Community Driven Media Making – Music Stories

This course is for anyone interested in using digital media and community interviewing as tools for social engagement and change. Participants will be trained in how to conduct and record an oral history interview and then work from that interview recording to edit and complete a polished 1-5 minute digital audio story. Access to audio editing software will be provided as part of the course.

2023 Research Theme: Music and Community

VT Folklife has a long history of documenting musical traditions in communities across the state; this will be the context for fieldwork practice, case studies, and exercises during the course. We’ll explore how music shapes identity and how conversations about the role of music in someone’s everyday life can open a window into how they see and move through the world.

Participants are encouraged, but not required, to explore this theme through their project. While this course will take music and community as its focus, all fieldwork and interview skills will be applicable to other projects.

The class meets in person in Burlington, VT for a full day (10:00 am – 4:00 pm on April 29, 2023), followed by zoom office hours with VT Folklife staff to support participants throughout the editing process, and culminating in a “listening party” at the end of May where final stories will be shared. Dates for office hours and the listening party will be determined by the group during the in-person workshop.