Voice of
WITNESS AN OCCASIONAL MAGAZINE
In Conversation with Isabel Allende “We only have what we give”
Distance Learning with VOW Keeping students engaged through oral history
ISSUE #2 | SPRING 2021
Mi María:
Surviving the Storm
Stories of the real-life implications of climate change in Puerto Rico
Voice of Witness advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against—injustice. That "voices of witness" become "voices of authority" in mainstream discourse and meaningful reform.
About Voice of Witness VOW’s work is driven by the transformative power of the story, and by a strong belief that an understanding of systemic injustice is incomplete without deep listening and learning from people with firsthand experience. Through two key programs—our oral history book series and education program—we amplify these voices, teach ethics-driven storytelling, and partner with advocates to: • Support and build agency within marginalized communities • Raise awareness and foster thoughtful, empathy-based critical inquiry and understanding of injustices • Inform long-term efforts to protect and advance human rights The VOW Book Series depicts human rights issues through the edited oral histories of people—VOW narrators—who are most deeply impacted and are often at the heart of solutions to address injustice. The series explores issues of race-, gender-, and class-based inequity through the lenses of the criminal justice system, migration, and displacement. The VOW Education Program connects over 20,000 educators, students, and advocates each year with these stories and issues through oral history-based curricula, trainings, and holistic educational support. VOW’s community partnerships connect both VOW narrators and audiences to direct services, organizing efforts, and advocacy movements. We also train and support partner organizations in using personal narrative and oral history storytelling for change.
© 2021 by Voice of Witness, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Printed in the United States of America. Cover image: People rest outside a damaged house after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins. VOICE OF WITNESS
About Voice of Witness
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CONTENTS
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A Note from Mimi Lok Voice of Witness cofounder and executive director
Amplifying & Centering Marginalized Voices
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Unheard Voices of the Pandemic A rapid response to the ongoing crisis
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How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America
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Distance Learning with VOW
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Community Partnerships
Impact Report and Discussion Guide
Keeping students engaged through oral history
Spotlighting National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center
Mi María: Surviving the Storm Stories of the real-life implications of climate change in Puerto Rico
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VOW’S Consultancy Program Tailored support for nonprofits, educators, and advocates
See VOW’s Theory of Change in action throughout the magazine.
feel heard, validated, & believed
build empathetic connection
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share with their community & inspire stories
NARRATORS READERS
think critically & challenge assumptions
build agency, dignity, & power in community BECOME STRONGER ADVOCATES develop real understanding of issues
who take action TO ADVANCE HUMAN RIGHTS
Becoming Stronger Advocates
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Isabel Allende Talks to VOW “We only have what we give”
Ten Things You Can Do Actionable steps you can take today
On the Horizon A glimpse at our upcoming projects
With Gratitude Brave stories and bold movements, powered by the community
VOW’s Racial Equity Statement Our ongoing commitment
VOW Book Series What’s missing from your bookshelf?
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Photo: “Justice Now” by Isaiah Rustad, courtesy of Unsplash
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A Note from Mimi Lok Cofounder and executive director, Voice of Witness
So much has happened since we released our inaugural Voice of Witness magazine last spring. During a time of so much difficulty and loss, I’m so grateful that we are still here, and that we have been able to continue our work over the past year —thanks to our dedicated community of supporters like you, our committed staff, multiple Paycheck Protection Program loans, and our modest operational reserve. However, we are still in a state of fiscal recovery and unsure of how the next twelve months will unfold for our organization. What I do know is that we are as committed as ever to amplifying and centering unheard voices, and that we’ll continue to work in service to this mission for as long as we are able. The work that we do at Voice of Witness has always been nuanced, multifaceted, and long-ranging, as systemic change comes neither simply nor quickly. When we confront police violence against Black communities, the inhumane treatment of incarcerated people, or the recent surge in hate crimes against Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander communities, we are also Our work serves as an essential confronting complex, deeply rooted storytelling tool, creating histories of race-, gender-, and classopportunities with narrator based inequity. As such, VOW functions as part of a larger ecosystem of communities to heal and change—working in parallel with partstrengthen through the oral ners that provide direct social, legal, history process, and forging space and educational services for many of for these voices to be seen and our narrator communities. Our work serves as an essential storytelling tool, heard as part of broader efforts to creating opportunities with narrator dismantle systems of oppression. communities to heal and strengthen through the oral history process, and forging space for their voices to be seen and heard as part of broader efforts to dismantle systems of oppression. Our theory of change (page 2) outlines the impetus behind all of our work. As you read through the magazine, I hope you’ll feel the intentionality and thoughtfulness behind every program and partnership. And I hope you’ll consider taking some of the actions we’ve listed throughout the magazine to further your commitment to this work, as you play such a vital role in the progress of change. Thank you for being our partners. We truly couldn’t do this work without you. In solidarity,
Mimi Lok
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A Note from Mimi Lok
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Amplifying & Centering
Marginalized Voices At VOW, we pride ourselves on working with our narrators and editors on long-form, deeply felt, and meticulously edited and researched anthologies. Usually we work on these projects for years before publication. But the pandemic and the accompanying crises around unemployment, housing and food insecurity, and inadequate health care clearly called for something else—a more urgent, collective response.
In March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and we—like many in the world—found our workplace, projects, and plans turned upside down. We dealt daily with uncertainty. At VOW, our work—amplifying and centering the stories of historically marginalized and oppressed people and groups through oral history—is deeply rooted in holding space for interviewees, whom we call narrators, and connecting through in-person listening. We asked ourselves: How do we continue this vital work? Is oral history storytelling under these new conditions even possible?
But the need to respond to the pandemic and its effects was clear. In the initial rush of media coverage, COVID-19 was characterized as a widespread crisis, altering life for all in the same ways: a “great equalizer.” We knew, however, that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting our narrator communities—people impacted by migration, displacement, the criminal justice system, and other intersecting injustices.
We called on our past narrators, editors, grassroots partners, and community members to engage in a process with VOW to gather the stories of what was happening in our communities, to begin to uncover and learn together about the many ways that the pandemic was magnifying already existing inequities and acting as yet another vector for the spread of injustice. The response was tremendous. Narrators were eager to tell their stories, to be heard, to illuminate some of the hard truths about the pandemic. We listened and held space for them— through computer screens and emails, video chats and phone calls—their voices persisting even when WiFi and cell reception crackled. Voice of Witness launched this initiative online through our media partners at Salon, the Guardian, Prism, and the Nation. Links to the full series can be found at https://voiceofwitness. org/unheard-voices-of-the-pandemic/. We’re also excited to announce that we’ll be compiling this work in an “unofficial” VOW book, to be released this summer. The pieces included in this collection are from interviews conducted between April 2020 and March 2021. Here are a few excerpts from the series.
