Funded Projects Query Form
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Implementation of a national discussion program centered around the film Free For All: Inside the Public Library.

The Free For All: Public Library Discussions Initiative, led by Video Veracity and Serendipity Films in partnership with the American Library Association, other library groups, and the Kitchen Sisters podcasters, will spark face-to-face public engagement around the humanities themes in the NEH-funded documentary Free For All, which explores the history, culture, and significance of the American public library and the free library movement that created it. Set to launch July 4th weekend, the program celebrates the upcoming 250th anniversary of our democracy and encourages civic education through scholar-led discussions and “Story Hours” in regional libraries across the nation, inviting the public to reflect on our national values of democracy, community, literacy, and plurality. Working closely with our partners, we will extend learning through in-person and digital experiences for discussion participants and through the creation of a robust multimedia Toolkit.

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.

The development of open-source software tools and educational materials to facilitate the dissemination and long-term preservation of oral histories, radio broadcasts, and other audio content.

Pop Up Archive is a simple system to preserve audio content by making it searchable, reusable, and shareable in ways that are meaningful to scholars and producers. The Kitchen Sisters inspired and collaborated on the initial phase of the project, which entailed an academic survey of existing methods for storage of and access to audio content, as well as the alpha release of software plug-ins for Omeka. Phase two of the project, for which we are seeking a Level II Start-Up Grant, will finalize and test these plug-ins across public media organizations and oral history archives, create a centralized repository of audio records, and educate relevant communities through a shared web space. The system will be open source and will conform to national archival standards, without requiring technical expertise from participating organizations. For the first time, content can be indexed for safe and permanent preservation and made accessible to producers, scholars, students, and the public.

Development of 12 seven-minute radio segments, two hour-long radio specials, twelve podcasts and an interactive website that explore life and culture through food across the globe.

The Kitchen Sisters are seeking support to develop 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 and conversations with scholars, as well as video, music, photographs, curriculum and links to a curated library of social networks and resources relating to the themes raised within the stories. Funding from the NEH will help develop a multi-faced project featuring 12 stories on NPR and the BBC, 2 hour-long radio specials distributed nationwide, 12 podcasts, and a collaborative, humanities-rich website with audio, video, recipes, images and writings from around the world.