“The last word in ‘history’ is ‘story,’ and we must not let our own stories be lost to history.”
So says veteran journalist, storyteller, singer, songwriter and amateur folklorist Marideth Sisco, who will speak about creating family archives at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the Ozarks Heritage Research Center (OHRC).
The center is inside Garnett Library, 304 W. Trish Knight St., on the Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) campus.
Organizers said Sisco will discuss the importance of collecting and preserving family stories and how we might do that by creating our own family archive. It’s easier than it sounds, according to the West Plains resident.
“As important as grandpa’s walking cane and grandma’s butter churn are the stories of the lives they led, the events of history – large and small – they experienced, the people they were and the world they lived in,” Sisco said.
“With the passing of each generation, a whole world is lost to memory, unless we put it down,” she added. “Come and sit for an evening and let’s talk about the ways that might be done, how a family archive is constructed, and all the ways your library might help.”
About Sisco
Sisco is a well-recognized Ozarks original. She is perhaps most well-known for her contributions as the featured singer and music consultant in the four-time Oscar nominated film “Winter’s Bone.”
Sisco took several awards during her 20-year career as an investigative reporter at the West Plains Quill. She was recognized as a writer in 2018 by the Quill Award for lifetime achievement from the Missouri Writers Hall of Fame.
She has been named a Missouri Master Storyteller by the Missouri Folk Arts Program of the Missouri Arts Council and is a featured touring speaker for the Missouri Humanities Council. Her latest gig was as a storyteller and singer at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., each summer.
The Oct. 1 presentation is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information about the event, contact Rebekah McKinney at 417-255-7949 or RebekahMcKinney@MissouriState.edu.