Workshops

Workshop series

April-july 2018, saturdays 10 am-1 pm

Stories: YES: Houston workshops allowed students to develop hands-on (and on-location!) oral history, field recording, research, and editing skills. Each workshop was purposefully crafted by award-winning digital storytelling instructor, Erin Dorbin, to inspire students to explore local history topics that they were personally excited about. Armed with a variety of new media tools, the students ambitiously set out to collect archival images, stories, video, audio, and varied perspectives on their topics from residents of their communities. The workshop series activated partner institutions across Houston County and encouraged students to discover the many cultural assets available to them. The goal? To bring local history, from a young resident's perspective, alive for a public audience. Their final stories have been uploaded to the Smithsonian Institution’s Stories from Main Street website for the purpose of archiving stories of life in rural America.

Our students worked closely with volunteers at Houston County Historical Society to research topics for their stories. A number of visionary and talented professionals in the fields of history, multimedia journalism, economic development, planning and rural arts joined us—and helped shape—our intensive creative workshop series. Olivia Hoff, an undergraduate student in public history and policy at UW-La Crosse, served as our program assistant.

(Workshop photographs provided by our program photographer Sean Kearney [Kollective], Melissa Wray, Erin Dorbin, & Ashley Hanson.)

1st & 2nd workshops: Story development, interviewing & audio recording

w/ historian, alyssa auten

> Brainstorm project topics and select top three
> Review local and national sources on labor history and worker identity
> Get hands-on experience with Zoom H2n Audio Recorders
> Voxpop assignment: Approach 10 random people and ask,“Tell me about your first job," using the Zoom H2N

In this vox pop assignment, student Tiffany Michels approaches Spring Grove-area resident Neil Mathison to ask him about his first job. You can hear how intently she listened to his responses by her strong follow-up questions. How did work on the family farm connect him to his present-day farming operation in Houston Co.? Listen to this short clip to find out!

community event: adult storytime

@ the wired rooster, caledonia, mn
w/ author john weiss & caledonia public library

“I’m heading to the river,” is what John Weiss always said as he left the Rochester Post-Bulletin newspaper office, on his way to find a story. Says Randi Kallas, his former editor, “Which river, you could never be sure. And how close to a river he actually got was up for debate.” Over decades at the newspaper, Weiss wrote the much-beloved “Back Roads” column, finding human interest stories hidden all over Southern Minnesota. Stories: YES Houston invited him to read from his recently published Back Roads, “the best of the best” of his column.

John Weiss led a workshop on interviewing and narrative writing for 8th grade students in Spring Grove, and later that evening read excerpts from his book at The Wired Rooster in Caledonia, Minn. His reading is presented in partnership with the Caledonia Public Library and The Wired Rooster, as part of their Adult Storytime series, where short stories of various genres are read aloud. Weiss closed out the night.

Students from Stories: YES Houston were present at the event to informally interview audience members about their work experiences in Houston Co. The questions they asked elicited stories from participants that helped shape their individual digital storytelling projects.

3rd workshop: Story development , Local history research & brainstorming session w/ local professionals

@ giants of the earth heritage center, spring grove, mn
w/ historian alyssa auten & economic development & rural arts professional, courtney bergey

> Identify local research sources and interview subjects related to your topic
> Draft your ten foundational interview questions for your first oral history video interview
> Discover local history makers related to your topic

4th workshop: first video interviews & technology workshop

@ giants of the earth heritage center, spring grove, mn

> Workshop and finalize interview questions as a group for first oral history video interviews
> Get comfortable operating the video camera, microphone, and related equipment before, during, and after an interview
> How to select suitable location for oral history video interviews, with consideration for sound quality, lighting, and framing
> Practice listening, note taking during an interview, and asking questions--including solid follow-up questions
> First oral history interview held as an intensive learning experience for all students

5th workshop: Audio editing & ENVIRONMENTAL portraits

@ KARST, Houston, MN
w/ Multimedia journalist Joe ahlquist (Post bulletin)

> Learn how to capture environmental portraits of the people and places related to your stories using creative natural lighting (examples by students below)
> Intensive audio editing workshop that explores the technical and creative tools necessary to tell a story using sound
> Explore successes, challenges, ideas, and needs for students in the storytelling and research process
> Produce a complete 2-minute audio story from vox pop interviews to date

6th workshop: EXPLORING THE Archives & COMMUNITY podcasting

@ Houston county historical society, caledonia, MN
w/ "Minnestory" podcaster, Melissa wray & HCHS volunteer, Deb wray

> Introduction to podcasting and Houston County-specific storytelling
> Independent research at the HCHS archives led by Deb Wray
> How to properly scan, cite, and store archival documents and images in a digital archive

8th workshop: Embracing your inner rural storyteller & group audio critique

@ Houston county historical society, caledonia, MN
w/ obama fellow & Rural arts champion, ashley hanson , museum on main street's Shannon Sullivan , & former students, Olivia obritsch & Mai Gjere (lanesboro, MN)

> Locate and cultivate your voice as a rural storyteller
> Workshop your personal connection to your stories and practice presenting it to an audience
> Review first audio edits and workshop them with former program students from nearby Lanesboro, MN

10th workshop: intensive Story Editing & community Mapping

@ caledonia public library, caledonia, MN
w/public historian & GIS map developer, ian ehrnstrom

> Intensive editing workshop including narrative development and technical support for students' final story edits
> Evaluate how to bring research data and interviews to life on a story map