The Race and Change with Doctor Kitty Oliver. Dr. Kitty Oliver is a veteran South Florida journalist, author, oral historian, and university professor with a Ph.D. focusing on race and ethnic communication. She has been featured on CNN news, “Black in America,” for her race relations work. She is also president of Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc., a cultural diversity consulting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and director of the new Race and Change Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.

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 Oral History Collection” has over 125 interviews on race relations and is one of the only historical archives which features multicultural-multiethnic narrators. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics/Latinos, Caribbeans, and Asians share their growing up experiences in various parts of the U.S. as well as other countries, and their encounters with race, focusing largely on the era prior to and just after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s. The interviews, collected by Oliver and university students she has trained, are housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL. and available to researchers.

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

The post Voices of America: Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

Race and Change Dr. Kitty Oliver. A native Floridian, she specializes in books, television and radio documentaries, and literary performances which explore race and ethnic issues in innovative ways. She has produced landmark research documenting the state’s mushrooming diversity that has become a mirror of American society and speaks widely on African American history.

She pioneered the cross-cultural “Race and Change” research project in South Florida that has expanded to Ghana, West Africa. The work has resulted in an historical archive of oral histories on race, a multimedia website on race, and consulting for historical, tourism, social service, and government organizations.

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.

Her public television and video productions are used widely by schools and libraries She is producer and host of the 10-part series “Crossing Cultures/Changing Lives”, airing on WBEC-TV. In addition, she produces videos, podcasts, and blogs on race and ethnic relations and changes across generations. She is a lecturer and workshop leader on creative nonfiction writing techniques and memoir writing, and a professional jazz singer. She conducts community oral history field work and is a member of the Oral History Association.

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

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

Oral History Projects Kitty Oliver “The Race and Change Project”

Oliver has taught field study courses for Florida Atlantic University’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies where students have assisted in the collection of memories and produced projects for public presentation.

“The Race and Change Oral History Collection” has over 125 interviews on race relations and is one of the only historical archives which features multicultural-multiethnic narrators. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics/Latinos, Caribbeans, and Asians share their growing up experiences in various parts of the U.S. as well as other countries, and their encounters with race, focusing largely on the era prior to and just after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s. The interviews, collected by Oliver and university students she has trained, are housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL. and available to researchers.

She pioneered the cross-cultural “Race and Change” research project in South Florida that has expanded to Ghana, West Africa. The work has resulted in an historical archive of oral histories on race, a multimedia website on race, and consulting for historical, tourism, social service, and government organizations.

Her public television and video productions are used widely by schools and libraries She is producer and host of the 10-part series “Crossing Cultures/Changing Lives”, airing on WBEC-TV. In addition, she produces videos, podcasts, and blogs on race and ethnic relations and changes across generations. She is a lecturer and workshop leader on creative nonfiction writing techniques and memoir writing, and a professional jazz singer. She conducts community oral history field work and is a member of the Oral History Association.

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

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

journalist Oral Historian and Author. Dr. Kitty Oliver is a veteran South Florida journalist, author, oral historian, and university professor with a Ph.D. focusing on race and ethnic communication. She has been featured on CNN news, “Black in America,” for her race relations work. She is also president of Kitty O. Enterprises, Inc., a cultural diversity consulting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and director of the new Race and Change Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.

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.

Her public television and video productions are used widely by schools and libraries She is producer and host of the 10-part series “Crossing Cultures/Changing Lives”, airing on WBEC-TV. In addition, she produces videos, podcasts, and blogs on race and ethnic relations and changes across generations. She is a lecturer and workshop leader on creative nonfiction writing techniques and memoir writing, and a professional jazz singer. She conducts community oral history field work and is a member of the Oral History Association.

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

The post journalist Oral Historian and Author appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

The Race and Change. 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. Research sites have included the South Florida cities of Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton; North Fork and Liberia, historically-significant Black communities; towns along Florida’s landmark Lake Okeechobee; and Ghana, West Africa where women who have experienced America’s racial climate shared their stories.

Oliver has taught field study courses for Florida Atlantic University’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies where students have assisted in the collection of memories and produced projects for public presentation.

“The Race and Change Oral History Collection” has over 125 interviews on race relations and is one of the only historical archives which features multicultural-multiethnic narrators. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics/Latinos, Caribbeans, and Asians share their growing up experiences in various parts of the U.S. as well as other countries, and their encounters with race, focusing largely on the era prior to and just after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s. The interviews, collected by Oliver and university students she has trained, are housed in Special Collections at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL. and available to researchers.

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

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

(Arcadia, $18.99), is the result of a three-month long oral history project at the dawn of the new millennium interviewing a cross-section of 42 Blacks, Whites and immigrants who were born and raised in or who migrated to this South Florida area between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Their memories span 75 years of racial and ethnic change. They tell tales of segregated beaches, buses and bathrooms; facing the culture of a new country; and of causes over the years that have brought different ethnic groups together. Recording their memories for the archives of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, these individuals provide valuable, often poignant insight into race relations in America, in their own words – the painful and the uplifting. Says one reviewer, “A must reading for anyone who earnestly cares about the state of ethnic relations in the Sunshine State.” For information and ordering contact Arcadia Publishing (1-888-313-2665).

