Grand Valley, KDL will celebrate expansion of oral history project

Grand Valley will host an event Tuesday, March 29, that highlights an oral history collection of civil rights leaders in Chicago and celebrates an expansion to the collection: interviews with Grand Rapids area senior citizens.

"A Neighborhood Affair to Preserve Community" will be held from 4-8 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Pere Marquette Room. The event is free and open to the public. 

"A Neighborhood Affair" highlights the Young Lords in Lincoln Park oral history collection and debuts new oral histories from nearly 50 African American and Latino senior citizens from southeast and southwest Grand Rapids. These stories, "Community House: Senior Histories," will be available in March through the Kent District Library as well as the Young Lords Collection, housed at Grand Valley. 

KDL director Lance Werner and other community members who collaborated on the project will give remarks. Scheduled to speak are former Kentwood Mayor Richard Clanton; Tony Baker, Grand Rapids Public Schools board president; Grand Valley President Thomas J. Haas; and Lee Van Orsdel, dean of University Libraries.

After remarks, the event continues with music by Soul Syndicate and a senior steppers dance show. Refreshments will be provided; RSVPs are requested, send an email to [email protected].

The Young Lords in Lincoln Park was established by José "Cha-Cha" Jiménez in 1968, when he recognized the struggle for human rights and fair housing when Puerto Ricans, Latinos and others were being displaced from the Lincoln Park neighborhood. As an undergraduate Grand Valley student, Jiménez began researching and building the oral history collection as a Student Summer Scholars project through the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship.

View the collection at www.gvsu.edu/younglords.