Lost & Found Sound: Oral History,
Audio Artifacts, and a National Collaboration ——or, Never Throw Anything Away The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Director of the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, introduced the Kitchen Sisters to the audience. She first met Davia Nelson many years ago. More recently the Kitchen Sisters consulted with Hall when they were working on "WHER: The First All-Girl Radio Station in The World." For more extended comments by Hall on WHER and womenhood in the 1950s are at the Lost and Found Sound Web site.
Part 1."WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts" Part 2."WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts"
Here, Davia and Nikki talk about the wonderful sound artifacts gathered in The Quest for Sound, curated by Jay Allison. The explain how listener Henry Cordova's call to the Quest for Sound phone line eventually resulted in this story about the "readers" who made life in cigar factories tolerable—the men who were paid to read aloud to men and women rolling cigars in Tampa and Ybor City, Florida at the beginning of the century and into the 1930s. "Cigar Stories: 'El Lector - He Who Reads'"
In this segment, the Kitchen Sisters elaborate on the elements of collaboration in their work with historians and other producers, encouraging oral historians to seek out producers and documentarians who can help them tell their stories. They also introduce a profile of Tony Schwartz, who has made more than 30,000 recordings in the streets, delis, cabs, playgrounds and stoops of his New York neighborhood. "Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later "
"French Manicure - Tales from Vietnamese Nail Shops"
The Kitchen sisters describe how a chance conversation in an Italian restaurant led to a hunt for sound recorded by Guy Tyler thirty years ago on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Parker, Arizona. Tyler, looking to make Mojave recordings, met Emmet Van Fleet, an elder of the tribe and the last of the Creation Song singers. Over several years, they meticulously the recorded the 525 song cycle that recounts the legend of the creation and origin of the Mohave people. "House of Night: The Lost Creation Songs of the Mohave People"
Nikki and Davia introduce Eddie McCoy, self-made historian, who has done some 140 interviews and knows just about every detail of the life and lore of Oxford, North Carolina. Eddie records the who, what, when, where, why of slavery times, of sharecropping, the civil rights era, and so much more of life in Oxford. Produced with Leda Hartman. "A Man Tapes His Town: The Unrelenting Oral Histories of Eddie McCoy"
Making Lost & Found Sound |
Oral History-1 |
Oral History-2 | Durham Talk
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Working With the Kitchen Sisters —or, Never Throw Anything Away Copyright © 2000, 2001 by The Journal for MultiMedia History Comments | JMMH Contents |
