I’ve Known Rivers: The MoAD Story Project Seeks Hurricane Katrina Entries

Museum of the African Diaspora Begins Accepting Stories for Archive on April 1.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 22, 2006 -- Since its successful launch in December 2005, I’ve Known Rivers: The MoAD Story Project (IKR) – an unprecedented global effort by an international museum to collect, document, publish, produce, and archive "first voice" digital narratives about people of African descent – has published a volume of first-person narratives, poems, and stories from places as diverse as Beijing, Bosnia, Brazil, South Africa, Asmara, Haiti and San Francisco. On April 1, the project will begin accepting new submissions for its second volume of stories.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless, their stories still untold. The second volume of I’ve Known Rivers: The MoAD Story Project, to be published on May 30, 2006, will feature a section devoted to Hurricane Katrina survivors and their dramatic stories.

“Hurricane Katrina has produced one of the largest migrations of people of African descent since the civil war,” said Denise Bradley, Executive Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora.

“Their stories and their voices deserve to be documented and preserved. And MoAD, as a ‘first voice’ institution, is best-suited to capture and contextualize these stories unlike any other museum in the nation.”

The purpose of the project is to create an international digital community that provides a voice for, and affirms the varied and often untold stories of people of African descent throughout the world. IKR is similar in vision to the historic WPA Federal Writers' Project (1936 -1940), which archived thousands of items, including essays, oral testimony, folklore, and authentic narratives of ex-slaves about life during slavery and the U.S. Civil War. IKR will continue to collect, publish, and archive stories about life across the Diaspora by well-known, published authors as well as new storytellers.

The project will use various digital media, including audio interviews, streaming video, flash, and photo montage to capture and present the most compelling stories from all entries submitted.

All stories must focus on one of MoAD’s four themes: origins, movement, adaptation, and transformation. Although, currently there is a particular interest in Hurricane Katrina stories, IKR continues to solicit all stories related to the African Diaspora.

The deadline for stories for I’ve Known Rivers - Vol. II is May 15, 2006.

Contact: Cheo Tyehimba   (510) 823-8150.

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