Sady Sullivan
sadysullivan@gmail.com
Current Position
Brooklyn Historical Society
Director of Oral History, 2010 - present
Oral History Program Coordinator,
2006 - 2010
Current Oral History Projects
-
Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations
Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations is a public programming series and oral history project about mixed-heritage families, race, ethnicity, culture, and identity, infused with historical perspective.
Supported by:
- New York Council for the Humanities
- The National Endowment for the Humanities
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services
- Brooklyn Navy Yard
A partnership between the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Navy Yard; We are currently interviewing people who worked in the Yard anytime from WWII until the decommissioning in 1966.
- Brooklyn School of Inquiry
A partnership between the Brooklyn Historical Society and a newly founded elementary school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; We are currently conducting life history interviews with First and Second Graders.
- Brooklyn History Makers
The Brooklyn Historical Society continues to interview Brooklyn elders. - Women's Friendships
I am collecting interviews with women discussing their long-term friendships. I am interested in the role friends play in the choices we make as we navigate our lives, and how these friendships change over time.
Completed Oral History Projects
The Brooklyn Historical Society's oral history collections began in 1973 with the Puerto Rican Oral History Project, 1973-1976 and include interviews with over 500 narrators born as early as 1890. The BHS oral history collections continue to grow through new projects and acquisitions at a rate of 50% per year. I am Lead Interviewer for all BHS oral history projects 2006-present.
Whenever possible, BHS gives researchers access to the audio/video of the interview, not just the transcript, because voice contains so much information that cannot be translated into text. For this reason, and also because it is essential for preservation, BHS digitizes interviews that were originally recorded on cassette tape. Interviews recorded since 2006 are born digital. The collection contains interviews conducted in English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
- Brooklyn Heights Synagogue & Congregation Beth Elohim
In 2010, the Brooklyn Historical Society and Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, a Reform synagogue founded in Brooklyn Heights in 1960, partnered to collect oral history interviews with 10 members of the congregation on the occasion of the Synagogue's 50th anniversary. The Brooklyn Historical Society also partnered with Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue founded in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1861, to conduct an oral history with longtime member George Harris on the occasion of the Synagogue's upcoming 150th anniversary (2011). Recordings of these interviews and accompanying transcripts are available in the Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Congregation Beth Elohim
- Folk Feet
In 2009, BHS and the Brooklyn Arts Council partnered on an oral history project interviewing local dancers. BAC initiated Folk Feet a Folk Arts program dedicated to supporting the work of traditional dancers in Brooklyn in 2003. The goals of Folk Feet were to identify the range of traditional dance practices represented in Brooklyn by individuals, companies, and community and social dance groups; to document these artists and their practices; and to present them to a wider public by way of concerts, showcases and workshops. A series of five audio slideshows was created from that project.
- From 2006-2008, the Brooklyn Historical Society completed three oral history projects: Pfizer Brooklyn, Independence Community Bank, and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. These collections are available for listening in the Othmer Library.
Public History: Exhibitions, Audio Tours, Education (see list)
Exhibitions
- In Our Own Words: Portraits
of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans
Secondary Interviewer, Audio Producer
December 2007 - April 2011
- Home Base: Memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field (Exhibition Laboratory)
Supervisor of Youth Interviewers, Audio Producer
June 3, 2010 - April 24, 2011
- Painting Brooklyn Stories of Immigration & Survival (Public Perspectives)
Audio Producer, Curated by Nina Talbot and Rachel Bernstein
Sept. 17, 2010 - April 24, 2011
- Reflections on Community
Development: Stories from Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Lead Interviewer, Audio Producer
BHS February 28 - August 31, 2008
Restoration's Skylight Gallery, March 5 - June 30, 2009
- Living and Learning: Chinese Immigration, Restriction, and Community in Brooklyn, 1980 to Present (Public Perspectives)
Lead Interviewer, Audio Producer, Curated by Andy Urban
May 8 - October 18, 2009
- Counter/Culture: The Disappearing
Face of Brooklyn's Storefronts (Public Perspectives)
Audio Producer, Curated by James and Karla Murray
September 10, 2008 - March 29, 2009
- Pfizer Heritage: Brooklyn
and Beyond
Lead Interviewer June 12, 2008 - ongoing (travels within Pfizer)
- Suspended Over Time: Brooklyn
Bridge 125th Anniversary (Exhibition Laboratory)
Supervisor of Youth Interviewers, Audio Producer
May 21 - Sept 28, 2008
Audio Tours
- Fort Greene / Clinton Hill Neighborhood and Architectural History Audio Tour, 2011
- Park Slope Neighborhood
and Architectural History Audio Tour, 2008
Educational Materials
Public Programming (see list)
The Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations public programming series begins fall 2011 with events at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Museum of Chinese in America, and the Brooklyn Historical Society.