Text: Dao X. Tran, Managing Editor, Ela Banerjee, Community Partnership Coordinator, Rebecca McCarthy, Editorial Assistant, and Annaick Miller, Communications and Outreach Manager at Voice of Witness Illustrations: Christine Shields and Jose Cruz
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Shearod
Currently incarcerated at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan, Shearod speaks to the drastic changes in prison life since the COVID-19 lockdown, where it’s impossible to social distance, recreation and programming have been halted, and harsh conditions have been imposed. Shearod’s narrative can be read at Salon.com.
Farida
A nurse and community organizer in Los Angeles, Farida speaks about being an essential worker in underfunded, unnecessarily risky conditions as the pandemic unfolded. Farida’s narrative can be read at PrismReports.org. “You realize that issues of health and wellness are not well understood—that social and political conditions create poverty and illness. This is what propelled me to become an organizer. I started to see how state violence maintains conditions of ill health.”
Roberto
Illustration: Christine Shields
“I don’t think that the state government has given the crisis in the prison system anywhere near what decency would require, but I can say that regardless of the value that society puts on our lives, we have been sources of support and assistance to each other. And that in itself is evidence of the rich human potential that lies behind the walls of prisons all over America.”
Oscar
A second grade teacher in a farmworker community in California, Oscar speaks about the challenges he's faced in reaching his students, many of whom don’t have stable internet or housing situations. Oscar’s narrative can be read in PrismReports.org. “We have a list of students we haven’t been able to communicate with at all. Not once. It’s not an enormous list, but there were about 15 students out of 145 total second graders that we don’t know what happened to them and their families.”
An undocumented farmworker for more than two decades in California’s Eastern Coachella Valley, Roberto harvests eggplant for $13/hour in over 100 degree temperatures. Roberto takes pride in feeding the nation and knows his work has always been “essential,” but COVID19 has made alreadydifficult working conditions in the fields even harder. Roberto’s narrative can be read at the Guardian. Illustration: Jose Cruz “In the media, they’re now calling us “essential workers.” But that’s what we’ve always been. We think of doctors, firefighters and police as important. People who never saw us before now see that we also have value. The coronavirus has brought us both good and bad opportunities. It has hurt us, and it has also made many people realize something they didn’t realize before: that they need us.”
What issues are you seeing that could benefit from a rapid-response project like Unheard Voices of the Pandemic? Please contact Colleen Hammond, colleen@ voiceofwitness.com, to share your ideas or request a copy of the Unheard Voices of the Pandemic booklet.
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mi maría:
Surviving the Storm STORIES OF CLIMATE CHANGE’S REAL-LIFE IMPLICATIONS
The latest book in the VOW series Mi María: Surviving the Storm, edited by Ricia Anne Chansky and Marci Denesiuk, will be released in September, marking four years since the deadly Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico. A study released in 2019 found that climate change was partly to blame for the unprecedented amount of rainfall that came with the storm, whose devastating destruction is still felt by Puerto Ricans today. The real-life human implications of climate change can be seen throughout the harrowing stories featured in Mi María, along with the truth that marginalized populations are impacted the most. Through witnessing these stories, there becomes a clear need for intersectional approaches to environmentalism as we contribute to strategies to protect the planet and all of its people. Mi María editor Ricia Anne Chansky shares her experience of working on the book in this exclusive excerpt from the book’s introduction.
Ricia Anne Chansky January 2021 Rincón, Puerto Rico
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San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 9, 2017 Photo: Alessandro Pietri
Telling Stories After the Storm
The stories collected in this volume illuminate some of the obstacles to surviving Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. In the middle of the hurricane, Emmanuel Rodríguez frantically tries to drive his pregnant wife to the hospital, only to be forced to return home when the road in front of them collapses under a mudslide. Carlos Bonilla Rodríguez watches from a neighbor’s home as the hurricane peels the roof off his house and throws it into the wind, with his possessions following close behind. Nilda Rodríguez Collazo describes her adrenaline “rising to a million” when her neighbor bursts into her home to warn of a rising storm surge at his heels. Other narrators tell of desperately holding doors shut against the wind and barricading windows as best they could, all while
frantically mopping the water that relentlessly poured into their homes. Still others describe being forced into hastily organized government shelters, where the sick lay crying in the night and the disabled were left to fend for themselves. The aftermaths of María are equally fraught, and these stories bring attention to the precarity of surviving in the weeks and months that followed the hurricane. Neysha Irizarry Ortiz’s premature son is brought into the world in a makeshift clinic with no electricity. For days, Luis G. Flores López watches his father get sicker and sicker as they desperately pray for the dialysis clinic to reopen so that he can receive lifesaving treatment. A month passes before any nonprofit or government agency comes to check on Windy Díaz Díaz, leaving her trapped in her own home VOICE OF WITNESS
because of the debris blocking her wheelchair ramp. Miliana Ivelisse Montañez León’s mother is sent home from the hospital—with her condition undiagnosed—only to die in her own bedroom. The immediate losses in these stories are obvious, but other ongoing issues also come into focus in the aftermaths of Hurricane María. This natural disaster was compounded by repeated government-level failures. In reading these accounts, we learn of a perpetually underfunded electric utility that was unable to rise to the challenges of a hurricane that caused the largest blackout in US history. Again and again we are told that FEMA fell far short of its objectives—instead appropriating gasoline and moving it from local stations to the sites it deemed essential, leaving none for privately Amplifying & Centering Marginalized Voices
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owned cars or generators; redirecting shipments of food to locations that did not reach rural communities or urban neighborhoods; and failing to provide shelter to those who had lost their homes. President Donald Trump arrived in Puerto Rico on October 3, two weeks after the hurricane, only to taunt Puerto Ricans by joking that they’d thrown the federal budget “out of whack” and suggest that María was not a “real catastrophe” in comparison to Hurricane Katrina. The US Navy hospital ship Comfort arrived in San Juan with 250 beds, but the bureaucratic process for admittance was so convoluted that nearly two weeks after its arrival only thirty-three of those beds were occupied. An early $300 million no-bid contract to oversee restoration of the electric grid was awarded to Whitefish Energy Holdings—a company with just two employees—only to be canceled: actions that significantly delayed work on the grid. Organization of relief supplies was so chaotic that stores of potable water and warehouses of goods are still being discovered, the most recent being an abandoned 43,000-square-foot government warehouse found in Ponce in January 2020.1 Yet, despite the widespread government-level failures, we repeatedly see communities rising together to take care of each other. Grassroots organizations—most often without telecommunications or internet— brought people together to cook community meals, care for children and elders, rebuild shelters, provide first aid, and pool funds. Neighbors sharing with each other—and even with strangers—became friends through small acts of kindness.
