Events: September 2006 Archives

Reach out, Relive, and Reveal through filmmaking
A Panel Discussion

Monday, October 9, 2006
2:30 PM– 4:30 PM

Temple University Libraries, Paley Library, Lecture Hall
1210 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia PA 19122

The Temple University Libraries’ Urban Archives department, in collaboration with Scribe Video Center, presents a screening and public panel discussion of community oral history projects. The panel will focus on the Precious Places Community History project, a documentary video model developed by SCRIBE that places humanities scholars and videomakers with community groups to produce community histories that focus on significant public spaces that define a particular city neighborhood. Since 2004, over 30 community groups throughout the Philadelphia region have participated in this project and created short documentaries.

Our distinguished panel includes: Louis Massiah, Executive Director of Scribe; Jamese Wells, Precious Places project coordinator; Dr. Rickie Sanders, a consulting project humanities scholar and Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University; John Pettit, a consulting project videomaker, facilitator and the assistant archivist of the Urban Archives at Temple Libraries; and two members of community groups that participated in the project. The discussion will include the process of creating a community oral history, and the role of the community and public archives in creating community histories. Panel members will also look at how to make use of resources for historiography within neighborhoods, and the role of humanities scholars and independent videomakers in community settings. The panel will also invite questions and discussion with the audience.

Three eight-minute Precious Places documentaries, completed in 2006, will be screened in the course of the panel presentation --- Youth and the Houston Center: Growing Up Together, by United Communities of Southeast Philadelphia; Unhushed!, by the Still Standing Project of Camden; Villa African Cólobo by Grupo Motivos of Norris Square, North Philadelphia.

An exhibit of Philadelphia neighborhood images from the Urban Archives’ vast photograph collections, as well as products developed by Scribe, will be on display. A reception will follow the panel discussion.

This program has been supported in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For additional information, please contact the Urban Archives at 215-204-5750 or urbana@library.temple.edu

Margaret Jerrido,
Head, Urban Archives Department