Walking Other People’s Memories Into our Bodies: The Oral History Soundwalk as Embodied Archiving Practice - Incite at Columbia University

Putting interviews into an archival repository is not the only, or even the best, way of preserving them. A paired soundwalk creates a curated oral history experience that reflects the embodied, intimate, dialogic, intensive experience of the oral history interview. In the Mott Haven Oral History Project’s soundwalks, two neighbourhood residents walk and listen together and then share a meal. Listening in place, and listening repeatedly, allows us to take oral histories into our bodies, making our bodies the archive. With a focus on building relationships, collaborative analysis, and curation rather than collecting interviews for an institutional archive, this project aims to use oral history as a foundation for critical reflection on how neighbourhoods change.