Emmanuel Rodriguez and his his son, Ezequiel
“ The complex colonial roots of Puerto Rico have also shaped the aftermaths of the hurricane and stalled recovery.” In addition to government-level failures, the complex colonial roots of Puerto Rico have also shaped the aftermaths of the hurricane and stalled recovery. In the twenty-first century, the US Congress allowed laws that had been enacted to stimulate the economy to lapse, and in 2016 the PROMESA law established an external Financial Oversight and Management Board to oversee all aspects of governing Puerto Rico related to finances.2 Detrimental austerity measures enacted by this board create an ongoing humanitarian crisis, accelerate mass migration from Puerto Rico to the continental United States, and place medical care, education, and infrastructure in
the archipelago in jeopardy. These are the conditions from which we were already suffering when first Hurricane Irma and then, two weeks later, Hurricane María struck. In this book, we have incorporated testimonios—shorter, issue-driven narratives that bear witness to specific events—alongside the longer, birth-to-now oral histories for which Voice of Witness is known. We use these spaces to underscore concerns related to disability, community-driven relief work, the gasoline shortage, work on the electrical grid, hurricane-related deaths, and failures in conducting autopsies and filing reports within
1 An investigation into possible government wrongdoing regarding these undistributed emergency supplies was referred to the Department of Justice. See Karma Allen, Joshua Hoyos, and Ella Torres, “Puerto Rico Refers Investigation to Emergency Supplies to DOJ,” ABC News, January 21, 2020, https://abcnews.go.com/US/ puerto-rico-distributes-supplies-left-rot-warehouse/story?id=68409678. 2 PROMESA is an acronym for the Puerto Rico Oversight Management and Economic Stability Act, which was signed into law by President Obama.
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the Institute of Forensic Sciences: all problematic elements of the post-hurricane landscape that our narrators witnessed and that we believe are essential to understanding Hurricane María and its ongoing aftermaths in Puerto Rico. Each of the stories included in this collection—even the shorter testimonios—spans to some degree three aspects of experiencing the hurricane in Puerto Rico: surviving the storm, building community responses to disaster, and the long aftermaths of the hurricane. We have, therefore, made an effort to order the pieces of this collection in a progression that—when read together—tells the breadth of the disaster and its aftermaths as a multivocal people’s history of Hurricane María. It is our intent that, while engaging with our individual narrators, the connections between their stories will emerge, fostering a greater understanding of the failures of governmental disaster response across the archipelago and the correlating strength of the people impacted by these failures. Ultimately, we have crafted this volume with attention to the way that these stories speak to each other and the belief that the voices in them are louder together. These stories are unique to the individual narrators in Puerto Rico, but the insights gleaned from them have larger implications that supersede geographic boundaries. The treatment Puerto Rico received from the federal government that is an aspect of many of these narratives was on display once again during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the Trump administration refused to aid US citizens. Furthermore, we in Puerto Rico are on the forefront of the global climate emergency, and this crisis is one that impacts the entire world. The ways in which these collected oral histories demonstrate community response
to disaster are pertinent to other places in the world that are likewise being impacted by climate change. While we are proud to be able to share these stories of Puerto Rico after the hurricane, we recognize that this collection is a beginning and not an end, and that there are countless other stories left to be told. As I write this introduction, my chair dances underneath me, a tangible reminder that we are in the midst of an ongoing earthquake swarm in Puerto Rico that began on December 28, 2019. To date, there have been over fifteen hundred earthquakes, the largest of which was a 6.4 and the most recent occurred just as I was about to save this document. It is a stark signifier that in a place not yet recovered from the 2017 hurricanes, people are again being forced out of their homes, electricity is often unstable, and a shared communal trauma rears its head again and again. Simultaneously, the governor has declared a state of emergency because of drought and water shortages. These situations also cause us to rethink what sheltering in place during the global pandemic of COVID-19 means when many people do not have a stable home in which to shelter or the running water necessary to wash their hands.
“ This resiliency is born of repeated abandonment...”
Resilient is a word that has often been used to describe the people of Puerto Rico in the aftermaths of Hurricane María. This label is problematic, though, as it sidesteps the reality that this resiliency is born of repeated abandonment by the federal government during the almost 125 years that Puerto Rico has been a
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Mi María: Surviving the Storm will be available through our publishing partner Haymarket Books starting on September 14, 2021. You can place your pre-order now.
part of the United States. What is named “resilience” is in actuality what occurs when a people are taught not to expect equitable treatment from their own government, developing a necessary understanding that they must be largely self-reliant in order to survive. While the stories included in this volume demonstrate the laudable tenacity and generosity of the people of Puerto Rico, it is important to remember that government-level assistance was not forthcoming, and this “resilience” manifests from generations of neglect. Rethinking this term does not take away from the remarkable accomplishments of the people of Puerto Rico; instead, it moves toward holding government officials accountable for their shortcomings. Reading the stories collected in this volume, then, is one way to support the people of Puerto Rico as they resist these attempts at forcing them into second-class citizenship. Our title, Mi María, accentuates the need to resituate ownership over the public narrative from the government or media to the people who experienced this disaster, emphasizing that who tells the story matters. We believe that listening to these witnesses—thinking through what it means to tell one’s own story—can inspire a wider inquiry of what work remains to be completed throughout our nation to guarantee equality and dignity for all. ¡Pa’lante!
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IMPACT REPORT
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America, published in October 2020, shares contemporary firstperson stories in the long and ongoing fight to protect Native land, rights, and life. However, our work with each book in the VOW series continues long after publishing. With How We Go Home, we set a number of goals to further amplify and center the perspectives of Native communities:
Support the documentation of contemporary stories from Native communities—in their own words. Help expose the many injustices and systemic inequities Native peoples are facing. The book explores the impact of over five hundred years of colonization and related issues of intergenerational trauma, forced assimilation, displacement, racism, environmental justice and resource extraction, health care,
Image from our virtual launch for How We Go Home cohosted by VOW and our publisher Haymarket books
poverty and homelessness, gender-based violence, and more. Forge space for and amplify Indigenous voices and experiences. There is a deficit of Native perspectives in mainstream spaces, and as a result, many people outside of Indigenous communities are unaware of these issues. Use our book and corresponding resources as powerful advocacy tools to inspire empathy and
Text: Kathleen Brennan, Director of Institutional Partnerships and Strategy at Voice of Witness
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action toward long-term systemic change. Bring these stories to students through our education program in order to address the current lack of information about and misrepresentation of colonization and contemporary Indigenous experiences in classrooms. We’re also committed to providing these books to schools and organizations in Native communities across the country.
The book’s release has shown that the need for these types of stories and resources is greater than ever: educator downloads for the How We Go Home curriculum created with Suzanne Methot saw a 265% increase in the first four months after its release compared to past titles, and the book has already been reprinted after selling out its initial run of 3,000 copies within three months of release. The powerful narratives in this project also received wide-ranging media coverage, including: Excerpts published in Lithub, Buzzfeed, Salon Op-eds from editor Sara Sinclair about the project in the Guardian and Salon (notably, the Guardian piece had over 155,000 views) Reviews, interviews, and features in Ms. Magazine, the Elective, GoodReads, BookShop, San Francisco Public Library, a variety of local radio shows, and more Voice of Witness also held nine virtual How We Go Home events in partnership with grassroots Indigenous advocates and partner organizations, reaching over 5,300 people across the continent in the first three months after release. The events have focused on issues including Indigenous representation and visibility, education, resistance and resilience, and violence against Native women and girls. Drawing connections between personal narratives and structural oppression, the speakers identified calls to action to support movements for Indigenous justice. We’re also proud to have formed meaningful community partnerships around this project with the National Indigenous Women’s
Resource Center, Unearthing Justices, News from Native California, Oakland Intertribal Friendship House, and the San Francisco Public Library. Read more about our partnership with the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center on page 18.
