Contemporary Oral History Project -- Eastside Participants Needed

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Do you work, live, or go to school on the Eastside? (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Medina, Sammamish, Newcastle, etc.)
We want to hear from you.

Eastside Heritage Center's mission is "To steward Eastside History by actively collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifacts and by promoting public involvement in, and appreciation of, this heritage through educational programming and community outreach." One such way we intend to meet our mission in 2023 is the launch of a contemporary oral history endeavor called "The Living History Project."

We're looking ahead to conducting these oral histories ("interviews") with the Eastside community this year. Folks of all ages, backgrounds, professions, etc. can be part of this project, as long as you live, work, or go to school on the Eastside. This could be someone whose family has lived here for generations, but also those who moved here recently. It's intended to capture a snapshot of the Eastside today. Our goal for the next few months is to conduct short ~15-minute audio interviews, and then compile these into a format that would allow for us long-term preservation as part of our archival collection. We'd also create smaller clips to be put out into the community (including the potential for our social media accounts.) The long-term goal would be to get these same folks back in to conduct a longer oral history, around an hour, to further flesh out this project. Do you want to participate? We'd love to talk with you. In terms of time commitment, we'd reserve an hour window to conduct the actual interview in Bellevue at our administrative headquarters. There would be a release document to fill out, and we'd also ask for several photos (depending on the conversation had.) Afterwards we would edit the file to make it more clear and concise, and transcribe the content. You'd review and we'd communicate a bit regarding that. Likely <3hrs of commitment in total. (Note: This opportunity is not technically considered volunteering with Eastside Heritage Center, and instead should be thought of as a community engagement and preservation opportunity. There is no financial compensation.)

Please email me if this sounds like something you would like to be a part of! And of course if you have any questions, too.

Director@EastsideHeritageCenter.org https://eastsideheritagecenter.org/living-history