. The Dayton Teachers History Book Club will read and discuss Jon Hartley Fox’s King of the Queen City (University of Illinois Press, 2009) about Cincinnati’s King Records this summer. I had the opportunity to interview Fox earlier this month. He and King Records are featured in a piece for Our Ohio on drummer and Ohio Heritage Fellow, Philip Paul. In a similar vein, I look forward to George Lipsitz’s recent book, Midnight at the Barrel House: the Johnny Otis Story (University of Minnesota Press, 2010); Otis also recorded with King Records. I’ll get started preparing for oral history courses with the Oral History Association’s 2009 Book Award recipient, Joanna Herbert’s Negotiating Boundaries in the City: Migration, Ethnicity, and Gender in Britain and move on to other oral histories of urban life and/or gender studies. I recently downloaded (Kindle on my netbook) New Heritage: New Media and Cultural Heritage by Yehuda Kalay, Thomas Kvan, and Janice Affleck (Routledge). Numerous friends have recommended Michael M. Kaiser, The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations; I plan to read more about the arts, culture, and community development as I work with Culture Builds Community and other projects.
Tell History
oral history, civic engagement, and digital humanities