On Saturday, December 4th, I went to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s East Liberty branch to be a part of their Multicultural Holiday Celebration. They had a table for me in the room and, before I could even get my materials ready, families were walking over. The children were excited and instantly began to color while I showed them our audio recorders and told them about recording their stories.
It was a successful morning in that many stories were collected, but I thought it was even more successful in spreading enthusiasm about Hear Me. The children were excited to know that their stories were going to be online and that others would see them. Parents and the library staff were pleased to be a part of the project and asked enthusiastic questions about how the children’s voices are heard. Even before I entered the library, I met a group of people who I struck up a conversation with and watched as they too became energized about Hear Me. While we waited for the library doors to open, my unusual, unmarked black box (which was my audio recorder) became a conversation starter and soon I was explaining Hear Me to a group of adults who had never heard of our project before. They were intrigued by our project and asked so many questions (“What types of things do these kids talk about?” “What ages are these kids?” “How can I hear their stories”) that by the time the doors opened and I walked into the library, their interest made me eager to begin collecting stories.
In only two short hours on Saturday morning I was greatly inspired by the number of people who had and had not heard of Hear Me before, but who now are excited about “turning up the volume on kids voices!”
-Jess