July 11, 2016
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Jody Sahota
415.391.1474
(Oakland, CA) California Humanities, the statewide humanities nonprofit, has awarded 19 projects totaling $188,000 in the latest round of Community Stories Grant Program. This competitive grant supports community-centered, story-based public humanities projects about the California experience.
These new projects–ranging from oral histories collected from women who lived, worked, and traveled on Route 66; to exhibits and a film documentary about Stockton’s Filipino-American history based on 26 recently discovered trunks and personal artifacts; –join the slate of nearly 500 unique and compelling projects California Humanities has funded since the Community Stories program’s inception in 2003.
“California Humanities is proud to support such a stunning variety of stories from across the state.” said Julie Fry, President and CEO of California Humanities. “By giving voice to stories that are often not heard, and bringing people together through humanities-based explorations, these projects can help us better understand each other in a critical moment in history.”
COMMUNITY STORIES GRANT PROJECT SUMMER 2016 GRANT RECIPIENTS
AFTER THE FALL: A STORY OF TWO RURAL COMMUNITIES RECOVERING FROM THE COLLAPSE OF THE LOGGING ERA
The Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork (Trinity County)
Project Director: Piper McDaniel
This project will explore how two towns in California’s North Coast region, Hayfork and Orleans, are addressing continuing environmental, economic, and social hardships impacting their communities. Stories of residents will be collected and shared through a physical exhibition and a website that will include recorded and transcribed interviews, photography, and interpretive text.
THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT IN LOS ANGELES 1968-83
Friends of the Chinese American Museum (FCAM), Los Angeles (Los Angeles County)
Project Director: Steven Wong
A new exhibition to be displayed at the Chinese American Museum from November 2016 through June 2017 will survey the constellation of individuals, institutions, and campaigns that informed the rise of Asian American identity and the rise of Asian American social and civil rights movements in Los Angeles during the formative years of the late 1960s through mid-1980s.
DELICIOUS REVOLUTION: CALIFORNIA AT THE HEART OF THE FOOD MOVEMENT
Institute for Food and Development Policy, Food First, Oakland (Alameda County)
Project Director: Chelsea Wills
An existing radio show and podcast about food will devote an entire season of interviews to the visionary chefs, gardeners, farmers, organizers, artists, and scientists from all parts of the state who have given rise and help shape the “food movement” and food culture over the last 50 years.
THE DAGUHOY LODGE: RECLAIMING CALIFORNIA STORIES IN STOCKTON’S LITTLE MANILA
Little Manila Foundation, Stockton (San Joaquin County)
Project Director: Dillon Delvo
Working in collaboration with the preservation staff of the Oakland Museum of California and project historians, the Little Manila Foundation will document a new chapter in the Filipino immigration story. Objects from 26 trunks recently discovered at Stockton’s Daguhoy Lodge, a fraternal organization, community center and residential hall – carefully tailored suits and pants, shoes, personal letters, photographs, and other personal mementos – will bring these men’s immigration stories to life through the means of exhibits (online and physical) and a short film documentary, before being archived.
EVERYONE DESERVES A HOME
Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing (DISH)/a project of Tides, San Francisco (San Francisco County)
Project Director: Ariel Fortune
The project aims to bridge the gap between public perceptions of the homeless and the rich and compelling stories these San Franciscans have to share, bringing residents together in dialogue to understand the strength and resiliency of this population and reflect on the value and meaning of home and community for all the people of the city.
FOLLOW THE FLUME: STORIES OF THE LUMBER TRADE THAT SHAPED CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY
Fresno County Library, Fresno (Fresno County)
Project Director: Krista Riggs
A series of interactive programs, exhibits, and presentations in fall 2016 will reach beyond library walls to engage the community with the story of the Kings River, Sanger, and Pine Ridge Flumes, as well as the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad, which carried lumber down from the High Sierras, and their impact on the subsequent development of the Central Valley.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION – THE RESURGENCE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Public Press, San Francisco (San Francisco County)
Project Director: Michael Stoll
Aiming to broaden and inform ongoing public discussions about education, immigration, and human rights, this project will document the ways in which contemporary bilingual programs are affecting students of diverse cultural and economic backgrounds across the state, focusing first on current efforts to expand language education in San Francisco’s public schools, then turning to examine the effects of similar language education programs elsewhere in California.
HARLEM OF THE WEST WEBSITE
Swell Cinema, Berkeley (Alameda County)
Project Director: Elizabeth Pepin Silva
The history of San Francisco’s Fillmore District neighborhood will be documented through a robust website, featuring both previously collected and new interviews, photos, audio recordings, and other materials, that will enable the community to tell its own story. The project will increase public understanding of how redevelopment ended one of the most diverse and vibrant entertainment districts west of the Mississippi and what values are at stake when neighborhoods face change.
