activism & Oral History
That's me, kayaking on Crooked Lake last summer!
I love eggs, tea, and the University of Michigan!
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Who am I?
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My name is Miriam Francisco. I'm a sophomore minor in Writing student.
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For my Gateway final project, I conducted a series of interviews on the topic of activism and oral history. My origin piece was an academic essay about about youth movements, protests, and the politics of Bruce Springsteen's song (and album) "Born in the USA". In each experiment, I transformed the origin piece into a new genre (short story, poem, and literary journalism essay).
For this project, I wanted to combine my interest in oral history and interviewing with the themes and topics I explored in my origin piece. I interviewed three people: an oral historian, an Intergroup Relations (IGR) professor-activist, and a college student who conducted oral histories about the 1967 Detroit riots.
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Recording the lived experiences of people whose stories might have otherwise been lost to history is a form of activism. Interviewing oral historians about their experiences allowed me to conduct my own oral history of an activist – making me both an oral historian and an activist!
What's my project?
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Why oral history?
I also asked each person about their favorite protest song. Music can trigger both personal and collective emotion, and I was interested in what kinds of music people would categorize as 'protest music'.