The
Voice of Witness
Series:
Hurricane Katrina.
- - - -
The Voice of Witness (VOW) series portrays contemporary issues in social
justice and human rights through oral histories. The first in the series—Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated—will be
published on October 21. In the book, each of the 14 men and women
interviewed have a chapter in which they speak about their lives before they
were charged with crimes they did not commit, their arrest and trial, the
many years they spent in prison, the events leading to their exoneration,
and life since being freed from prison. To bring the reader from the
particular experience of the individual to the general social justice and
human-rights issues portrayed by their narrative, embedded in each chapter
are sidebars that contain information highlighting issues raised by the
speaker—such as eyewitness misidentification, prosecutorial misconduct,
and emotional hardships inside prison.
This first book was a collaboration between McSweeney's and the UC Berkeley
Graduate School of Journalism. It was co-edited by Dave Eggers and Lola
Vollen, M.D., founder of the Life After Exoneration Project.
The next Voice of Witness book will focus on those victimized by Hurricane
Katrina and the government's response thereafter. We have already collected
many interviews from those who are, or were until recently, living in shelters
in Houston and Baton Rouge. We are confident that allowing the victims to
speak at length will illuminate, perhaps better than any other method, what
really happened in the wake of the disaster. Once we receive and edit the
narratives, they will be shaped into chapters and organized into a narrative
following the lives of a wide spectrum of the victims.
We are looking for interviewers who can devote much of the next two to three
weeks to interviewing more of the displaced. The endeavor would entail
traveling to those areas where the survivors are currently living, and
conducting interviews ranging from two to eight hours each. Interview tapes
will then be sent to San Francisco for transcription. Interviewers need not
transcribe their own tapes.
Interviewers of all stripes are welcome.
Empathy and genuine curiosity about another's experience are the fundamental
qualities of a good interviewer. We hope that interviewers will come from a
variety of fields, including journalism and professions such as nursing,
social work, and counseling. People who have worked with those in dire
straits, those in distress, or those suffering from illness have a head
start on how to draw information from victims who might be traumatized.
However, we are interested in including anyone interested who can help the
victims of Katrina tell their story.
Ideally, interviewers will be familiar with the areas in which critical
events unfolded after Katrina. Because many who are familiar with New
Orleans are themselves displaced, we will also rely on interviewers from
outside the affected area who are not themselves coping with being uprooted.
If you would like to receive more information about this project, please
answer the following questions and e-mail the answers to VOWKatrina@mcsweeneys.net.
Where do you currently live?
Have you lived in New Orleans and/or other affected areas of the Gulf
region?
Are you very familiar with the events and issues surrounding Hurricane
Katrina?
Are you available for the next two to three weeks?
Are you comfortable with working on a small-budget project such as this?
Do you have any experience in interviewing, whether through work in
journalism, human rights, clinical psychology, or other applicable
professions?
Please provide, in concise form, any other information we might need to
know about you.
We will contact respondents as soon as we can. We do not know what the
response will be, so please be patient if a large response prevents us from
answering your e-mail immediately. Because this project will be ongoing, it
might take us weeks to reply.
Thank you in advance for your interest,
The editors of Voice of Witness
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