I conceived of and organized four panel discussions held at BHS and presented in conjunction with BHS's exhibition In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans:
- The Shape
of Public and Private Memory: How do individual memories
contribute to historical understanding of complex events?
March 13, 2008
Michael Frisch, Kristin Ann Hass, and Amy Starecheski, discuss what we learn from oral history collections in which people remember and discuss their experiences of complex and personally traumatic events, such as 9/11 and the Vietnam War.
- Vietnam: Lessons
Learned and Forgotten
May 7, 2008
A panel discussion with historian Marilyn B. Young, Jan Barry, cofounder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and Joseph Giannini, lawyer, writer, and Vietnam veteran whose story is featured in BHS' exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn's Vietnam Veterans, as well as members of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War.
- The Impact
of Listening and Being Heard
June 11, 2008
A panel discussion withPhilip Napoli, a curator of In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans, Dr. Herbert H. Stein, Director of the PTSD Clinical Team at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Brooklyn, and Vietnam veterans Joan Furey, Neil Kenny, Rudy Thomas, Tony Velez, and Tony Wallace, whose stories are featured in the exhibit. Moderated by Amy Starecheski, lead interviewer for the September 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project.
- Women Veterans:
Citizen-Soldiers in Changing Times
March 5, 2009
Women veterans who served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan discuss their military experiences and the expanding role of women in U.S. Armed Forces, with Joan Furey, author with Lynda Van Devanter of Visions of War, Dreams of Peace; Captain Esther S. Marcella, Commander of the Long Island Recruiting Company with 7 years of active service as a commissioned officer; Susan O'Neill, author of Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam; and moderated by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, the filmmakers of the documentary Lioness.
Other events:
- Stories from the Puerto Rican Oral History Project, 1973-1975
April 16, 2010
From 1973-1975, the Brooklyn Historical Society interviewed over 70 people who migrated to Brooklyn from Puerto Rico between 1917-1940. These narrators, born between 1890-1940, tell wonderful stories about their steamship journey, family life, work life, and establishing Puerto Rican civic and cultural organizations in Brooklyn. This amazing collection of stories is now available to be listened to in BHS' Othmer Library. Join BHS' oral historian Sady Sullivan, archivist Chela Scott Weber, Pedro Juan Hernandez, Senior Archivist at Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños/Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY and Columbia University student Amna Ahmad for a Brown Bag Lecture introducing this important historical collection. - The Things They Carried
April 10, 2010
BHS hosts Queensborough Community College for The Big Read: a reading and discussion of the book The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien's collection of short stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Participants will visit BHS's exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans and three veterans featured in the exhibit, Joan Furey, Joseph Giannini, and Anthony Wallace, will read from their own writings and share their stories.
- Puerto Rican
Steamship Migration to Brooklyn
Co-organized with Elena Martinez, City Lore April 20, 2008
Community historian Ralph Mendez and City Lore folklorist Elena Martinez discuss audio clips from BHS's Puerto Rican Oral History Project (1973 - 1976); Plus a presentation of portraits of pioñeros by Brooklyn photographer Tony Velez. Organized in collaboration with City Lore and Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College as part of the Mayor's Immigrant Heritage Week.
