Dr. Kitty Oliver

Dr. Kitty Oliver’s books, as well as her public television productions and radio webcasts on Race and Change, have been used widely by schools and colleges and in the Lift Every Voice Writing Project community presentations that she conducts nationally. She is founder of the landmark cross-cultural Race and Change Initiative oral history archive in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale and in the American Folklife Center’s Civil Rights Project. The archive features life histories and racial experiences of over 125 self-described Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, Caribbeans, and Asians living in Florida.

Dr. Oliver’s work has been featured on CNN, and she shares Race and Change memories in the Ron Howard documentary film on the Beatles “Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” and the film “Oscar Peterson Black + White,” both streaming on Hulu. www.kittyoliveronline.com.

Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.

954-382-0793

kittyoliver2@gmail.com

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Race and Change Collection – She founded the Race and Change Oral Histories archive with125 interviews on race relations, one of the only historical archives of its kind and scope, with stories of cross-cultural narrators in the U.S. and Ghana, West Africa prior to and after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s.

Oral histories are housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL., and her work is part of the  American Folklife Center Civil Rights History Project archive.

Race and Change Videos – The Race and Change Initiative has spawned multimedia explorations of intergenerational oral history interviews including numerous videos of Race and Change on YouTube.

Race and Change Radio Programs- Stories of Elders: Voices of Race and Change: Oral Histories and Podcast,  includes cross-cultural conversations and excerpts from the Race and Change Oral Histories archive.

Race and Change Radio Programs – Younger People Talk About Race: Voices of Race and Change: The Younger Generation, with programs produced by college students and immigrant teens across cultures sharing their personal experiences with race and ethnic issues today.

Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.

954-382-0793

kittyoliver2@gmail.com

The post Kitty Oliver Oral History Projects appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

Dr. Kitty Oliver Journalist Author and Oral Historian. A product of the civil rights era who came of age with integration in the U.S., she brings an innovative perspective to race and ethnic relations sharing research and stories across cultures in Race and Change dialogues where people can explore race in a hopeful, progressive way.

She is founder of the cross-cultural Race and Change Oral History Archive, the largest of its kind in size and scope, housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Her books and television documentaries are used widely in public schools, college classrooms, and community forums. She has also assembled an online resource of Race and Change programs for youth including an iTunes radio channelfeaturing stories of scores of native-born and immigrant college students and teens.

In 2019, she presented the first “Agents of Race and Change Award,” to encourage today’s youth who are building bridges across the racial and ethnic divide. Signup for the email list for information on how to submit a nomination.

Watch her in a brief but pivotal segment of the recent award-winning Ron Howard documentary film on the Beatles – “Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years” – where she shares personal experiences with the band and segregation in Florida. Her cross-cultural intergenerational race and ethnic relations work was also chronicled by CNN.

You can hear her original inspirational music on the CD “The Calling of Our Time” that she also shares as an entertaining aspect of her Race and Change public presentations.

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The site highlights creative uses of the Race and Change Dialogue strategy, a 21st Century model for talking about differences in public forums in a non-confrontational, inclusive, hopeful way across cultures and generations including:

The Race and Change Initiative Youth Outreach Project featuring intergenerational dialogues across cultures with radio broadcasts and transcripts of stories of college students and teenagers of diverse immigrant backgrounds, video programs on the race relations experiences of youth and elders.

The podcast Voices of Race and Change: The Younger Generation, produced by young people across cultures sharing their personal experiences with race and ethnic issues today.

Voices of Race and Change: Oral Histories and Podcast, exploring race relations from the perspective of elders from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including excerpts from the Race and Change Oral Histories archive.

The Race and Change Oral Histories archive has over 125 audio-taped and videotaped interviews of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians ranging from life histories of baby boomers – U.S. born and immigrants – who came of age with the Civil Rights Movement, to interviews in Ghana, West Africa. It is the only cross-cultural collection of its kind and scope in the U.S. where ordinary people reflect candidly on race relations experiences over the years and how society and they have changed.

Dr. Kitty Oliver is a veteran journalist and academic, an author and oral historian, a media producer, and a professional singer with an MFA in Creative Writing, specializing in literary nonfiction and memoir, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies, focusing on race and ethnic communication.

A product of the civil rights era who came of age with integration in the U.S., she brings an innovative perspective to race and ethnic relations sharing research and stories across cultures in Race and Change dialogues where people can explore race in a hopeful, progressive way.

Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.

1323 SE 17th St., #108, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316

954-382-0793

kittyoliver2@gmail.com

The post Race and Change Kitty Oliver appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

She founded the Race and Change Oral Histories archive with125 interviews on race relations, one of the only historical archives of its kind and scope, with stories of cross-cultural narrators in the U.S. and Ghana, West Africa prior to and after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s, and the Race and Change Initiative, a multimedia site with archival oral history interviews and writings, video and Web radio programs with elders and youth. Oral histories are housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL., and her work is part of the  American Folklife Center Civil Rights History Project archive.

PROJECT CONSULTANT:  Dr. Kitty Oliver is a Race and Change oral history consultant and member of the national Oral History Association who designs oral history programs and stages creative oral history presentations on race relations for communities in racial, ethnic, and cultural transition.

ONLINE RESOURCES: 

Radio Programs – Stories of Elders: Voices of Race and Change: Oral Histories and Podcast,  includes cross-cultural conversations and excerpts from the Race and Change Oral Histories archive.  For brief excerpts click here.

 Radio Programs – Younger People Talk About Race: Voices of Race and Change: The Younger Generation, with programs produced by college students and immigrant teens across cultures sharing their personal experiences with race and ethnic issues today from such perspectives as: Black Racial Identity, Indian Women Today, A Guatemalan Experience, A Haitian Confronts Bullying, Mexican-American: Overlooked & Undervalued, Middle Eastern (“What Are You?”), Colombian “Pressure to Fit ‘The Mold’”, A Chilean on Prejudice, and White Students on Race (“Parents’ Views Differ” and “Both Sides of Class”.  For additional brief excerpts click here.

 Educational Activities:  

Cultural Bridging Exercises – click here to download pdf of Cultural Bridging Questions

Classroom Exercises (FCAT) – click here to download pdf of Sample Teaching Activities

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A product of the civil rights era who came of age with integration in the U.S., she brings an innovative perspective to race and ethnic relations sharing research and stories across cultures in Race and Change dialogues where people can explore race in a hopeful, progressive way.

She is founder of the cross-cultural Race and Change Oral History Archive, the largest of its kind in size and scope, housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Her books and television documentaries are used widely in public schools, college classrooms, and community forums. She has also assembled an online resource of Race and Change programs for youth including an iTunes radio channelfeaturing stories of scores of native-born and immigrant college students and teens.

In 2019, she presented the first “Agents of Race and Change Award,” to encourage today’s youth who are building bridges across the racial and ethnic divide. Signup for the email list for information on how to submit a nomination.

 The Race and Change Initiative is a multimedia site that was created by author, oral historian and media producer Dr. Kitty Oliver while an adjunct professor of oral history writing and race and ethnicity within the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, and it was generously funded by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach, Martin Counties, Knight Foundation Fund, and New Visions Educational Foundation, Inc.

The site highlights creative uses of the Race and Change Dialogue strategy, a 21st Century model for talking about differences in public forums in a non-confrontational, inclusive, hopeful way across cultures and generations including:

The Race and Change Initiative Youth Outreach Project featuring intergenerational dialogues across cultures with radio broadcasts and transcripts of stories of college students and teenagers of diverse immigrant backgrounds, video programs on the race relations experiences of youth and elders.

The podcast Voices of Race and Change: The Younger Generation, produced by young people across cultures sharing their personal experiences with race and ethnic issues today.

Voices of Race and Change: Oral Histories and Podcast, exploring race relations from the perspective of elders from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including excerpts from the Race and Change Oral Histories archive.

The post Dr. Kitty Oliver Race and Change appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

Dr Kitty Oliver
photo by CandaceWest.com

The Race and Change Initiative promotes a 21st Century discussion of race and differences in cross-cultural public forums using archival oral history interviews, video and Web radio programs, and creative performance presentations.

The director is Dr. Kitty Oliver, an author and TV producer and adjunct professor of oral history writing and race and ethnicity within the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. This site is generously funded by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties and the Knight Foundation Fund, and New Visions Educational Foundation, Inc.

The Race and Change Initiative is an innovative 21st century approach to dialoguing about differences across races and ethnicities. It includes over 125 audio-taped and videotaped interviews of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians collected for the historical Race and Change Oral Histories archive, television documentaries, and podcasts, as well as university courses and community action workshops. The Youth Outreach Project creates intergenerational bridges across cultures as college students and teenagers of diverse immigrant backgrounds produce radio broadcasts and videos on the race relations experiences of their peers and elders.

