Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, in cooperation with Prairie Public Broadcasting, will air a new radio program titled “Red, White and Blue: German Russians Remember Independence Day.”
The program will air on Friday, July 3, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and features stories about community celebrations, firecrackers, foot races and accidents from narrators of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project. The narrators grew up on the Northern Plains including agricultural regions of South Dakota, North Dakota and Saskatchewan.
Jessica Clark, child historian and project coordinator, has added scholarly commentary. She discusses the childhood memories of holiday traditions in a larger historical framework.
Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been traveling the Northern Plains, gathering stories and documenting family relationships and childhood memories of second and third generation Germans from Russia. Jessica Clark, recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, coordinates the project and Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.
The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and Prairie Public provide major funding for the program. A CD of the radio program will be available for $15. To pre-order the CD, contact Acacia Stuckle, special collections associate, at 1-6596 or acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu.
The program can be heard on 90.5 FM in Bismarck, 89.9 FM in Dickinson, 91.5 FM in Devils Lake, 91.9 FM in Fargo, 89.3 FM in Grand Forks, 91.5 FM in Jamestown, 88.9 FM in Minot and 89.5 FM in Williston.
The Dakota Memories Oral History Project is a privately funded project sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries. For more information, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at 1-6596 or visit www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.
June 2, 2009