The Delight of Listening: Interviewing for Oral History and Deeper Understanding

The Vermont Folklife Center’s Sasha Antohin and Mary Wesley present a workshop at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on sharing stories of love and delight through oral history interviews. 

The Vermont Folklife Center (VFC) has been conducting interviews in Vermont since 1984, building an archive of over 6,000 recordings that document everyday expressions of culture and tradition across the state. The premise of the VFC’s interview methodology (which is grounded in ethnographic practice) is that each person is the foremost authority on their own life, and that an interview is a way to understand a person’s experience in their own words and on their own terms.

This workshop provides an introduction to the VFC’s approach to the art of interviewing, as well as a brief overview of best practices for audio recording. The program draws inspiration from Yvette Molina: Big Bang Votive, an ongoing collaborative story-sharing project and art installation. Molina gathers stories from people about what sparks delight or inspires love in their lives as a way to recognize that love and connection can provide a necessary pathway through life’s myriad challenges. Each participant chooses a symbol to represent their story, which Molina renders in egg tempera paint, set against a starry blue field. 

Antohin and Wesley will use the framework of the Molina show to guide participants in telling and recording stories of love and delight. Workshop members will learn how to make a recording using equipment they already own, then break off into pairs to record interviews using Molina’s prompt. These interviews may turn into future paintings in the project.

Sasha Antohin, Ph.D., is an anthropologist with over ten years of experience leading and supporting ethnographic fieldwork projects. Antohin completed her doctorate in social anthropology at University College London and has taught at George Washington University and Westchester Community College. Previously, she worked as the Research and Program Director for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Avoice Virtual Library Project, a digital archive dedicated to capturing Black legislative behavior in the United States Congress.

Mary Wesley is a digital storyteller and explorer of Vermont culture. She has a background in anthropology and completed post-graduate training at the SALT Institute for Documentary Studies in audio production and multimedia storytelling. Wesley is the founding producer of the Vermont Folklife Center’s “VT Untapped” podcast and has worked with other Vermont nonprofit organizations, including Young Tradition Vermont and the Wake Up to Dying Project, to create opportunities for community education and engagement through audio stories and oral history. She also serves as the Education and Media Specialist for the VFC.

ADMISSION: Free
Space is limited. Registration required. 
Register online or call 802-257-0124 x101