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BOMBlog, Interview with Yvonne Meier, Part One
1/22/2012
SS What were the challenges in reconstructing the piece?
YM I forgot the choreography. I had some
video shots that I watched over and over, about five minutes. I
interviewed everybody to see what they remembered, like DD [Dorvillier]
and Scotty [Heron], which was basically nothing. Audrey Kindred
remembered things. She had this great description of how she would lead
the audience into movement, in that one section which is definitely
improvised. I brought her in and she gave a speech to the whole 2011
cast of how to lead the audience.
SS What other fragments did people remember?
YM DD felt like she was doing coke when she
performed. She was so fantastic. She was incredible to work with,
incredible, but she also made out with people in the boxes, which I
never knew until later on. I met a person who said, “I was in this crazy
performance of yours and somebody just kissed me or made out with me in
a box.” I’m like, What?! [click on the title, for the full piece]
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BOMBlog, Interview with Yvonne Meier, Part One
1/22/2012
SS Was that your first improvisational performance?
YM Yes, it was. When I was 13, I went to the
Opera House Ballet School until I was 15, and then I discovered Jazz. I
went to the first Jazz dance class in Switzerland, in Zurich. The
teacher’s name was Daisy Stern and she was doing some strange technique.
Everyone wore boots with heels. It wasn’t Jazz Ballet; they called it
Jazz dance. It was Luigi technique.
SS Boots and heels?
YM Yes, but my calves were too fat so I never fit in any boots, so I was just like wearing some funny jazz dance shoes.
SS Were your parents supportive when you started getting serious?
YM They paid for the classes, but they didn’t
think I was going to pursue this, professionally. There was nobody we
knew . . . nobody in Switzerland could professionally pursue dance,
being a dancer.
SS What did your parents do?
YM My Dad was a CEO for a potato chips
company and my mother was a housewife and before that, she was a
secretary. Nobody was an artist. Nobody was a performer anywhere in
sight. [click on the title for the full piece]
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Oral History Workshop
1/6/2012
I'll be teaching a workshop on oral history and radio at the Catskill WGXC studio, this Saturday (Jan 7), from 12 to 3 PM.
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Interview with Eve Sussman
1/6/2012
I have an interview with Eve Sussman in the next issue of Guernica, late Jan/early Feb.
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Interview with Yvonne Meier, BOMBLOG
1/6/2012
My interview with Yvonne Meier will be out on Bomb's wonderful blog, in mid-January. Catch her in the American Realness Festival!
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Academic Leave
1/6/2012
I'm on academic leave for spring '12. Gone fishing/art-making! Happy New Year
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Reading
8/28/2011
I'll be reading from my work-in-progress, "The Revival," on October 8, 2011. I'll be sharing the afternoon reading with Melissa Holbrook Pierson. Details to follow.
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Voices from the Radical Feminist Press
8/9/2011
Please check out our revamped website/blog! Our kickstarter campaign will launch in September, to raise money for transcripts and more interview trips.
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Oakland Standard
7/7/2011
My interview with Elana Dykewomon will appear on the Oakland Museum's blog, the Oakland Standard, sometime in the next two months. Dykewomon is the author of the incredible book, Riverfinger Women, and she talks about the book and her name in the interview.
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Oral History Films
6/28/2011
Paul VanDeCarr included my list of oral history films on the Columbia University Center for Oral History's blog.
Today was Paul's last day on the job; I'll miss his oral history blogging and programming at CU.
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Triple Canopy Commission
6/16/2011
I received a new media reporting commission from Triple Canopy to work on a project about disabilities/abilities.
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Yaddo
6/16/2011
I am headed to the writer's sanitarium for the month of August.
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Article, Bob's Red Mill
3/24/2011
In February, I interviewed Bob Moore, of Bob's Red Mill, for the Washington Post (out in April). We talked about everything from gluten-free oats grown in Saskatchewan to how/why he gave away his 70 million-dollar company to his employees, last year, on his 81st birthday.
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Radical Feminist Presses and Print Shops
1/29/2011
I'm hitting the road in two weeks, for interviews in Oregon and California. Click on the header, to find out more about the oral history project.
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Longform/Top 5
12/13/2010
Longform named my interview with Lawrence Schiller one of the top five interviews of 2010. The whole list is filled with articles I want to read over the holidays.
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Best of 2000's
12/13/2010
My est piece was named one of the best articles of the decade by KK. This was my first published piece, back in 2003, so it's especially meaningful. I got the assignment based on editorial faith.
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WGXC/Oral History Workshop
11/14/2010
Oral History Workshop
February 6, 2011, 2:00pm-6:00pm
This four-hour workshop will cover oral history methods and practice. We'll discuss the qualities that distinguish oral history from journalistic practice, with an eye (ear) toward the many places where oral history and radio can make good use of one another. We'll also delve into project design and ethics. This workshop is appropriate for anyone looking to begin an oral history project or to contribute content to WGXC--or for documentarians looking for a more collaborative practice.
