CONTACT:
Sarah White
50 S. Fair Oaks Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin
608-347-7329
whitesarah at charter.net
Sarah White will negotiate costs with you. Contact her directly to make arrangements. REGION:
Dane County, Southern WisconsinHUMANITIES EXPERTISE:
Folklore, History, Literature, Women’s Studies
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SARAH E. WHITE
Personal Historian Sarah White leads memoir-writing workshops, conducts oral history interviews, and works with individuals, businesses and communities to preserve their history in book form and more. A key message of White's work is that there is value in all of us telling our stories, and the joys and surprises of working with our life experiences as material for creative expression are available to any who choose to try. Her books include An East Side Album created to celebrate the transformation of the Goodman Community Center in 2008 and Madison Women Remember Growing Up in Wisconsin's Capital for Madison's Sesquicentennial in 2006.
Public Presentations:
Remember to Write!
Writing the stories of our lives can be a personal source of satisfaction, a legacy for family, and a gift to our community. Sarah White brings this message to audiences via an entertaining and motivational talk on reminiscence writing. “Remember to Write” draws on her experiences teaching reminiscence writing to small groups since 2003, to learners aged 14 to 94. White believes in and encourages participation in guided small groups as the way to build writing skill and gain perspective on one’s life’s events, while enjoying the mutual support of the group.
An East Side Album: A Community Remembers
A Madison neighborhood came together to preserve its stories by forming a History Club, then producing a book containing stories, photographs, and recipes from over 100 contributors. The result reveals “homemade” history—a view of the past rarely preserved in official histories. The process was developed at the request of the Goodman Community Center and is readily transferrable to other communities. In this talk, Sarah White explains how and why An East Side Album was produced, and how your community would benefit from a similar effort.
Madison Women Remember Growing Up in Wisconsin’s Capital
In this presentation, Sarah White will introduce audiences to her own writing project, a collection of stories from twelve women who grew up in the state’s capital city. Entertaining, and often insightful, the stories shed light on the history of Madison and the lives of older generations of women. White will also describe how the project itself unfolded—how she went about framing the scope of the narrative, finding the narrators and publisher, and finally preparing the manuscript. The program highlights both the value of listening to the memories of “ordinary” people to more fully understand history, as well as the individual fulfillment achieved in following a personal dream, such as publishing a book.
All presentations are flexible in format and can be tailored to suit the needs of an audience. When possible, photos from the books will be shared via slide show.
Other Public Program Ideas: Sarah White is available for consultation on programs related to preservation of individual and community history.
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