- Co-organizer of the Annual Willie-Mae-Ra-Thon benefit concerts for Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, 2007 - 2010
- Co-Organizer of the 2003 New England
Women's Studies Association's annual conference: Feminisms, Human
Rights, and Globalization
- Co-Organizer of several anti-racism
and workshops addressing white privilege for the feminist community
and the arts community in Boston 2002 - 2003
Previous Positions
- The Nation Magazine & Air
America Radio
Technical Producer, RadioNation with Laura Flanders, 2005 - 2007
- Graduate Consortium in Women's
Studies, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University
- Assistant Producer, Voices of Public Intellectuals radio series, 2000 - 2003
- Coordinator, 2002 - 2003
- Staff Assistant, 2000 - 2002
- Wellesley Centers for Research
on Women
- Research assistant for Fern Marx, 1995 - 1998
- WILL: A Unique Model for Higher Education
- Raising Confident and Competent Girls: How Schools Can Support Girls
Education
- MA, New York University, 2004
Cultural Reporting & Criticism
- BA, Wellesley College, 1998
Psychology and Women's Studies
Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology
Teaching
- Adjunct, Columbia University Oral History Master of Arts,
Spring 2011
Working with Digital Oral History Collections (four class sessions): from audio editing and production to creating online archives and exhibitions.
- Seminar: Listening to Women:
Documenting Women's Lives through Oral History, BHS Spring 2010, Spring 2009
2010 Syllabus
This seminar will introduce the practice of Oral History as an historical methodology, a unique narrative genre, and a tool in the reconciliation of social injustices. It will be interdisciplinary, drawing from history, sociology, memoir, and gender studies. We will examine oral history in all its forms -- audio, video, print, and exhibit -- and in a variety of settings -- museums, schools, archives, performance, radio, and online. In particular, we will consider the dynamics of listening to, recognizing, and validating the voices of women, who may not know their stories have an audience. In addition to learning the theory and background of oral history, students will learn the practical and technical information needed to conduct their own interviews.
- Workshop: Collecting Community
Oral Histories, BHS
A soup to nuts workshop for community oral historians embarking on their own projects. We will discuss interview techniques, recording equipment suggestions, and archival best practices including how to share your collections with the community. There will be plenty of time to address your specific questions and for participants to share about their projects.
Selected Presentations (see list)
- GUEST LECTURES: Brooklyn College, Columbia University Oral History Masters Program, Cornell University ILR School, Eldridge Street Synagogue, Packer Collegiate Institute, Pratt Institute School of Information & Library Science
- Ethical Dilemmas in Oral History Interviews about Friendships, Oral History Association, October 28, 2010
- Oral History and Archives: Synergy and Strategy for Preserving Cultural Heritage, Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, May 1, 2010
- The Vietnam War, Veterans, and Oral History Collections, Teaching American History Professional
Development, BHS 2010
- Aiding Access to Oral Histories, Archivists Roundtable, November 19, 2009
- Building a Better Oral History Website, Oral History Association, October 15, 2009
- Exploring the Vietnam War through
Oral History and Primary Sources, Teaching American History Professional
Development, BHS 2009
- Urban Memory
Project, April 2008 - Jan 2009
Instruction and advising on student oral history project and exhibit Brooklyn History presented by the Urban Memory Project and the Secondary School for Research with the Park Slope Civic Council and the Old Stone House.
- Oral History: Partnerships
and Confluence in a New Media Age (with Philip Napoli), Conference on
New York State History, Skidmore College 2008
Publications (see list)
- Book Review: SISTERS IN THE BROTHERHOODS: WORKING WOMEN ORGANIZING FOR EQUALITY IN NEW YORK CITYThe Oral History Review, Summer-Fall 2010 37 (2)
- Staff writer, The Weekly Dig, 2000 - 2004
- New York Arts magazine
- Berwick Research Institute
- Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
- My first recording: Sam the
Bird
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