On January 20th, 2011, Brooklyn Reading Works will present The Truth and Oral History (The Double Life of the Interview) at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn from 8:00-10:00 pm.

Stories do not tell themselves.  Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and to live in the world.  This month’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories.  We will have panelists who use oral history practices to document our world and the lives we lead, and the conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on, as it were.  Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, academic writing, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as stories of how collecting stories ultimately affects oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience.

This event will consist of a panel discussion, where each participant will discuss their work, read something interesting that makes for a really good conversation-starter, and provide some insight into what it means to use interviews to tell stories.

Here’s the panel:

[a] Brian Toynes and Luna Ortiz, with Gay Men’s Health Crisis, who have developed some very innovative community-level interventions that use personal stories about change and resiliency to open dialogues and shift norms in communities.

[b] Michael Garolfalo, a producer with StoryCorps, who will talk about the work of StoryCorps and the importance of collecting and listening to the stories we can tell each other about our lives.

[c] Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Columbia Oral History Office, who has interviewed many important figures of our times and helped to document some of the great events of our era, including 911 here in New York.

[d] Jason Kersten, author of “The Art of Making Money,” a true-crime story of a young counterfeiter and his life.

[e] John A. Guidry, who has used oral history and long-interviewing techniques in academic (community organizing and children’s rights in Brazil), community development (all over the US), and public health (HIV health promotion and social marketing).