The School of Social Work at the University of Michigan and VOCES: Southwest Detroit History recently collaborated to hold oral history workshops at the school in Ann Arbor and in Southwest Detroit. Starting with a three-part workshop series at Congress of Communities in late January and early February a concerted effort has been made to elevate the VOCES Collective’s efforts in documenting Southwest Detroit’s Latino rich history that dates back over 100 years.
Recently national attention was given to this often-neglected history as an almost two-mile section of our neighborhood was designated a national historic district! As regular readers of my EL CENTRAL columns may know, one of my passions is documenting our community’s history. As you can imagine, I, along with so many others, was so excited when this designation was announced in late January.
Over the past few years, members of VOCES: Southwest Detroit History have stepped up efforts to document this history in video and written form. The team’s work caught the attention of the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work ENGAGE office and they decided to fund workshops on how to conduct oral histories. ENGAGE’s mission is to facilitate partnerships between community groups and the School of Social Work staff and students. Thus, their support of this series.
Workshops were facilitated by VOCES archivist, social worker and museum specialist Irma Andrade-Guzman. It kicked off with the three-part Congress of Communities workshop series for their youth leadership group. Held in January and February this year, attendance at these sessions ranged from 12 to 18.
The other community workshop was held Saturday, April 11th at the Mexicantown Community Development Center (MCDC) where 20 attended. It was an interesting and much welcomed multigenerational gathering with attendees ranging in age from their late 20’s through their mid 70’s. This allowed for great inter-generational dialogue during the session.
Two University of Michigan workshops were held on the Ann Arbor campus. The first one on January 28th saw 22 in attendance. The final session was held on Monday, April 13th and it saw an increase in attendance with 30 students and faculty present.
Workshops covered topics such as an Overview of Southwest Detroit Latino History, Storytelling – What it is and its Importance, How to Conduct Interviews, among other themes.
To learn more about VOCES’ and their documentary efforts you can go to their YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
