Love was the editor of The Gary Anthology (Belt Publishing, 2020) and an organizer of the Gary Poetry Project. Most recently he produced Calumet: The Region’s River, directed by Raymar Brunson, winner of Best Regional Documentary Short at the 2022 Gary Black International Film Festival.

Samuel Love was a student of James Lane, professor of history at Indiana University Northwest, whose Steel Shavings magazine has shared oral histories of region residents for over 50 years. “Seeing the lives of regular working people in print, elevated in a way usually reserved for the words of politicians or celebrities. That was quite exciting. And illuminating!”

Those interviewing skills have been the foundation of Love’s creative practice. This workshop will show the many ways oral history interviewing techniques have uses beyond academics. “A local business who was losing a long-time worker, you know – the ones who know everything about how the business actually runs, to retirement and was wondering how they would train a new hire. Some of that institutional wisdom can be preserved and shared through an oral history interview process.” This workshop will also be of interest to genealogists and family historians.

Love will stress preparation at every stage of the process: before, during, and after the interview. He’ll share tips from over 25 years of practice, from shaping a project, ethical considerations, thoughts on being a better listener, the impact of technology, and strategies for publishing and archiving the results. “If you don’t tell your own history someone else might.”

This event is appropriate for families and all ages.