Storytelling
The Heritage Alliance is very interested in the connections between and among people, place, and time. Descriptions of some of our endeavors are listed below.
Kaw Valley Voices One of the first projects KVHA embarked on was to collect oral histories of people who have lived and farmed in the valley. Stories were collected and a traveling exhibit was produced in preparation for the 1998 Rollin’ Down the River Festival. Audio recordings have been transcribed and may eventually find their way into print.
Article > Recollections of Norris Rees by Alphilde Rees
A second series of interviews was conducted during the 2003 Rollin’ Down the River Festival.
> Audio Recording of 2003 Interview with Concordia Junior High Students, Concordia, KS
(interview by Alison Reber; edited for length, volume is still very variable)**
River Roots books use a blend of storytelling techniques to help people interpret the river in many different contexts, including past, present, and future. With a children’s book format, the series intertwines common experiences with cultural and natural history and has multi-generational appeal.
Catfish Cookies, released January 26th, is the first in the series. It was recently nominated for a 2008 Kansas Notable Book Award!
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“From Westport to Wakarusa: Past, Present, & Future History”
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Spring 2007
Course description: Discover unique threads of our community and environmental relationships that have made the Westport Landing to the Wakarusa Watershed River Crossing along the K-10 Smart Cooridor an area of national projminence. In the context of this Konza Prairie Passage, trhe group will explore different perspectived from three areas of our shared history and future: ” Fur Traders & Tribal Nations” (1750-1829), “Freedom’s Frontier – Bioneers” (1830-1949), and “Eco-Futures Forum – Storytech” (1950 – 2049). Through anecdotes and storytelling, we’ll frame lessons we have learned and relearned.
Instructors: Alison Reber and Bob Burkhart are creative interdisciplinary KU-Lawrence alums. They collaborate on the programs and projects of the Kaw Valley Heritage Alliance, a Lawrence-based nonprofit focused on water quality and quality of life in the Kansas River Valley.
Spinning yarns around the digital fire: Storytelling and dialogue among youth on the Internet
by David Huffaker
…Storytelling brings people together in a common perspective, and stretches everyone’s capacity to empathize with others and share experience” [3]….. Collaborative and group–based activities can promote prosocial behavior, or “positive social interaction skills such as cooperation, sharing, kindness, helping, showing affection and verbalizing feelings” [10]…. This increasing awareness of the importance of communities in learning environments includes ways to use computers and technology in order to encourage collaboration [11]. In what ways can digital technologies (in particular the Internet) add new dimensions to dialogue, storytelling, or collaboration?
First Monday (Peer-reviewed Journal on the Internet) Volume 9, Number 1 — January 5th 2004
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_1/huffaker/#h1
