Community Learning

Linking the Liberal Arts and Hartford

Community Learning
Students sit around a table with community members who are sharing their stories of life in Hartford. They are at a library and surrounded by books on all sides.
Public Humanities Collaborative 

Public Humanities Collaborative Students Hold Voces de Migracion Pop Ups at Hartford Public Library

Erica Crowley

It’s pop up time! Last week, Public Humanities Collaborative students Josselyn Zaldivar ’20, Brenda Piedras ’21 and Stephanie Cerda-Ocampo ’21 hosted pop ups at Hartford Public Library branches to share their oral history interviews and web content on the Voces de Migracion project with Hartford History Center and Trinity College‘s Watkinson Library. This was a culmination of their work this summer which included three components: working to conduct oral history interviews to add to the project, reserving the materials and making them publicly accessible online, and planning the interactive pop-up programs to share with the community.

This week they had pop-ups at Hartford Public Library Dwight, Campfield, and Park branches on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A few members of the CHER team took a walk over to the Park Street branch of the library to join the audience. The pop-up focused on short video clips from their oral history interviews focused on 1) tobacco work couples with the creation of baseball teams to create social cohesion amongst Puerto Ricans, and 2) the significance of women activists in community organizing and community power, such as Maria Sanchez and Olga Mele. Dr. Christina Bleyer, Professor Aidali Aponte-Aviles, Megan Faver Hartline, and community partner Jasmin Agosto ’10 were fantastic mentors to the students this summer.

I think they are super incredible and thoughtful students – couldn’t have asked for a better match for this project. Wishing they could be stewards of this collection for the next few years… -Jasmin Agosto ’10, Hartford History Center

Thank you Dr. Christina Bleyer, Jasmin Agosto, Prof. Aidali Aponte-Aviles, and Megan Faver Hartline!

To learn more about the Public Humanities Collaborative, visit http://cher.trincoll.edu/phc or contact Director of Community Learning Megan.Hartline@trincoll.edu.