Companion video: “Crossings of the Racial Divide: Hollywood Stories”, written and produced by Kitty Oliver as a companion public television documentary of this project, is also available ($30.00). The half-hour program was produced by Kitty Oliver in cooperation with WBEC-TV. It has aired widely on public TV and is used as an educational resource for middle and high schools, universities and colleges, and community groups. A FCAT-related Teacher’s Guide is provided. For information and ordering, contact KittyO@KittyOliverOnline.com.

A native Floridian, she specializes in books, television and radio documentaries, and literary performances which explore race and ethnic issues in innovative ways. She has produced landmark research documenting the state’s mushrooming diversity that has become a mirror of American society and speaks widely on African American history.

She pioneered the cross-cultural “Race and Change” research project in South Florida that has expanded to Ghana, West Africa. The work has resulted in an historical archive of oral histories on race, a multimedia website on race, and consulting for historical, tourism, social service, and government organizations.

Her public television and video productions are used widely by schools and libraries She is producer and host of the 10-part series “Crossing Cultures/Changing Lives”, airing on WBEC-TV. In addition, she produces videos, podcasts, and blogs on race and ethnic relations and changes across generations. She is a lecturer and workshop leader on creative nonfiction writing techniques and memoir writing, and a professional jazz singer. She conducts community oral history field work and is a member of the Oral History Association.

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

The post Voices of America: Race and Change in Hollywood Florida appeared first on Kitty Oliver Online.

Women’s History Month provides the opportunity to learn about everyday women doing extraordinary things. Designated by the U.S. Congress as National Women’s History Month in 1987, the month of March is recognized nationwide in schools and by community groups. Annually, the National Women’s History Project selects a theme that embodies women’s strength and courage to overcome obstacles.

The 2018 theme is, “Nevertheless She Persisted: Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.” Locally, schools and organizations also use the theme in collaboration with their programs.

“Each year the sorority seeks to honor inspiring and talented women from all industries, backgrounds, and ages,” chapter President Lois Lee said. “We delight in consciously shining a light on efforts to maximize civic engagement, promote integrity, and a call to service. Beta Tau Zeta chapter’s Finer Womanhood Community Awards are given to women who saw the barriers, jumped the hurdles and ‘persisted’ to realize their life’s visions and missions.”

Following the national theme, the essence of the local honorees’ lives demonstrates the power of voice, of persistent action, and of believing that meaningful and lasting change is possible in our democratic society:

▪ U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — After battling breast cancer, the Democratic congresswoman from Weston used her public voice and vote to arm young women with informational and screening tools to beat back this deadly disease. As a result of her efforts, Congress passed the EARLY Act, which provides vital funding and awareness information; and the PAL Act, which protects coverage for mammography screenings for younger women.

▪ Broward Commissioner Barbara Sharief — The recent Broward mayor has been elected to several positions and is chair of the National Association of Counties Subcommittee on Medicaid and Indigent Care. In addition, she visualized and created a company that provides home healthcare services to residents of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and employs over 600 professionals.

▪ Carole Ann Taylor — A humanitarian and entrepreneur, the founder of Miami To Go stores has “persisted” in the travel, retail, culture and duty-free business for 30 years, with locations at Bayside Marketplace, Miami International Airport and historic Little Havana. The company was named a Top 50 Women Led Business in Florida by the Commonwealth Institute and was named the U.S. Small Business Administration and Department of Commerce Minority Retail Firm of the Year. She is a founding member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the National Women’s Political Caucus, where she served as its first national co-chair. She is a board member of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, WDNA Jazz Radio and Viernes Culturales.

▪ Beatrice Louissaint — Founder of the Haitian American Women’s Coalition, she spearheaded the region’s first Haitian Conference in English focusing on issues of acculturation. The first executive director of the Black Business Association, during her seven-year tenure the group increased revenue from $30,000 to $300,000 and debuted initiatives such as International Trade Assistance, which took black businesses on trade missions to Brazil, Mexico, Haiti and Ghana. Currently, she serves as president and CEO of the Florida State Minority Suppliers Development Council (FSMSDC), one of 23 regional councils affiliated with the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

▪ Nancy Dawkins — In 2017, the city of Miami named a street in Liberty City to honor the retired educator’s enthusiastic and determined voice at the Carrie P. Meek Center at Charles Hadley Park. As a result of her efforts, hundreds of senior citizens gather daily, to enjoy a full-service meal and activities. In 1977, she founded Miami Dade County Public School’s Theodore R. Gibson Oratorical and Declamation Contest.

▪ Jo Marie Payton — An NAACP Image Award winner, her big break came playing the no-nonsense character Harriet Winslow in the hit sitcom “Family Matters,” one of the longest-running African-American sitcoms in television history. To honor her mother, she established the Frankie Payton Scholarship Fund at Albany State College supporting 200 students in fulfilling their dreams of college educations.

▪ Kitty Oliver, Ph.D. — One of the first black freshman to attend the University of Florida and one of the first black staff writers at the Miami Herald’s Broward Bureau (1971-90), she “came of age” with integration in America. She made a career developing creative, inclusive dialogues across races, ethnicities, and cultures. The author of numerous books, she recently produced the 10-part series, “Crossing Cultures, Changing Lives” for Broward Schools’ BECON TV.

In addition, Torika Alonso Burford will be recognized as the 2018 Zeta of the Year for upholding the highest ideals of the sorority through many hours of community service sisterhood, scholarship, and finer womanhood.

Dorothy Jenkins Fields, PhD, is a historian and founder of the Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida Inc. Send feedback to djf@bellsouth.net.

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