A Series of Public Workshops

This series of public workshops will support individuals and institutions in recording, archiving, and interpreting under-documented histories in Baltimore, with a focus on the city’s Black history. Baltimore is a majority Black city with a significant African American history, yet what has been preserved and valorized has too often ignored Black voices. There is an urgent need to document these stories and incorporate them into more comprehensive narratives about our city.

The workshops, which feature a keynote by Kelly E. Navies, Museum Specialist in Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, will be led by local curators; archivists; participants of Baltimore Speaks, a network of local oral historians; and representatives of Inheritance Baltimore, a project of Johns Hopkins that is using humanities and the arts to transform the relationship between the university and Black Baltimore. Attendees will gain a working knowledge of oral history: a field of study and a method of recording, preserving, and interpreting people’s experiences of the past through the prism of the present.

Space will be limited to 35 participants for each workshop. Please register here to reserve your space.

Sat. April 2, 2022: Why Oral History Matters and Project Planning

Oral history as a social justice project, project design, ethical and legal issues

Workshop facilitators:

  • Kelly E. Navies, Museum Specialist in Oral History at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
  • Tonika Berkley, Inheritance Baltimore
  • Debra Elfenbein, Special Collections Librarian, Enoch Pratt Free Library

Saturday, April 2, 10am-1pm
Reginald F. Lewis Museum

830 E Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21202

Sat. April 9, 2022: The Art and Craft of Interviewing

Interviewing styles and audio recording techniques

Workshop facilitators

  • Linda Shopes, Independent Oral Historian, Baltimore Speaks
  • Bria Warren, Inheritance Baltimore, Baltimore Speak

Saturday, April 9, 10am-1pm
Reginald F. Lewis Museum

830 E Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21202

Sat. April 23, 2022: Transcribing, Archiving, and Mobilizing Oral History

Archival practices, exhibitions, publications, and community organizing

Workshop Facilitators:

  • Aiden Faust, Associate Director of Special Collections and Archives, University of Baltimore
  • Catherine Mayfield, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore Speaks
  • Joseph Plaster, Inheritance Baltimore, Tabb Center
  • Panel facilitated by Sheri Parks, MICA’s Vice President for Strategic Initiatives:
    • Megan McShea, Independent Audiovisual Archivist
    • Daisy Brown, The Peale’s Storytelling Ambassador
    • Jodi Hoover, Digital Resources Manager, Digital Maryland
    • Maria Day, Director, Special Collections & Conservation, Maryland State Archives

Saturday, April 23, 10am-1pm

Eubie Blake Cultural Center
847 N Howard St, Baltimore, MD 21201

This series is being offered at no charge thanks to support from an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant administered by Inheritance Baltimore, the contributed labor of our core planning group, and the donated time of our workshop leaders. Participants who complete all three workshops will receive a certificate recognizing their time and labor.

Doing Oral History core planning group:

  • Tonika Berkley, Sheridan Library, Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts
  • Angela Koukoui, University of Baltimore, Baltimore Speaks
  • Catherine Mayfield, Maryland Center for History and Culture, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Baltimore Speaks
  • Deyane Moses, MICA and AFRO Charities, Baltimore Speaks
  • Joseph Plaster, Inheritance Baltimore, Tabb Center
  • Linda Shopes, Independent Oral Historian, Baltimore Speaks
  • Bria Warren, Sheridan Library, Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts, Baltimore Speaks

Institutional partners: