Slave Narratives Examined
Thursday, April 23, 2009
(April 14, 2009 Stillwater, Okla.) – Throughout the 1930s the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) built an oral history collection of more than 2,300 first-hand accounts of slavery in the United States. These interviews tell our nation's story through the voices of those who lived it.
On April 24, "Soul of a People: The Slave Narratives of the Federal Writers' Project" will examine the impact and legacy of the FWP slave narratives. The event is in the Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room in the Edmon Low Library at 7 p.m.
The program features an introduction by Dr. Jason F. Kirksey, interim associate vice president for institutional diversity at OSU, a discussion of the historical context and selected slave narratives by Dr. Andrew Rosa, assistant professor of history at OSU, and a demonstration of the Born in Slavery website by Dr. Lynne Simpson, assistant professor at the OSU Library, and Bettye Black, director of the Langston University Library.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information on this and other events at the OSU Library, call 405-744-7331 or email lib-pub@okstate.edu .
This spring, the OSU Library presentes a series of programs which examine the WPA, the Federal Writers’ Project and Depression-era Oklahoma. The series, based on the upcoming documentary Soul of A People: Writing America’s Story, is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities secured by OSU Librarians, David Oberhelman and Barbara Miller.
Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story is a major documentary television program about the Federal Writers’ Project produced by Spark Media, Washington, D.C., and broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel HD (www.Smithsonianchannel.com). Soul of a People programs in libraries are sponsored by the American Library Association Public Programs Office with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life.