Community Ethnography Workshop: Manola Sidara
SubjectPortrait of
Manola Sidara
(Laotian)
Date2014 January 24
Mediumborn digital audio
DimensionsDuration: 1 Minutes, 3 Seconds
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.944.11
DescriptionAudio file from Day 2 of a two-day community ethnography workshop series held at the East-West Grille. Manola Sidara is being interviewed at her restaurant East-West Grille. She describes music and instruments, such as khene and lannat which are being played at the workshop, as well as Lao foods, culture, and tradiitons.
NotesSubject Note for the Community Ethnography Workshop Series, January 23-24, 2014: CCHAP organized a two-day training workshop for Connecticut folk and traditional artists and community scholars, focusing on community documentation/oral history methods, and recording techniques and preservation. The workshops were conducted by folklorists Greg Sharrow and Andy Kolovos, educator and archivist for the Vermont Folklife Center. Ten participants came from several ethnic backgrounds, art forms, and community organizations from across Connecticut. The trainings consisted of intensive sessions in recording equipment and techniques, best practices for interviewing community resource people, ethical practices and recognition of power issues in telling other people’s stories, archiving and preservation procedures, and using the materials in programming. Day 1 was an all-day session of presentations and discussions held at the Institute for Community Research (ICR). After morning sessions at ICR, Day 2 added a site visit to a Lao restaurant, East-West Grille, owned by educator/chef Manola Sidara who also participated in the workshops. At the restaurant, workshop participants interviewed and documented musicians, cooks, and community leaders. Participants also developed plans for projects in their own communities: these included collecting native stories about place, Assyrian textile arts documentation, and Cape Verdean histories. Many written and online materials and resources were given to participants for their use, and the entire workshop was recorded. Participants reported that the experience was very rich and practical, and they gained new tools and strategies that have been very useful in framing their ideas for community arts projects. Several of the participants also attended the previous 2013 trainings in presentation methods for educational settings, and they felt that this 2014 workshop deepened that experience and their knowledge. Project participants included: Andy Kolovos - Vermont Folklife Center archivist and folklorist
Greg Sharrow - Vermont Folklife Center educator and folklorist
Manola Sidara - Lao dance educator, chef, and community organizer
Roberta Delgado Vincent - Cape Verdean community scholar and activist
Howard Phengsomphone - Lao educator and community organizer
Stan Karro - Finnish American Heritage Society community organizer
Florence Betgevargiz - Assyrian community textile artist
Maegan BetEnvia - Assyrian community scholar
Trudie Lamb Richmond - Schaghticoke educator, storyteller, and elder
Candyce Testa - Mashantucket Pequot educator and storyteller
Additional materials for all these artists and this event exist in the CCHAP archive.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
