August e-news 2024
Sharing our stories. Strengthening our communities.
What's New!
Apply for Fall Community Roots Cohort
Join our 2024-25 cohort as we document and share stories of LGBTQIAA2S+ Pride!
Capital City Pride has identified a lack of documentation of LGBTQIAA2S+ experience and history in Thurston County. We are excited to partner on a new branch of our Community Roots Oral History Project, the Pride Storytelling Project, to support LGBTQIAA2S+ community members to join our next cohort of oral historians to document Queer experience and history in Thurston County. Cohort members design a project, visit archives, learn from local scholars, and record interviews with other Queer community members. Our local documentation effort aims to foster a new generation of Queer storytellers equipped with the skills, confidence, and ethical framework necessary to share their own community’s stories and histories. Learn more and apply for our fall cohort by Aug 30, 2024. We can accept up to 6 people per quarter. Completing this application does not guarantee your enrollment. We will notify you by September 9, 2024, if you have been accepted.
Thank You!
We have received an Inspire Olympia Impact Grant for the continuation of our Community Roots oral history project! Thank you, City of Olympia, for investing in our community-based work. We can't wait to re-invest those dollars back into our local creative economy. We are so grateful to our donors. Thank you for believing in our mission and entrusting us to carry it out.
Summer Events
Summer Oral History Institute
Friday and Saturday, August 16 & 17, 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Arbutus Folk School
705 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501
Join our Summer Institute: Oral History for the Classroom and Community and learn how to lead a community-based oral history project in your classroom or community. Participants grow skills in project development, archival research methods, oral history interviewing, audio recording, and ethical best practices for documenting community and family histories. This offering is ideal for middle and high school teachers, librarians, professionals working in arts and culture fields, or anyone interested in facilitating an ethical, community-based research project using oral history methods. 6 educator clock hours provided.
Sliding Scale Cost: Full Rate $180 / Supporting Rate $225 / Needing Support Rate $135**
**Educators may be eligible for funding for this offering through a WEA Community Outreach Grant.
2024 Annual Gathering
We will host this year's annual Community Storytelling Gathering on the evening of Thursday, August 29th. The format will be a simple story circle with all the important components - food, community, stories, and nature. We hope you will celebrate with us.Raffle prizes by Humble Cow Ice Cream, Olympia Film Society, Radiance Apothecary, and Bayview School of Cooking. Food sponsors Olympia Food Co-Op and Tumwater Costco.RSVP NOW
Ways to Support Our Work
Become a Friend of Community Storytelling
We need community supporters LIKE YOU! Subscribing to our Friends of Community Storytelling program is the easiest way to support the community-based oral history and storytelling programming you love.
This year, we have some cool incentives for subscribers:
- Friends - $5+/ month, $60+/ year: Window Seat Media annual themed pin
- Neighbors - $10+/ month, $120/ year: Community Roots bookmark
- Connectors - $25+/ month, $300/ year: Annual themed tote bag
- Cultivators - $50+/ month, $600/ year: Community Roots letterpress print (design by Aïcha El Beloui)
- Champions - $100+/ month, $1,200+/ year: Group cooking class with Terry Vanderpham and Phamily Cooking aka Nourish Olympia.
If we reach the following new subscriber goals, as a thank you, we will be doing some fun things!
- Tier 1 - 5 new subscribers: Meg draws one person at random to receive a personalized ephemera card with collage materials (you contribute lots of these) and a hand-created main image of your choice.
- Tier 2 - 10 new subscribers: Elaine draws two people at random to receive one loaf of Vetebrod (Swedish coffee bread)
- Tier 3 - 20+ new subscribers: We draw one person at random to receive an hour-long free consultation for your next storytelling or oral history project with Meg and Elaine.
Your contribution pays directly for the community events, exhibits, workshops, and performances you love! Your money supports not just us, but the numerous collaborators and artists we invest in through our work. Donations allow us to be nimble in our community programming and continue to offer large sliding pricing for our events and services. It’s as simple as $5 a month.
We deeply value your reciprocal relationship in fundraising. Thank you for helping us spark conversation, connection, and social change.
Food for Thought
stories, projects, events, and works we love
TOGETHER!'s Swing of Support
Support the 6th annual TOGETHER! Fore Kids golf tournament and fundraiser. You'll see your Window Seat friends at a community booth at this event! Come give us all a Swing of Support on Thursday, August 22nd.Window Seat's mission is to spark conversation, connection, and social change through community oral history and storytelling. Our nonprofit aims to weave the stories that often go unshared into the fabric of our public life. We believe we write our future with the stories we narrate, and we are committed to co-creating a more inclusive, connected, and just world.