“Race” is considered a metaphor for the differences that separate us, causing conflicts and creating inequities. Skin color, ethnicity, class, and even sexual orientation, across generations, also play significant roles in determining how certain groups are perceived as inferior or superior. From there, discriminatory patterns evolve. Race, as W.E.B. Dubois wrote, is the experience of discrimination.

The Race and Change Oral Histories archive ranges from life histories of baby boomers – U.S. born and immigrants – who came of age with the Civil Rights Movement, to interviews in Ghana, West Africa. It is the only cross-cultural collection of its kind and scope in the U.S. where ordinary people reflect candidly on race relations experiences over the years and how society and they have changed.

The Race and Change Dialogue strategy is a model for talking about differences in a non-confrontational, inclusive, hopeful way, opening the door to global conversations and progress.
“Sharing the truth of our story, all that we have grown through, the progress as well as the pain, can be a healing experience – for the speaker, and the listener – and provide hope for generations to come.”

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Kitty Oliver Oral History Projects. Dr. Kitty Oliver is an oral history consultant working with educational and community organizations to develop and teach courses and conduct projects for the purpose of presentations to the public as well as archival research. She is a member of the national Oral History Association. Current projects:

“The Race and Change Initiative” is a multimedia project that promotes a 21st Century discussion of race and ethnic relations and differences through the innovative use of archival oral history interviews, video and Web radio programs, and performance presentations. Youth and adults share their stories.

The Initiative is based on The Race and Change Dialogue a model for talking about differences across races, ethnicities, and generations in public forums, and doing it in a non-confrontational, hopeful way.

“The Race and Change Project” is an ongoing research study of race and ethnic relations, geographical history, and social change through the collection of oral histories of Whites, African Americans, and immigrants of various Hispanic/Latino, Caribbean and Asian backgrounds.

Looking for something different? Oral Historian Dr. Kitty Oliver presents thought-provoking, entertaining, inspirational Race and Change Conversations that build bridges in culturally-diverse organizations and communities, and across generations.

Popular Presentations Include:

“Race and Change Across Cultures and Generations” – A multimedia program featuring older and younger voices – native-born and immigrant – exploring how far we’ve come and how progress can be made in a hopeful way that inspires our youth.  

“An Evening (or Afternoon) of Jazz and Multicolored Memories” – A professionally-staged cabaret performance of jazz vocals and oral histories on race relations across cultures that takes audiences on a poignant, inspirational journey through Race and Change experiences in America.

For more information and bookings, contact:

Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.
1323 SE 17th Street, #108, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33316
(Phone) 954-382-0793
or email KittyO@KittyOliveronline.com

The post Kitty Oliver Oral History Projects appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

Insights and stories of immigrants and native born residents of the U.S. and other countries. 

Unheard perspectives from a range of racial backgrounds and ages.

Inspirational meditations for people committed to peace.

Watch for: New “Race” and Change stories
from narrators in Ghana, West Africa

Like the Race and Change Page on Facebook

Follow race_and_change on Instagram

For more information and bookings, contact:
Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.
1323 SE 17th Street, #108, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33316
(Phone) 954-382-0793

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(The University Press of Kentucky, $25.00/hardcover, $17.95 paperback) Kitty Oliver takes readers on a journey of exploration from her hometown of Jacksonville to the halls of the University of Florida as one of its first African American freshmen in 1965 and far beyond. One reviewer describes it as “a thinking woman’s memoir of a journey with many side trips” in her search for a sense of “home.” With humor, poignancy, and lyrical language (reminiscent at times of another Florida writer, Zora Neale Hurston), Oliver shares her passages from the “old world” to the new as an immigrant’s journey, indicative of the American experience. Blending past and present, she searches for roots from the Gullah or “Geechee” culture of South Carolina to the urban streets of northern Florida to the multicultural mix of South Florida, exploring America, Europe and Africa. These autobiographical essays are an upbeat journal – part travelogue, part memoir, described as “a delightful field trip” that’s educational, too. Part of the Women in Southern Culture series. For information and ordering contact The University Press of Kentucky (1-800-839-6855).

For more information and bookings, contact:
Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc.1323 SE 17th Street, #108, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33316
(Phone) 954-382-0793

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