INDIGENOUS VOICES OF SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO: THE ACJACHEMEN (JUANEÑO) INDIAN COMMUNITY
Orange County Public Libraries, Santa Ana (Orange County)
Project Director: Jon Gilliom
Conducted in partnership with Mission San Juan Capistrano, the City of San Juan Capistrano, Orange County Department of Education, and California Audiovisual Preservation Project, this project will highlight the culture, tradition, and contemporary life of the Acjachemen (Juaneño) community.
LEGENDS OF COURAGE
Lavender Library, Archives & Cultural Exchange (LLACE), Sacramento (Sacramento County)
Project Director: Dawn Deason
A 30-minute documentary film will provide the means to preserve and share stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) trailblazers who sought to claim basic civil rights and contribute to the creation of a more inclusive Sacramento.
LONELY AS GOD
Northern California Resource Center (NCRC), Fort Jones (Siskiyou County)<
Project Director: Sasha Flamm
A feature-length documentary “portrait” of a place will examine the challenges facing Happy Camp, a Klamath River community which exemplifies many of the issues currently facing rural California. Centered on documenting the experience of a group of contemporary gold miners, “The New 49’ers,” who struggle to make a living as they search for gold, the project will also incorporate interviews with other local residents, business people, ex-loggers, and tribal members, along with historical commentary and archival material.
STORIES OF THE 1/2% – RECONNECTING VETERANS TO THEMSELVES AND DIVERSE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COMMUNITIES
Mindful Warrior Project, a project of Community Partners, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County)
Project Director: Gail Soffer
This project will enable a group of Southern California veterans to give voice to and share their stories with others, finding compassion and support in the process, and deepening public understanding of veterans’ experiences.
MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL 60TH ANNIVERSARY DOCUMENTARY PROJECT
Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey (Monterey County)
Project Director: Tim Jackson
Working in partnership with jazz historians, faculty, and students at CSU Monterey Bay, as well as archival collections, the Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) will document the stories of the patrons, musicians, and students who have shaped the culture of jazz in California through this Festival.
SPEAKING STORY: AMPLIFYING LATIN@ VOICES IN REPRODUCTIVE NARRATIVES
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County)
Project Director: Rocio Garcia
Speaking Story aims to represent the multiplicity of meanings, experiences, and realities that encompass Latinas’ reproductive lives in California, and to explore the impact of factors including immigration, race, environmental pollutants, social and economic inequalities, young parenting, healthcare access, incarceration, geography, infertility, and various forms of violence.
STORY OF US: COMMUNITY STORY PROJECT OF REFUGEES FROM BURMA IN SAN DIEGO
Karen Organization of San Diego, San Diego (San Diego County)
Project Director: Nao Kabashima
This intergenerational project will engage refugee youth in collecting stories from community elders about their culture, heritage, and their journey to America, as well as their new life in San Diego.
TEARS OF WAR: THE MANY FACES OF REFUGEE WOMEN IN CALIFORNIA
Women’s Museum of California, San Diego (San Diego County)
Project Director: Anne Hoiberg
The stories of 20 refugee women from San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood will provide material for a publication, a play, and a film that will document their experiences of journeying “from harm to home.”
TRANSFORMING THE SCRAP HEAP: FOLK ART AND CREATIVE REUSE IN WHITTIER’S HISTORY
Catalyst Network of Communities, Long Beach (Los Angeles County)
Project Director: Megan Hobza
Since its beginnings as the Tongva village of Ajaarvongna, Whittier’s folk artists have creatively reused materials from the scrap heap. Now, a 1,000-square-foot mural and self-guiding audio tour and cloud-based oral storytelling installation in Uptown Whittier’s small business district will make visible (and audible) a little-known element of local history and culture and document the rich tradition of creative reuse by artisans from the many cultures that have contributed to shaping this diverse community.
THE WOMEN ON THE MOTHER ROAD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: ROUTE 66 ORAL HISTORY PROJECT AND PUBLIC SCREENING AND DISCUSSION PROGRAM
Cinefemme, Santa Monica (San Bernardino County)
Project Director: Katrina Parks
By sharing oral histories collected from women of many different cultural backgrounds who lived, worked, and traveled on Route 66, this project will contribute to a more inclusive understanding of the history of this iconic highway.
WORDSUNCAGED: LETTERS FROM A LANCASTER PRISON
CSU Los Angeles Auxiliary Services, Inc., Los Angeles, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County)
Project Director: Bidhan Chandra Roy
This project will enable a group of men sentenced to life or life without the possibility of parole, who are participants in two educational programs at Lancaster State Prison, to reflect on and share their experience with the broader public through stories.
ABOUT CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES
California Humanities is an independent non-profit and state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1975 California Humanities has been promoting the humanities a relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. To find out more about California Humanities and the projects we support, visit www.calhum.org.
