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About Kay Reid: Kay has devoted much of her adult life to seeking out and recording the unknown stories of people and organizations—what they have given this world, what they’ve fought for in bad times and good. She has recorded the stories of individuals and families, of oyster growers, legislators and new immigrants; of families who live on the town’s periphery and those in its centers of power. Her mentors in oral history were Dr. Charlies Morrissey and Dr. James Strassmaier. Kay herself has often worked in what Jane Addams called “the social claim” to achieve justice, fairness, and peace. She has managed several organizations and directed major oral history programs in the Pacific Northwest, including Great Tribal Leaders of Modern Times through the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, and Ecotrust’s oral history series on the Long Beach Peninsula, Washington. Kay has great admiration for individuals and families who have built their neighborhoods, business organizations and dreams against unlikely odds. She is as attentive to the story of how the small farmer became the state representative as she is to how the laundry operator started a local museum. She excels at drawing out the truth, and creating edited, flowing narratives. Kay graduated from Lewis and Clark College in English Literature and did graduate work at the Universities of Oregon and Washington. She studied at the Goethe Institute in Germany and traveled to Argentina to interview Mothers of the Disappeared. A great curiosity about how people live and what they believe has also sent her to Egypt, Syria, France, England, Italy, Spain and Mexico. She is a member of the Northwest Oral History Association and national Oral History Association |
Services: • Record the histories and stories of individuals and families. more • Record the histories and stories of small businesses and community organizations. more • Help individuals write ethical wills—a statement about what we have valued and cherished, worked for and loved. more • Capture these stories, histories and wills in writing and edit them so that they can be preserved as documents or bound and published. • Record individuals’ recollections of their beloved animal companions, past or present. (I team up with a great artist—she works from photos of the pets.) more • Help people write letters and personal documents that may be difficult for them to do on their own. • Coach people on an individual basis on how to do oral histories of their relatives and friends. • Direct and manage oral history projects for organizations and educational institutions—I’ve done such projects for both PSU and Marylhurst, and for organizations like Ecotrust. more • Transcribe audio-taped material generated by my own and other peoples’ projects. • Provide insights and guidance to people who are doing their own research projects. • Coach non-native speakers with their writing, and native speakers too. |
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Classes & Workshops : • I offer a series of workshops for people who want to learn more about oral history and recording their own stories. See my BLOG for schedule |
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Testimonials: "My sister and I were very fortunate
to find in Kay a friendly, caring person who understood and appreciated
our family memories of four generations." "Kay Reid was a wonder to work
with preparing an edited family history that I am proud to place
in the big box of mementos, treasures and other writings to be
passed down to future generations." “In
the noble tradition of Dorothy Day, Kay Reid offers a gallery
of heroes who have devoted themselves to making this a world
in which it would be easier for people to behave decently. This
is must reading, especially for the young people who dream of
and work toward that better world.” “What
a marvelous and astute idea—to have the young gather
and present the tales of the elders to whom they owe the
character of their home place. Both the stories in Memories
of our Past and its painstaking and faithful assembly by
Kay speak to enormous labor in service of community.” “As oral historian for our series
on tribal leaders across the nation, Kay was thorough in her
research and kind in her approach to the material and the people.” "In 2001 the Board of the Institute
for Tribal Government, Portland State University, gave itself
a new task: to collect the oral histories of Native American
contemporary leaders. I had known Kay Reid and admired her work
for some years. I decided to hire her for this project, although
I was concerned that she had no previous experience with Native
people. Kay proved that she was very capable of the massive task
ahead. Interviewees I checked with let me know they had been
very comfortable with her style and her sensitivity. Given the
history of exploitation of Native experts by some research groups,
this is indeed a fine compliment for Kay. Over 40 interviews
have been videoed and the college-level curriculum has been designed
and taught at multiple colleges. Kay has been vital in the curriculum
development and teaching of the college course. In addition,
she has organized a teacher advisory group of Natives and non-Natives,
and has almost completed a high school curriculum. With a very
small budget Kay Reid has worked miracles and made possible the
documentation of historic Native experience."
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