Through these events, partnerships, and media coverage, we aim to combat the invisibility of Native peoples, resist stereotypes around contemporary Indigenous lives, and build connections across communities.
Last year we received a record 152 applications for our Sharing History Initiative and only had the resources to fulfill 60 classroom sets. Help us meet the demand this year by supporting our Sharing History Initiative. Together we can further the impact of How We Go Home and distribute more books to underresourced and Indigenous students. Please reach out to Colleen Hammond, colleen@voiceofwitness.org.
This fall, Voice of Witness will provide free copies of How We Go Home to under-resourced classrooms and communities around the United States and Canada through our Sharing History Initiative (SHI). Earlier this month, we opened applications for educators and organizations to receive sets of 30 books and corresponding resources through SHI, and so far the level of interest has been extremely high. These resources are designed to provide deep historical framework for understanding contemporary Indigenous experiences and the impact of over five hundred years of colonization—urging students, teachers, and advocates to think critically about colonialism and interrelated issues.
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FURTHERING THE IMPACT AT HOME
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America Discussion Guide How We Go Home: Six Discussion Questions 1. All of the narrators in How We Go Home speak about traumatic experiences in their lives, families, and communities. How do these events create challenges in the lives of the narrators? How do each of the narratives reflect Indigenous experiences of joy and happiness? Why should suffering not be the primary lens through which we understand Indigenous histories, experiences, and perspectives?
4. Wizipan Little Elk’s narrative opens with a story from Indigenous oral tradition and contains information on precolonial coming-of-age ceremonies. How do the stories in How We Go Home showcase the resiliency of Indigenous cultures? What other examples of cultural wealth and strength in the face of oppression do you see in other narratives in the book? Wizipan’s narrative starts on page 55 of the book.
2. Narrator Jasilyn Charger speaks about her experience growing up in foster homes. What effect does foster care and adoption have on Indigenous families? How does controlling/breaking apart Indigenous families relate to the ideas and aims of colonization? Jasilyn’s narrative starts on page 33 of the book.
5. Narrator Ervin Chartrand talks about the push–pull of migration between his rural/on-reserve community and the city. What challenges do Indigenous peoples experience while living in an urban environment? What opportunities do cities offer? Ervin’s narrative starts on page 135 of the book.
3. Narrators Gladys Radek, Jasilyn Charger, Ashley Hemmers, and Ervin Chartrand speak about lateral violence in Indigenous communities and feeling unsafe in the family home and/ or community. What connection does lateral violence have to colonization and cultural genocide? How does discussing lateral violence and its connection to colonization help dismantle stereotypes about Indigenous peoples?
6. Narrator Marian Naranjo talks about being skilled at precolonial forms of Indigenous art and ways of thinking and how these skills were not valued in the education system. How can schools and educational institutions support people like Marian? Marian’s narrative starts on page 175 of the book.
Need a copy of How We Go Home? Purchase it on our publisher Haymarket Books’ website. Free lesson plans for all of VOW’s books, including How We Go Home (curriculum by Suzanne Methot), can be downloaded from the Voice of Witness website.
Discussion Guide by: Suzanne Methot, VOW Curriculum Specialist for How We Go Home
Did How We Go Home have an impact on you? Go deeper with these six questions and reflect on how these narratives have challenged and surprised you. Has your understanding and perception of the issues Indigenous peoples are facing changed after reading this book? Next, take action with the “Ten Things You Can Do” list on page 319 of How We Go Home, and share the book with someone in your life.
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A student in a 100cameras program Photo: K. Johnson via 100cameras
Distance Learning with VOW: Keeping Students Engaged through Oral History
When most schools closed in March 2020, the Voice of Witness team and the teachers in our network assumed it would only be a short time before we would see our students in person again. As the weeks went on, we quickly realized the need to pivot to distance learning and adapted our materials, methodology, and support for the virtual classroom. We created a summer packet for students to independently engage in oral history and photography at different levels, and we hosted a variety of free webinars accessible to the public. We continued our ongoing work with school districts, teachers, communities, and other organizations, and we transitioned our projects to online platforms. At James Lick Middle School in San Francisco, we worked with Veronica Galante (one of our 2019–2020 Germanacos Fellows) and her AVID Excel students, who created an oral history cookbook with VOW’s support in 2019. This year, we wanted to meet students where they were and created a class website that they populated with their own experiences about life during the pandemic. The students worked in pairs, asking each other questions, reading and editing each other’s responses, and sharing their narratives together.
Text: Erin Vong, Education Specialist & Program Coordinator at Voice of Witness VOICE OF WITNESS
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“This project is a record of how the students have experienced the past year,” said Galante. “My greatest joy is seeing, reading, and hearing their responses, which has built and strengthened my relationship with the students. We got to know each other more, we felt more comfortable confiding in each other, and that’s important to me.”
Across the country in New York City, we continued our partnership with 100cameras, a nonprofit organization that uses photography to help students process and tell stories. We collaborated to develop a course that teachers and students at two different sites could teach on their own schedule, using pre-recorded lessons and external materials to support their learning. The students were provided cameras and photography lessons through 100cameras, and oral history storytelling activities through Voice of Witness. “Throughout various lessons I have noticed that students seem eager to share their past, in some cases particularly eager to share experiences that I wouldn’t normally ask about during class time,” said Brittany Kaiser, a teacher at M.S. 50. “It seemed almost as though they had been waiting for someone to ask them to share these experiences, and I’m grateful that they were able to through this program.” While the virtual classroom has only further highlighted the inequities in schools and access to education, Voice of Witness continues to center the voices and experiences of students directly impacted by these issues. Both Galante’s and Kaiser’s classrooms are primarily made up of immigrant students, coming from Central America and the Dominican Republic—communities that have faced significant challenges during this pandemic. As Galante said, “It was really helpful to have Voice of Witness in the classroom, because being one adult and managing all of the distance learning is virtually impossible alone. My (English language learner) students need that face-to-face support, that one-on-one help. The students are trying their best, and they keep blaming themselves for mishaps, but I keep reassuring them that it’s just this year. It’s just the situation. We all need more time to take care of ourselves right now.”
