Voice of Witness

‘Inside This Place’ Editor Robin Levi on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show

VoWoutreach — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:06:56 +0000

Last Sunday, Robin Levi, c0-editor of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons, sp0ke on a panel discussing incarcerated mothers on MSNBC’s The Melissa Harris-Perry Show. Joining Robin on the panel was Tina Reynolds, co-founder of WORTH, and Reverend Vivian Nixon, co-founder of the Education Inside Out Coalition.

Click here for more information on Inside This Place, Not of It.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Zimbabwean Officials to be Held Accountable in South Africa

VoWoutreach — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:53:49 +0000

Last week, South African authorities passed a law requiring their officials to investigate and prosecute members of Robert Mugabe’s government guilty of torturing political opponents. Click here to read Peter Godwin’s op-ed in The New York Times about this landmark human rights law and the resistance it faces from South Africa’s own police force.

Click here to learn more about Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives, Voice of Witness’ collection of oral histories from the people who have endured Zimbabwe’s tragic decline.

Watch Robin Levi on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show This Sunday

VoWoutreach — Sat, 12 May 2012 06:25:59 +0000

Watch Robin Levi, co-editor of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons, on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show this Sunday, May 13th at 11 a.m. EST as she discusses female incarceration with Melissa and other prominent prison activists.

Read the Latest Review of ‘Patriot Acts’

VoWoutreach — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:05:56 +0000

This week, Arabic Literature featured a review of Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice, edited by Alia Malek.

Read the review to learn more about Patriot Acts, the effects of surveillance in the post-9/11 era, and why author Jennifer Sears writes, “The stories collected in Patriot Acts…will likely continue to gain resonance as increased surveillance and security tactics become the norm of everyday life in the United States.”

Click here to read the review on ArabLit.

Join Voice of Witness for a Free Workshop on Oral History and Post-9/11 Civil Rights

julianasloane — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:09:40 +0000

Join Voice of Witness, the Korematsu Institute, and the Islamic Networks Group for Post-9/11 Stories: Exploring Civil Rights Narratives for Classrooms and Communities an oral history workshop exploring issues of post-9/11 injustice through the stories in the Voice of Witness title Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice.

Date: Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Location: The Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education, 55 Columbus Street, San Francisco, CA 94111

Participants will work with Voice of Witness staff and local oral history educators, coming away with oral history training, lesson plans and curricula support, and complimentary copies of Patriot Acts for use in schools and organizations.

Click here to download a flyer with further information. Space for this free workshop is limited. Please RSVP to juliana.sloane@voiceofwitness.com.

Join the SF Bay Area Save Darfur Coalition at the Bay Area’s Second Annual Walk Against Genocide

julianasloane — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:39:45 +0000

During our work on Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan, we partnered with the SF Bay Area Save Darfur Coalition to help raise awareness of human rights abuse in Sudan through readings, events, and more. We’re grateful for the work they do and are delighted to announce that their Second Annual Walk Against Genocide will take place this weekend, April 29th, in Oakland, CA.

The Walk will benefit the work of the Center for Justice and Accountability, The Genocide Education Project and the SF Bay Area Darfur Coalition, the walk’s host. For more information and to register forthe Walk, please visit www.walkagainstgenocide.org.

Voice of Witness’ Education Program in the Community: Join San Lorenzo High School for “The Russell City Project”

julianasloane — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:31:09 +0000

Learn how teachers working with Voice of Witness bring their oral history skills and training into the classroom by seeing their work in action. On April 20th and 21st, students at San Lorenzo High School will present The Russell City Project, a documentary theatre piece created from student-led oral history interviews.This project was sparked during our 2011 teacher training workshop Amplifying Unheard Voices. Click here to learn more about this workshop, and to register for our 2012 teacher training.

The Russell City Project documents the story of a diverse, unincorporated community in Alameda County whose residents faced displacement by eminent domain laws and a series of unexplained arson fires in the wake of industrial development in the 1960s.

This community performance takes place at 7pm on April 20 and 21 at San Lorenzo High School, in San Lorenzo, CA. Click here to learn more.

Voice of Witness Presents: ‘The Power of the Story’ a Free Resource for Educators

VoWoutreach — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:03:53 +0000

Voice of Witness is delighted to announce The Power of the Story: The Voice of Witness Teacher’s Guide to Oral History, a free companion resource for teachers using titles in the Voice of Witness series.

This comprehensive guide allows teachers and students to explore contemporary issues through the transformative power of oral history, and to develop the communication skills necessary for creating vital oral history projects in their own communities. The Power of the Story includes:

- Flexible core curriculum-aligned lesson plans

- Excerpts from the Voice of Witness series

- Step-by-step instructions for creating oral history projects in the classroom and the community

- Teaching strategies for oral history

Click here to learn more and reserve your free copy of The Power of the Story from the McSweeney’s store.

Click here to learn more about the Voice of Witness education program.

This project was made possible with the generous support of the Hemera Foundation.

I’d Like to Tell You the Story of How I Joined the Army as a Child: Read an Excerpt from ‘Nowhere to Be Home’

julianasloane — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:58:50 +0000

Read an excerpt from our 2011 title Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma’s Military Regime featured on Human Goods, a news and resource site that sheds light on issues modern-day slavery and works to help people connect to the ways in which they can combat it.

About Nowhere to Be Home: Decades of military oppression in Burma have led to the systematic destruction of over 3,000 ethnic minority villages, one of the largest numbers of child soldiers in the world, and the displacement of millions of people internally and across borders. Nowhere to Be Home is an eye-opening collection of oral histories exposing the realities of life under military rule. In their own words, men and women from Burma describe their lives in the country that Human Rights Watch has called “the textbook example of a police state.”

Click here to purchase Nowhere to Be Home from the McSweeney’s Store.

Colombia’s FARC Releases Hostages

VoWoutreach — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:23:48 +0000

This week, Voice of Witness editor Sibylla Brodzinsky published an article in the Christian Science Monitor, continuing her reportage of the release of hostages held by Colombia’s FARC rebels. The FARC released ten hostages this week, all of whom have been held in captivity by the rebel group for over a decade. There is hope that this action will begin peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC.

Sibylla is co-editor of the forthcoming title by Voice of Witness, Throwing Stones at the Moon: Narratives from Colombians Displaced by Violence. Coming September 2012, Throwing Stones at the Moon describes the most widespread of Colombia’s human rights crises: forced displacement. Click here to learn more about the book.

To read Sibylla’s article in the Christian Science Monitor, click here.