Seattle-based Wa Na Wari’s Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute (SBSHI) is currently accepting applications for its next six-person cohort of community oral historians. The SBSHI is an important initiative that trains community members in the techniques and best practices of oral history and Black memory work, helping to shift power around whose stories are told and how they are told, and building collective power towards a future of Black ownership and belonging.
The program will run from June 2023 to June 2025, during which cohort members will work with historians, archivists, geographers, librarians, artists, and other professionals to learn and explore the ethics, techniques, best practices, tensions, and dilemmas of oral history and Black memory work.
Over the two-year period, cohort members will acquire skills in archival research methods, audio recording techniques, oral history interviewing techniques, transcription, story editing, audio editing, and public art proposal and activation processes. To make the program more accessible, Wa Na Wari provides cohort members with a stipend totaling $10,000 over the course of the two years.
SBSHI encourages applications from those with a deep curiosity about local history, particularly Black history; a deep connection to Seattle’s Central Area and/or to Black Seattle; and a strong commitment to community accountability, among other things. Although previous experience in oral history is not required, applicants should review the SBSHI website for certain requirements and expectations, including availability on certain dates, the ability to conduct in-person interviews, and the ability to make a significant time commitment.
The first cohort of the SBSHI completed their training in June of 2022 and is currently working on creative activations of the stories they recorded. They plan to share these stories with the public at an exhibit at Wa Na Wari in November 2023. Cohort members will have the opportunity to work on similar projects in their local communities, creating space for Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation, and connection.
“The SBSHI exceeded my expectations,” said Sierra Parsons, a member of the first SBSHI cohort. “We were connected with a national network of Black oral historians who grounded us in the art and ethics of oral history and who inspired us to think about the endless possibilities of activation once the stories were recorded. Working with narrators was surreal. I experienced inviting folks into the comfort and sometimes discomfort of their own memories, harnessing the power of silence to further extend the invitation, and holding the complexities of a non-linear answer to an open-ended question. I listen differently now.”
As Brenetta Ward, another member of the first cohort, noted, “As a longtime Central Seattle resident and community advocate, I thought I had a deep knowledge of our community history. But I learned so much more about the amazing Black people who helped make Seattle the vibrant, diverse seaport city it is today. The professional oral history techniques I gained will help me document my own family history too.”
The SBSHI was launched in June 2021 in partnership with the Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Friends of Waterfront Seattle, UW Bothell geographers, and the Shelf Life Community Story Project, with support from 4Culture. In July 2022, the Digital Public Library of America announced that it would provide funding for SBSHI at $100,000 for two years, as part of funding from the Mellon Foundation to advance racial justice in American archives.
The deadline to apply for the SBSHI is Friday, March 10, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Interested individuals can find out more about the program and apply at www.wanawari.org/sbshi2.