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Photo: Elle Wildhagen via 100cameras
In addition to our oral history trainings and customized education consultancies, VOW offers free common-core aligned lesson plans for each book in the VOW series. Lessons tie into themes of activism, civil rights, migration and displacement, criminal justice, identity, environmental issues, gender inequality, racial inequality, labor issues and economic justice, and more. Learn more at: https:// voiceofwitness.org/education
Reflections from Teachers and Students in VOW’s 2020–2021 Education Programs:
“My students are mostly 6th graders at our Brooklyn public school. All of them have been fully remote all year, which means most of them haven’t met any of their teachers or classmates in person. They are all working to build relationships and maintain social connection in this virtual space. In addition to that, our school’s population is mostly Dominican with many first or second-generation immigrant families, and our community was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the existing inequities it exacerbated. It is very meaningful for them to begin to share parts of their lives and their stories through photography and oral history.” —Brittany Kaiser, Teacher, M.S. 50
”It was really interesting to see all these different ways of life and all these experiences all together. It’s interesting because we all kind of know each other, but we’re learning more about people that we wouldn’t normally get to. I learned more about my family’s history and their struggle. This project gave me the opportunity to see a wide variety of ways of life, culture, and experiences that I wouldn’t be able to learn from any textbook.”
“I very much enjoyed doing this project because it made me feel very accomplished and it’s been hard to motivate myself doing anything during quarantine. I learned about how much I am capable of when it comes to large projects, and all this hard work truly did pay off.” —P.F., 11th Grader at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in VOW’s Humanizing Oral Histories Student Podcasts program
” [We made] a time capsule. I know it’s just one specific middle school class in San Francisco, but it still shows trends and experiences and we can keep that for the future. The students talked about things like Black Lives Matter, the election, protests, but a lot of my students are from Central America and they also talked about hurricanes and things happening around the world. A lot was on their mind this year! There were a lot of things that they were bringing to the table and discussing.” —Veronica Galante, Teacher, James Lick Middle School in San Francisco
—S.MK.,11th Grader at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in VOW’s Humanizing Oral Histories Student Podcasts program
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Community Partnerships VOW’s relationships with community-based organizations and advocacy groups are critical to our goal of centering the marginalized voices and social justice movements reflected in our oral history book series. Our vision is that “voices of witness” become “voices of authority” in mainstream discourse and meaningful reform that leads to material social change. By connecting both VOW narrators and audiences to direct services, organizing efforts, and advocacy movements, and by training and supporting partner organizations to use personal narrative and oral history storytelling for change, we aim to inform long-term efforts to advance human rights and dignity and dismantle systems of oppression.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT:
National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center Last year we had the privilege of partnering with the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC). NIWRC is a Native-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against Native women and children. NIWRC provides national leadership in ending gender-based violence in tribal communities by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.
Text by: Ela Banerjee, Community Partnership Coordinator at Voice of Witness
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Amplifying & Centering Marginalized Voices
In October, Voice of Witness cohosted the virtual event “Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls” with NIWRC, bringing together Indigenous grassroots advocates, oral historians, and policy experts (recording available on VOW’s website) to share insights. How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America was also featured in NIWRC’s magazine, Restoration of Native Sovereignty and Safety for Native Women. Voice of Witness connected with NIWRC executive director Lucy Rain Simpson (Diné) about storytelling, the pandemic’s impact on its work, and how the organization is adapting.
NIWRC Executive Director Lucy Rain Simpson
One of the first questions we asked is central to both of our missions: Why is uplifting community voices important in your work and what role does storytelling and first-person testimonies play? Here’s what Lucy had to say:
"The voices of Indigenous people in North America have been silenced by colonizers since first contact. As a Native-led advocacy organization dedicated to ending violence against Native women and children, we recognize the impact of silencing the voices of those in our communities as an attempt at erasing our lived experiences, our cultures, and the rights to safety for Native victims of violence in particular, which are predominantly women and girls in tribal communities. It is a crucial part of our work to lift up the voices of our sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and daughters, as their bodies and spirits carry the trauma of the violence that has been inflicted on them. Their stories, the truth they speak, holds value. Lifting up the stories and experiences of Indigenous women and girls is a key component of our work here at NIWRC, whether it’s gathering testimony from tribes and tribal providers on legislation that directly impacts the safety of Native women, offering a safe space to survivors through StrongHearts Native Helpline, passing the mic to a sister advocate to share knowledge on one of our webinars, or highlighting the voices and work of grassroots women across our social media pages and publications like our Restoration magazine. Native voices deserve to be uplifted, centered and heard—it’s past time that our society normalizes this practice. Indigenous voices have power, and telling our stories is our rallying cry. Speaking our Read our full interview with Lucy Rain truth is also part of our healing, as the Simpson on VOW’s blog. She reflects on silencing of Indigenous peoples has NIWRC’s work to end the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, been ongoing for generations.”
along with the toll the pandemic has taken on her community and action steps that you can take today to amplify their work.
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VOW’s Consultancy Program Through our consultancy program, VOW offers expert storytelling and program support to educators, nonprofit organizations, social justice advocates, foundations, and more. These consultancies emphasize the power of sharing stories and promote empathy, understanding, and action by building strong connections between people and communities. Using VOW’s award-winning oral history methodology, we work with clients to develop customized, interactive projects, workshops, and activities to advance their missions and promote positive social change.
CONSULTANCY SPOTLIGHT:
Koreatown Youth and Community Center Voice of Witness is currently consulting with the Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCC) in Los Angeles. VOW is facilitating oral history trainings and providing adult and youth curriculum support for their Koreatown Storytelling Project, which focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on LA’s Garment District. The curricular support will also extend to KYCC’s Prevention Education Program as they pilot a storytelling project detailing the recent community history of LA’s MacArthur Park. KYCC’s programs serve recently immigrated, economically disadvantaged youth and families and promote community empowerment.
The 2020 Koreatown Storytelling Project cohort Photo: KYCC
Text: Cliff Mayotte, Education Program Director at Voice of Witness
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CONSULTANCY SPOTLIGHT:
Sequoia Living and Ida B. Wells High School
The Importance of Intergenerational Storytelling
A senior from Sequoia Living sharing stories with students from Ida B. Wells High School
Over the course of the 2019–2020 school year, VOW consulted on a collaboration with Sequoia Living, a local nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing and social services to older adults across the Bay Area who are experiencing economic hardship and housing challenges. VOW supported an intergenerational storytelling project that facilitated weekly (pre-pandemic) high school student visits to the Willie B. Kennedy Senior Center, where students and seniors built relationships through oral history interviews, storytelling, and creating visual art based on their personal narratives. Sequoia Living’s Taryn Patterson described the impact of the program on seniors: “The VOW project has been an ideal way not only to elicit stories from two populations whose voices aren’t often amplified, but it was also truly bidirectional — students and residents were equal partners in the process. They had equal voices.” Senior Vicky Blake perhaps best summed up the promise of the project: “It’s been inspiring to be with these young ladies. Finding out their wisdom, their strengths, their weaknesses, their fears, their growths. To be here with the future is very powerful.”
If you’re interested in learning more about VOW consulting and services, please contact Kathleen Brennan, Director of Institutional Partnerships and Strategy, for additional details and rates: kathleen@voiceofwitness.org.
