A Youth Engagement Project at the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History

FAIN: ZH-252815-17

Chicago History Museum (Chicago, IL 60614-6038)
Peter T. Alter (Project Director: May 2016 to March 2024)

A youth-engagement project teaching oral history techniques to communities of color for the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History at the Chicago History Museum.

The Chicago History Museum seeks grant support to expand an established youth engagement model for conducting and collecting oral histories from Chicago’s communities of color. This is an on-going project of the museum’s Studs Terkel Center for Oral History. With a mission to share Chicago stories, the Chicago History Museum has long collected oral histories of the people who shaped the city. Recently, the Center has developed a community partnership and youth engagement model to teach young people of color to work within their neighborhood to conduct oral history interviews and learn the history of their community. Support will make the work of collecting oral histories from communities of color a continued priority. The projects during the grant period will engage youth in The Chicago Quinceañera Oral History Project, the Chicago Refugee Oral History Project, and the Muslim Chicago Oral History Project.

Associated Products

Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project
Writer: N/A
Abstract: In 2016 Breakthrough Urban Ministries, a community-based organization that provides social services on Chicago's West Side, and the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History collaborated on this oral history project. The oral history center worked with Breakthrough's Film Crew, a group of nine young people from East Garfield Park and other West Side communities, to conduct these interviews. Breakthrough and the East Garfield Park Youth Collaborative recruited most of the narrators. All narrators had strong connections to the West Side, mainly East Garfield Park and North Lawndale. A transcription company, interns, and a volunteer created the transcriptions comprising this collection, known as Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://vimeo.com/184231493
Format: Web

North Lawndale Oral Histories, Parts 1,2, and 3 (Blog Post)
Title: North Lawndale Oral Histories, Parts 1,2, and 3
Author: Wynton Alexander
Author: Zilah Harris
Abstract: Part 1-Wynton Alexander has been working on the Museum’s latest collaborative initiative, the North Lawndale History Project, developed by Paul Norrington, president and founder of the K-Town Historic District Association, Inc. Wynton is one of three North Lawndale Minow Fellows working with Peter T. Alter, the Museum’s historian and director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History. The project supports the upcoming North Lawndale Sesquicentennial in 2019, which celebrates 150 years since Chicago annexed the West Side community. Consisting entirely of community stakeholders, the sesquicentennial committee is dedicated to fostering neighborhood pride by maximizing participation in celebrating North Lawndale’s 150 years of rich history and diverse cultures, while building for the future. Part 2-Zilah Harris has been working on the Museum’s latest collaborative initiative, the North Lawndale History Project, developed by Paul Norrington, president and founder of the K-Town Historic District Association, Inc. She is one of three North Lawndale Minow Fellows working with Peter T. Alter, the Museum’s historian and director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History. This is the second post in a series about the project. Part 3-In this installation of the North Lawndale History Project series, North Lawndale Minow Fellows Zilah Harris and Wynton Alexander discuss the favorite parts of their oral history interview with a former Black Panther.
Date: 08/03/2017
Primary URL: http://www.chicagohistory.org/northlawndale1/
Blog Title: Chicago History Museum Blog

West Side Voices (Article)
Title: West Side Voices
Author: Helen Kinskey
Author: Peter T. Alter
Abstract: Founded in 2005, the Chicago History Museum’s Studs Terkel Center for Oral History collaborates with community partners to promote oral history as a tool of social justice. Through documenting everyday people’s voices, the center carries forward the legacy of well-known actor, disc jockey, oral historian, journalist, and writer Studs Terkel. The center’s most recent oral history projects have a youth engagement component, training middle and high school students as oral historians. During the past three years, the center has worked with youth to address the gaps in our historical understanding of the city’s West Side. Young people have conducted interviews for Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project and the North Lawndale Sesquicentennial celebration. They will also serve as oral historians for the Chicago Muslim Project.
Year: 2018
Format: Magazine
Publisher: Chicago History

New Exhibition Explores ‘Stories Of Muslim Chicago’ (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: New Exhibition Explores ‘Stories Of Muslim Chicago’
Producer: Nereida Moreno
Abstract: Chicago is home to one of the largest and most diverse Muslim communities in the country. Their stories are documented in a new interactive exhibition at the Chicago History Museum called “American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago,” which runs through May 2021.
Date: 10/22/2019
Primary URL: http://www.wbez.org/stories/new-exhibition-explores-stories-of-muslim-chicago/ccdef2a4-efc5-40bf-8859-d8a3fb2592f7?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Web-Share
Format: Radio
Format: Web

Chicago History Museum shares stories of ‘American Medina’ in new exhibit (Article)
Title: Chicago History Museum shares stories of ‘American Medina’ in new exhibit
Author: Emily McFarlan Miller
Abstract: Many people know Chicago by its nicknames: “The Windy City,” “Second City,” “City of the Big Shoulders.” Fewer are aware that it has also earned the nickname “American Medina,” a reference to one of the three holiest cities in Islam and the nal resting place of the faith’s Prophet Muhammad. “I think people are not as familiar with the deep historic roots that Muslim communities have in the city and suburbs,” Chicago History Museum Chief Historian Peter Alter said.The Chicago History Museum is out to change that in a new exhibition called “American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago,” opening Monday (Oct. 21).
Year: 2019
Format: Other
Publisher: Religion News Services

American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago Microsite (Web Resource)
Title: American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago Microsite
Author: Chicago History Museum
Abstract: Storytelling is at the core of who we are as humans. It is how we learn, identify ourselves, and connect to others in the past, the present and the future. The intention of this exhibition is to record the diverse stories and life experiences of Muslim people living in Chicago in order to build connections in our communities through listening and understanding. By sharing these stories, we aim to exhibit the vibrant Muslim communities in the city and suburbs, honor individual experiences and ensure that these personal stories will be preserved for future generations. This exhibition draws from more than 100 interviews conducted with Muslim Chicagoans sharing their stories of faith, identity, and personal journeys. Dozens of objects from local individuals and organizations, such as garments, artwork, and photographs, as well as videos and interactive experiences expand on how and why Chicago is known as the American Medina.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: http://chicagohistory.org/muslimchicago

Latinx Muslims in Chicago (Blog Post)
Title: Latinx Muslims in Chicago
Author: N/A
Abstract: Chicago is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States. The community is diverse in a variety of ways—there are followers of many nationalities, ethnicities, and races from the US and around the world, members of various faith traditions, and converts and those who were raised in the faith.
Date: 10/14/2020
Primary URL: http://www.chicagohistory.org/latinx-muslims-in-chicago/
Website: Chicago History Museum

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