This workshop will be led by Suzanne Snider, a writer and oral historian. Snider teaches courses on oral history, song hunting, and fieldwork at the New School University and nonfiction writing at New York University.
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Newtown Creek Health and Harm Narratives Project
10/15/2010
I worked as a consultant/trainer on this oral history project. I'm really proud of being part of an OH project that addressed public health concerns and medical narratives. Check it out!
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WGXC Station Barnraising
9/22/2010
I'm excited to be part of WGXC's radio station barnraising this weekend, September 24-26. I'll be teaching an oral history workshop on Saturday morning. Click on the link for more information about the entire event.
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June 13: Oral History Panel at Union Docs
4/18/2010
On June 13, join us at Union Docs for an Oral History Panel. I'll be moderating a panel of wonderful people:
Stacy Parker Aab (The Katrina Experience)
Michael Garofalo (Storycorps)
Agnes Umunna (Straight From the Heart, Liberia)
Rachael Weiss (Newtown Creek Community Health and Harms Narrative Project)
7 PM
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Oral History Round Table
3/11/2010
March 26 marks our first meeting. The Oral History Round Table will convene at Union Docs, 6:30 pm (we'll start the meeting at 7). Made up of artists, journalists, anthropologists, oral historians, and more, the Round Table will get together to share resources, workshop interviews, plan public events, and break into smaller study/special interest groups.
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NYU, Gallatin
3/7/2010
I'll be teaching a new course at NYU, this fall. An advanced writing course, the class will deal with stories that contain inherent contradictions. Details to be announced.
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The Believer
3/7/2010
My interview with Lawrence Schiller will appear in the May issue of The Believer. Schiller shares the copyright with Norman Mailer for The Executioner's Song. What is not commonly known is that Schiller conceived of the book, did all the research, and then handed his notes to Mailer to write it.
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1/17/2010
Thanks to an award from the Sloan Foundation (via the New School), I've been given the time and support to work with interactive designers at The New School to design a new media-rich course for Fall '10. The course will be a hybrid on-campus, on-site documentary/nonfiction course.
I'll be developing DOCUMENTARY PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE: Place as Character
This course introduces students to documentary work (film, print, photography, audio) in which landscape figures as central character. Most of this work probes the particular question: how does a landscape shape its inhabitants and determine their futures, and how—conversely—do people shape their landscapes as towering monuments of hope and/or revisionist records of the past? As city-dwellers, we will work to define “landscape,” both natural and manmade. Our theoretical readings will explore the way we navigate and remember space and architecture. Using the work of Susan Stewart, Elyssa East, Matthew Buckingham, and Barbara Kopple, to name a few, we will look at landscape-as-launching pad for nonfiction narratives that are mysteries, elegies, or social commentary/exposé.
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Oral History and Master Class at Union Docs, March 2010
12/20/2009
I'll be hosting a panel and teaching a master class at Union Docs on the subject of Oral History, in March 2010. Details tba
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New Documentarian, Spring '10 at The New School University
12/20/2009
I'll be teaching a course called The New Documentarian at the New School, Spring'10. This course is open to degree students and the general public. Click on "Classes" (to the left) for a full description.
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TRUE STORY: Nonfiction at KGB--Back in February 2010
12/20/2009
This February, Erin Edmison and I will continue to curate the weekly nonfiction series, TRUE STORY. We have nonfiction lit, documentary, oral history and animation cued up for your visit. [click on header, to join the Facebook group]
TRUE STORY: The KGB Nonfiction Reading Series is a weekly series and salon that celebrates nonfiction storytelling with readings, screenings, conversations, and occasional parlor games.
All readings begin at 7 PM on Tuesdays, with time for questions, conversation, and cocktails following the readings. Books by each evening's authors will be available the night of the reading, courtesy of MobileLibris.
KGB Nonfiction Curators:
ERIN EDMISON has worked in book publishing for over ten years as an editor, scout, and literary agent. She's currently the foreign rights director at The Karpfinger Agency.
SUZANNE SNIDER's print and audio work has been published in The Believer, The Guardian, Legal Affairs, and in collaboration with visual artists including Danica Phelps and Clare Rojas. She is the recipient of nonfiction fellowships at Yaddo, MacDowell, and UCross and teaches in the Media Studies/Film Department at the New School University. Currently, she is completing a book about a 106-year-old commune.
KGB Nonfiction Coordinator:
ANNA WAINWRIGHT is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She runs the website www.francetoday.com, is a contributing editor at the Brooklyn Rail, and blogs for the Huffington Post. She is currently at work on her first novel.
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Oral History Panel at Union Docs
3/31/2008
I'll be hosting a panel and teaching a master class at Union Docs on the subject of Oral History, in March 2010. Details tba
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