In 2021, Voice of Witness continued this consultancy during the pandemic with virtual student visits and programming to develop intergenerational reflections through oral history–based storytelling, exploring a wide range of topics including ageism, local history, identity, culture, and more.
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Photo: Isabel Allende reads Gabriel Méndez’s story from Solito, Solita at our 2019 Brave Stories, Bold Movements event
Isabel Allende & Lori Barra in Conversation with Mimi Lok
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Voice of Witness cofounder and executive director Mimi Lok recently caught up with longtime VOW supporters Isabel Allende and Lori Barra. Isabel is an acclaimed novelist, memoirist, and humanitarian. Her most recent book is The Soul of a Woman. Her daughter-in-law Lori Barra is a noted designer-turned-philanthropist and photographer. Lori runs the Isabel Allende Foundation, which Isabel started over two decades ago to pay homage to her late daughter, Paula Frias. The foundation invests in the power of women and girls to secure reproductive rights, economic independence, and freedom from violence.
MIMI LOK: This past year has been difficult on so many fronts. What has helped you both stay grounded and hopeful during this period? ISABEL ALLENDE: Writing keeps me sane and grounded. I am one of the few lucky people for whom the pandemic was not particularly hard because I am used to spending most of my time in solitude and silence. Writing requires it. Also, I married recently (for the third and hopefully the last time) so I have had the company of a loving man and two shaggy dogs. LORI BARRA: I feel incredibly blessed because during this past year my family has stayed relatively well. Also seeing how hard this year has been for our grantees—who are dealing with issues like domestic violence, reproductive justice, and children being separated at the border, and watching how hard they’re working to stay alive and well and hopeful—I feel the least I can do is stay grounded and be there for them. ML: What inspires your storytelling? IA: I realize that I keep going back to the same themes in my writing: love, death, violence, strong women, absent fathers, loyalty, displacement, organic justice. What I have experienced in my life, the extraordinary people (mostly women) that I have met, traveling and reading inspire me. For me storytelling comes naturally. I forget almost everything except stories.
ML: I really love these quotes from your foundation’s website: “We only have what we give” and “It is a wonderful truth that the things we want most in life—a sense of purpose, happiness and hope—are most easily attained by giving them to others.” Can you talk about what or who inspires your giving? What are some of the issues or projects that are closest to your heart? IA: The mission of my foundation is to invest in the power of women and girls. I have worked for women and with women all my life. When a woman is empowered, her family prospers; when families prosper, the community and eventually the nation does too. The poorest and most backward regions in the world are where women have less rights and opportunities. Yet this evident fact is ignored by governments and often also by philanthropy. Women do two thirds of the work worldwide and own less than ten percent of the resources and one percent of property. ML: How has the pandemic affected your philanthropic priorities? LB: Quite a bit actually, just the way the election in 2016 affected our priorities. We went from having seven different categories of health, education, and literacy to really focusing on reproductive rights. The disparity of medical
LB: For the last ten years, I’ve done a photography project on children in Oaxaca at the down syndrome school, at the school for the deaf, at a residential center for disabled children. I would go down for 10 days at a time and sometimes I would just sit with the kids all day and play. Some days I wouldn’t even take pictures, I would just be with them. And I learned so much about resilience and hope through them, and so much about being playful and being present. ML: Isabel, your words, “Write what should not be forgotten,” speak to me profoundly, both as a fiction writer and as a human rights advocate. Can you talk about the connection/relationship between your writing and your advocacy? IA: Through my foundation I get to hear amazing stories of survival, resilience and generosity. Those stories need to be told. They should not be forgotten because they inspire us, they teach us, and sometimes they can change us. I don’t need to invent my characters, they are all around me.
Lori Barra and Isabel Allende Photo: Allende Archives
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L – R, Mimi Lok, VOW narrator and curriculum specialist Dr. Zaira Arvelo Alicea, author Piper Kerman, Isabel Allende, and VOW narrator Gabriel Méndez at our 2019 Brave Stories, Bold Movements event
care became glaringly obvious through the pandemic. And we tried to stay with all our grantees because it was a time when they really needed steady support and to know that someone was walking behind them the whole time holding things up. But we also tried to fit into our mission the idea of maternal health, black maternal health, and healthcare at the border. ML: You’ve been wonderful, longtime friends and supporters of VOW. I remember you both on your first visit to the office, about ten years ago, and a lot of us crowding around on a sofa that wouldn’t quite fit all of us— LB: Oh yes, that was funny. ML: What was it about our work that spoke to you? LB: We just outright love you guys. The amplifying of unheard voices is crucial at a time like this. With all the misinformation out there—to really hear the truth from the people who need to speak it, who can really teach us something, is incredible. The reach you have now is tremendous. We’re really in awe. ML: What advice would you give to someone wanting to make a meaningful difference?
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IA: Few people have the resources to help others financially, but most people can embrace a cause close to their heart and support it by investing time and energy and getting others involved as well. How do we choose our activism? I think that we have to ask ourselves what kind of world we want and how could that dream be achieved. I believe that the key to the future is in the hands of women, so my activism targets feminine issues. There are innumerable issues that require our attention. A meaningful difference isn’t only Bill Gates ending malaria, it can be planting trees, walking pets in shelters, taking food to homebound elders, etc. LB: What sometimes bogs people down is that they feel what they do is too little, too small, the problems are too big. And I feel like you just start where you are. Help that one person, and then that leads to two people, and then that leads to a group and it just gets bigger and bigger. As a foundation, we’re constantly asking questions. Nine times out of ten what grantees want—how they want to change things or what’s going to make a difference— is so different than [what we might have imagined]. I feel very humbled. And there’s something so wonderful about learning people’s hearts, and learning where they’re at and connecting on that level. That’s a meaningful thing.
Ten Things You Can Do Many of the books in our series end with a list of ten actions that you can take to further your commitment to the communities and issues you’ve just learned about. Here, we are sharing ten things you can do to further your partnership with VOW in advancing human rights. 1. Read. Check out the entire Voice of Witness Book Series on page 32 and commit to reading one that is new to you this year. Then, share a VOW book with a friend or colleague. 2. Donate money. We believe that social justice storytelling is critical to advancing human rights, and we see our donors as vital partners in this work. Our fiscal year runs July 1st - June 30th and our annual budget is $1,100,000. So far we’ve raised about 50 percent. Can you help us meet our goal? 3. Maximize your gift. Partner in one of our campaigns to offer a 1:1 “matching gift” to incentivize new donors; donate by check or ACH to eliminate transaction fees; ask your company or a friend if they’ll match your gift. 4. Amplify VOW’s work. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media. Share our posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and encourage your network to do the same! 5. Donate time. Time is an incredibly valuable gift to give, and we recognize the value of time from our volunteers as equally as money from our financial donors. We are often in need of editorial and education advisors, and we are also seeking new members for the VOW board. Visit the “Get Involved” section of our website for more information. Also consider volunteering your time with some of our partners: East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Centro Legal de la Raza, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Youth UnMuted, and V-Day. 6. Hire us. Could oral history storytelling amplify the work that you’re doing? Through our consulting services, you can hire VOW to facilitate workshops, provide program or curricular support, or work with you to develop and guide in-depth, customized storytelling projects that advance your mission and goals.
