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Tell Me More: Tips for Collecting and Sharing Oral Narrative

with the Southern Maryland Folklife Center

Learn how storytelling and oral history preserve community memory in this hands-on workshop.

Groucho Marx once said, “If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.”

Join Shelly O’Foran for a workshop on the power of storytelling to capture narrative history in a way that other forms of documentation simply cannot. During her PhD research, O’Foran collected and published an oral history of a small Black church in rural Alabama that was burned down in 1996, almost certainly by arson. She’ll share lessons learned and help you start your own project.

Please bring a recording device (phone is fine) if you can as we will practice collecting narrative together!

Registration is required.

If you have questions, please contact the La Plata Branch at 301-934-9001 or email laplataref@ccplonline.org.

Shelly O'Foran is an independent scholar, freelance writer, and retired English teacher. She is the author of Little Zion: A Church Baptized by Fire.

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