A preservation assessment and the purchase of preservation supplies for a collection of over 7,000 hours of audio footage recorded by producers Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, also known as The Kitchen Sisters. Material from the collection was gathered for award-winning series such as “Lost & Found Sound,” “The Sonic Memorial,” and “Hidden Kitchens.” Among the everyday voices captured include Mohawk iron workers in New York, Vietnamese immigrant women working in nail shops in California, raw milk dairy farmers in Indiana, Lebanese immigrants in the Mississippi Delta, and barbecue pit masters in Kentucky. Documentary series have covered the immediate impact on the World Trade Center neighborhood following 9/11, hunger and poverty in America, and a coming-of-age ceremony for girls on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. The award would also support an audio preservation workshop for staff and independent audio producers.

The Kitchen Sisters, have created hundreds of stories for NPR and public broadcast since they began working together in 1979. In gathering recordings for these stories they have amassed over 7000 hours of audio documenting the lives, histories, rites, rituals and traditions of people, well known and seldom heard. Stories rich in all aspects of the humanities featuring interviews, oral histories, the context and perspectives of scholars, music, field recordings, archival audio—collected over four decades in nearly every state in the nation. WE are applying for NEH funding to 1) Purchase storage supplies to properly rehouse and preserve at risk media in our archive as recommended in our preservation assessment. 2) Contract with a paper conservator to prepare a preservation assessment of our paper collection. 3) Contract with an audio archivist to offer a workshop for our staff, interns, and open to other independent audio producers, focusing on audio preservation.

Production of four short segments on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” one hour-long episode, podcasts, and enhanced online features that explore food as a means of cross-cultural understanding.

The Kitchen Sisters are seeking NEH support for a new season of "Hidden Kitchens World" on NPR's "Morning Edition"--kitchen stories that travel the globe. Stories exploring "gastrodiplomacy," the use of food as an instrument to create cross cultural understanding in this time of accelerated globalization, and surprising stories of everyday foodstuffs such as eggs, chocolate and the use of kimchi as an agent of global transformation. HKW chronicles little known stories of food--its history, rituals, traditions,socioeconomic and environmental impact, its mythic and symbolic importance and place in the preservation and dissemination of cultures. An imaginative, on-air/multimedia collaboration with scholars & community: 4-6 sound rich stories on "Morning Edition"; an hour long radio special; podcasts; online features at npr.org & hiddenkitchens.org rich with humanities perspectives, story, multimedia, ways to interact and delve deep; and HKW community events around the country.

Production of eight, seven-minute radio stories to air on NPR's "Morning Edition," an hour-long public radio broadcast special distributed to stations, a multimedia website, and a blog featuring scholars each exploring the complex relationships among food, culture, and society.

The Kitchen Sisters are seeking support to produce "Hidden Kitchens World," a new multimedia series that explores life and culture through food across the globe. Inspired by the original NEH-funded NPR Hidden Kitchens series, this new on-air and online collaboration will feature stories exploring what people eat and grow, how food marks our sameness and differences, and how food culture adapts in the face of globalization, socioeconomic conditions and environmental changes. Each story will include perspectives from scholars, as well as video, music, photographs, curriculum and links to a curated library of resources relating to the themes raised within the stories. Funding from the NEH will help produce a multi-faced project featuring 8 stories on NPR, 1 hour-long radio specials distributed nationwide, 8 podcasts, research and development of a smart phone app, and a collaborative, humanities-rich website with audio, video, recipes, images and writings from around the world.