What is your role in advancing human rights? Are you a philanthropist, a leader, a storyteller, a bridge-builder? All of the above? It takes an entire community of people fulfilling different roles to produce this work and make a meaningful difference.
7. Share your network. Our end-of-year fundraiser utilizes peer-to-peer fundraising. One of the quickest and most effective ways to expand our community of supporters is through you! Join our team of “champions’’ that helps spread the word to their networks about our work and asks for contributions to our end of year fundraising goal. 8. Commit to inclusivity. Read Community-Centric Fundraising’s ten principles. Join us in aspiring to transform fundraising and philanthropy, so that they are grounded in racial and economic justice: https:// communitycentricfundraising.org/ccf-principles/. 9. Donate access. In an effort to diversify our revenue streams, we have partnered with Charity Network to raffle or auction off unique experiences. Do you have access to a one-of-a-kind event or collector’s memorabilia that you could donate to VOW’s revenue diversification efforts? 10. Partner in our Sharing History Initiative. Help us get more copies of How We Go Home into underresourced classrooms and communities throughout the continent. Contact Colleen Hammond (colleen@voiceofwitness.org) to further discuss your interest in any of these items.
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On the Horizon
Zohour, a narrator from the Resettled project, and her family
VOW’s education and community partnership work with How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America will continue throughout the year, with additional virtual events and our Sharing History Initiative, which will provide book sets of How We Go Home to underresourced classrooms and communities around the United States and Canada. The Unheard Voices of the Pandemic booklet release is set for this summer, and Mi María: Surviving the Storm will be released on September 14 through our publishing partner Haymarket Books. Voice of Witness is also offering an online workshop series this June, with interactive sessions focused on building skills related to oral history storytelling.
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On the Horizon
We continue to incubate new books through the VOW Story Lab program, a unique opportunity for storytellers working in the field of human rights to receive holistic support for oral history projects, along with training, editorial guidance, and funding. Select Story Lab Fellows will be awarded VOW Book Fellowships to support the full development of their project into a VOW book. Currently in our Story Lab is From Incarceration to Reentry, a project on life after incarceration that seeks to illuminate the process of reentry in the Bay Area — a bastion of progressivism weighed down by income inequality and punitive policing. After years or decades of imprisonment, the formerly incarcerated are released into the most expensive rental market in the country often with no money, no savings, and very little structural support. There is a significant absence of literature and scholarship on reentry that places the lived experiences of those most affected at the very center. Coeditors Reggie Daniels and Ion Vlad explore with narrators from across the Bay Area their complex and nuanced experiences of reentry, the specter of recidivism, and life on parole. As we look a bit further down the road, our education work and community partnerships will center around themes of resettlement and algorithmic injustices, the topics of our forthcoming books:
- Resettled: Beginning in Appalachia 2023 - R 2023 esettled: Beginning (Again) (Again) in Appalachia Edited by by Katrina Katrina Powell Powell Edited People living in and moving to rural Appalachia embody diverse experiences and cultures. Whether someone has lived in the region a short time or for generations, journeys of resettlement in Appalachia are complex. Resettled: Narratives of Beginning (Again) in Appalachia tells seldom-heard stories of displacement, trauma, and community integration in an area not generally known for its resettlement efforts. The first-person stories in this book counter monolithic representations of rural Appalachia as a place of poverty and strife, and of resettled populations as draining resources. With a focus on shared resettlement experiences, this project places narratives of migrants, refugees, and generations-long residents alongside one another as all Appalachian to examine the benefits and challenges of being newcomers in and welcoming new neighbors to the region.
Living in the Welfare Digital Welfare 2024 - 2024 Living- in the Digital State State Coedited Coedited by by Virginia Virginia Eubanks Eubanks and and Andrea Andrea Quijada Quijada Across the United States and around the world, new digital tools increasingly mediate access to basic human needs such as housing, food, physical safety, medical care, financial capital, employment, and family integrity. The rapid global spread of the digital welfare state has been under way for at least fifty years, and yet, it is only now being recognized for what it is: a human rights crisis. Under conditions of austerity, ethnic and religious nationalism, and white supremacy, these tools allow states to hide political choices behind a smokescreen of “neutral,” “objective,” and rule-bound decision-making. Living in the Digital Welfare state will find the human stories behind the algorithms.
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On the Horizon
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With Gratitude
Aaron Madow Aileen Thong, VOW Volunteer Alicia Dantzker Alison Lin Allison Pierantoni Ally Krupinsky Alyna Taylor Amber Utley Amber Yearwood, VOW Volunteer Aminah Elster, VOW Education Advisor
We’re so grateful for the people who make this
Amy Brown
work possible—our community of narrators,
Amy Payne
editors, volunteers, advisors, strategic partners, funders, board, and staff. We truly couldn’t do this work without the generosity of those listed here. Thank you for being our partners in this work over the past year.
