RE: Let's Dispense with the Formalities...
Rationale
The profession has lost touch with the original role of history as a catalyst for social change – as a medium through which to divine collective memory and meaning. As American socialist and feminist Rose Schneiderman once proclaimed, "The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too." It is important that we use our funding to dually support community members' everyday needs, while also fostering interest and investment in past and present legacies. By engaging civically-minded organizations in a collaborative public history project, we would not only draw connections between the academy and the public at large, but between disenfranchised populations themselves.
I do not personally know of an example/model. But it's inevitable that someone has to spearhead a new initiative. It would be invaluable to draw on the community-building, collaborative practices and frameworks of these social service organizations. That's the precedent for grassroots history work.
Thanks! Good stuff.
Reminds me of architect Louis Kahn's poetic speech when he was awarded The American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1971: "A city is measured by the character of its institutions. The street is one of its first institutions. Today, these institutions are on trial. I believe it is so because they have lost the inspirations of
their beginning. The institutions of learning must stem from the undeniable feeling in all of us a desire to learn. I have often thought that this feeling came from the way we were made, that nature records in everything it makes how it was made."
Also reminds me of the Labor Lyceum Movement, which nourished all aspects of the worker's body and spirit and thrived, for a time, in late 19th century industrial neighborhoods. I wrote about it here and here.