Amy Rao Anastasia Bravo, VOW Narrator Andrew Peterson Andrew Woo Aneesha Capur, VOW Board Director Angela Lee Angelica Resendez Anna Guha Annaick Miller, VOW Communications & Outreach Manager Anne Germanacos, VOW Education Advisor Anne Oxenhandler Annie Stine Anonymous Audrey Breitwieser Barbara Sheffels, VOW Volunteer Barbara Yasue, VOW Education Advisor Basil Fraysse, VOW Volunteer Blaine Wilson, VOW Narrator Bradley Vaughn Brenna Miller, VOW Volunteer Caitlin Winkworth California Humanities and the State of California through the California State Library Camille Perez-Selsky Carla Perez-Selsky Carli Ciofani Carli Faykus Caroline Prioleau Carolyn Bishop Cassandra Manotham, VOW Intern Catherine Barnett Charles A. Becker Foundation
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Christine Gibson
Gravity Goldberg
Christine Tran
Greg Larson
Christopher Wendelin
Gustavus Stadler
Claudine Katete, VOW Narrator
Gwenna Brush
Cliff Mayotte, VOW Education Program Director
Holli Cederholm, VOW Volunteer
Colby Sameshima
Hunter R., VOW Narrator
Colleen Hammond, VOW Individual Giving Manager
Ipek Burnett
Craig Newmark Philanthropies
Jamey Cooper
Craig Peters
Jeffrey Maza
Cynthia Cen
Jerry O’Connell
Danelle Johnston
Jill Kunishima
Daniel Holt
Jill Stauffer, VOW Editorial Advisor
Dao X. Tran, VOW Managing Editor
Jim Fitzgerald
Dave Eggers
Joan Osterman
David Kieran
Jocelyn Wong
David Suisman
Joell Hallowell
David Wooll
John Brennan
Deborah Porter
John Esterle
Debra Andreadis
Jonathan Freedman
Deya Bartenstein
Joy Alferness
Diana Cohn, VOW Education Advisor
Kate Mireles
Dominique Janvier, VOW Intern
Katharine Freeman
Don Lash, VOW Editorial Advisor
Katharine Richards
Donna Williamson
Katherine Orr
Duc Ta
Kathleen Brennan, VOW Director of Institutional
Edward Lin
Partnerships & Strategy
Edward Schwarzschild
Kathryn Holt
Ela Banerjee, VOW Community Partnership Coordinator
Kathryn La Barre
Elisa Perez-Selsky
Katie Kuszmar
Elizabeth Berrang
Kay Berkson
Elizabeth Cornelssen
Kelly Sutter
Elizabeth Maria Van Schaack
Ken Pelletier
Emmanuel Rodríguez, VOW Narrator
Kenyon DeVault
Erin Schmidt
Kim Parko
Erin Vong, VOW Education Specialist & Program
Kirstyn Salehi
Coordinator
Kristine Leja, VOW Board Chair
Farida Fernandez, VOW Narrator
Lena De Kesel-Lams
Fran Codispoti
Lila LaHood
Gabriel Méndez, VOW Narrator and Education Advisor
Lisa Houston
Gail Rose
Lisa Thyer
Gerald Richards, VOW Education Advisor
Liz Duran, VOW Development Assistant
Germanacos Foundation
Lorel Cubano Santiago, VOW Narrator
Gina Maya
Louise Lamphere
Ginamarie Gianandrea
Lupe Poblano, VOW Board Director & Treasurer
Gloria Principe
Maizy Enck VOICE OF WITNESS
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Maria Clayton
Rick Ayers, VOW Education Advisor
Maria Kaimana
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Maria Seferian
Roberto Valdez, VOW Narrator
Mary Holt
Rochelle Kwan
Mary Phelps
Rose Family Charitable
Max Margolius
Sabrina Pourmand
Meera Swanson
Selina Morris
Melanie Merz
Shan Wang
Melissa Burnett
Shearod McFarland, VOW Narrator
Michael “Zah” Dorrough, VOW Narrator
Shruti Bajaj
Michael Hirschhorn
Soledad Castillo, VOW Narrator and Education Advisor
Michael Kohn
Stephen Yogi, VOW Volunteer
Mimi Lok, VOW Cofounder & Executive Director
Steven Friedman
Miner Anderson Family Foundation
Sunya Berkelman-Rosado
Minh Hoa Ta
Susan Becker
Miriam Miller
Susan Orr
Mohammed “Mike” Ali, VOW Narrator
Suzanne Methot, VOW Education Advisor
Monica Albertoni
Tasia Robbins
Monna Wong
The Abundance Foundation
Nancy Burnett
The Hawkins Project
Naomi Murakawa, VOW Editorial Advisor
Thomas Ungricht
National Endowment for the Arts
Tim Bancroft
Nicole Janisiewicz, VOW Board Director & Secretary
Tom Layton
Niles Xi’an Lichtenstein, VOW Board Director
Tracy Ferron
Nina Gonzalez, VOW Narrator
Valeria Velasquez, VOW Intern
Noa Silver
Victoria Alexander
NoVo Foundation
Violaine Autheman
Open Society Foundations
Wahab Bajwa, VOW Intern
Oscar Ramos, VOW Narrator
Warren Cohen
Panta Rhea Foundation
Wendy Dembo
Pascale Miller
Wendy Lichtman
Patricia Shattuck
Whitehead Foundation, Inc.
Paul Skenazy, VOW Volunteer
Willa Rae Culpepper, VOW Volunteer
Paula Dechima, VOW Volunteer
William Ayers, VOW Education Advisor
Peter Estes
Windrose Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation
Peter Evans
Yalitza Ferreras
Phoebe Ying Lok Stallabrass, VOW Volunteer
YourCause
Praveena Fernes, VOW Education Advisor
Yuko Yokoi, VOW Volunteer
Rachel Wysoker
Yusufu Mosely, VOW Narrator
Rachelle Bello
Zaina Albalawi
Raul Luna Gonzalez, VOW Narrator Rebecca McCarthy, VOW Editorial Assistant Rebekah Holt Rekha Patel Richard Schwarzenberger
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LIST AS OF MARCH 2021
Voice of Witness Racial Equity Statement Voice of Witness has always prioritized a holistic, intersectional, and equity-based approach to our work and operations. This is crucial to meaningful partnerships with our narrator communities and to carrying out our mission of amplifying and centering these voices. The following statement reflects these values. Racial equity is at the core of the Voice of Witness mission. We are committed to racial equity both internally through our organizational culture and processes, and externally through our collaborative programming and advocacy. We are also committed to ongoing learning and collective transformation of oppressive systems and institutions that uphold inequities. VOW prioritizes attention to racial equity and the centering of marginalized “narrator community” perspectives at every level of our work, including but not limited to the following internal and external processes:
Recruitment for staff, board, advisory groups, contracting, and consultancies Developing partnerships with external organizations, with a focus on grassroots organizations that address the root causes of inequity and collaborate with narrator communities Ensuring narrator communities are primary stakeholders and integral co-creators of VOW’s work, including book development, educational resource creation, partnerships and trainings, events and panels, and outreach processes Ensuring that our core values of equity, inclusion, and justice are reflected and enacted through every policy Considering critical issues of implicit and/or unconscious bias and discrimination, and addressing any such issues with transparency and accountability; conducting ongoing staff trainings and meetings to learn about and discuss issues of equity and access Operationalizing policies, programs, and activities with intentional efforts to identify and avoid discrimination and barriers to access Collecting the following data when appropriate in order to evaluate the impact of our equity goals: population served by race, national origin, and income level, which includes communities of color, Indigenous communities, immigrant and refugee communities, and communities that have primary languages other than English Soliciting feedback from narrator communities at every level of programming and using these evaluations in the development and improvement of our policies and work
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THE VOICE OF WITNESS BOOK SERIES The Voice of Witness book series amplifies the voices of people directly impacted by— and fighting against—injustice. We use an ethics-driven methodology that combines journalistic integrity and a humanizing, literary approach to oral history. We also work with narrator communities to create corresponding curricular and training support for educators and advocates. The series explores contemporary issues of race-, gender-, and class-based inequity through the lenses of migration, displacement, and the criminal justice system. Mi María: Surviving the Hurricane will be released this September. Other titles include the following:
NOWHERE TO BE HOME N a R R aT i v E s F RO M s U R v i vO R s O F B U R M a’ s M i L i Ta RY R EG i M E COMPiLED aND EDiTED BY MaGGiE LEMERE aND ZOë WEsT FOREWORD BY MaRY ROBiNsON
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" The human soul doesn't want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed... exactly as it is." —Parker Palmer, Educator
VOICE OF WITNESS 849 VALENCIA STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110 WWW.VOICEOFWITNESS.ORG
