It's been a few months since our last big newsletter, so there are plenty of things to report. We hope you'll take the time to read all about it. And please share with your friends, too. If you have not seen the HAM Slices videos, you frankly need to. We could not be more excited about them and are proud of all the accolades they've been getting. They are a fun way to learn about Houston history, and you can reach them by clicking the caption under the Slices thumbnail picture on the front page of our website.
We just recently started offering memberships as a way to get you more involved with HAM. Membership's privileges include discounts on HAM events and products and the warm feeling of giving back to your community. So as much as we hate asking for money, we'd still like you to take a minute to go to our website and become a member of HAM or send
us a donation with PayPal. You'll be helping out a great grassroots organization.
Your money will help support the work we do at HAM. In the last twelve months,
we have:
- Completed the work for the Houston trivia game What's
Your HQ? and are awaiting Corporate Sponsorship for manufacturing
costs
- Completed 75% of the research for the first two volumes in our Houston
Neighborhood Series - Historic Schools
of Harris County
- Submitted 150 hours of our Neighbor
to Neighbor Oral Histories to the Houston Public Library's Houston Metropolitan
Research Center and the Woodson Research Center at Rice University.
- Continued our project called HAM Slices,
mouth-watering bits of Houston history told in a minute long online videos
- Held our monthly HAM Meetups, a place where Houston's History community can
network, learn and chat about anything that interests them
- Collaborated with dozens of other Houston non-profits
in order to keep the momentum going for Houston's History community
- Utilized a $2500 United Way Community Building grant to continue the valuable work of our N2N Oral History project.
- Run two HAM Houston History Road Rallies with another set for November and a bicycle version set as part of Happy Birthday Houston! in late August
- Worked with Rothko Chapel in shooting video interviews about the Chapel and the Menils to be archived and used in a future documentary
- Started working with students at MECA and elsewhere to get them involved in the N2N oral histories
Yep, we've been busy. The fact is though, that we are just getting warmed up. There is so much more that we have in the works to make Houston history fun and accessible. To do that, we need your support!
You've been so great to us in the past! Please help
us again this year as we publish our books, produce our videos,
and manufacture our games so we can keep Houston's history alive! Become a member of HAM.
Thanks so much,
Mike Vance
Executive Director and President
Houston Arts and Media
Olivewood Cemetery
We continue to work with Margott Williams and Charles Cook from the
Descendants
of Olivewood Cemetery to help raise awareness of Olivewood Cemetery,
Houston's first incorporated African American Cemetery, and to stand
by them as they face their own special challenges. In the past, we've organized volunteers to help keep the beautiful cemetery clean and mowed, and we'll be doing so again in the future. We'll keep you posted. More importantly, don't forget to continue your own volunteer efforts to keep Houston great. More about volunteer opportunities with HAM appears below.
Meetups
Our next meetup is just around the corner. Saturday,
June 14 we invite our HAM members and volunteers, representatives of other history-related non-profits, people
we've interviewed, historians, researchers and anyone else who wants to talk about
Houston history to Mojo
Risin' Coffeehouse.
Each meetup is a chance to meet new and different people - those doing
great work in historic preservation and history documentation in Houston,
and many more who just love to hear about it. From time to time, the authors of books about our city will come to talk and make the book available for us. It's great to be
able to offer an opportunity for people to network about Houston history in an informal setting. It's really just a fun way to
spend a Saturday afternoon, so you all should come by and
join us.
We meet on the second Saturday of the month at 2pm.
Click here
if you'd like to be included on the mailing list.
HAM Slices
These mini-documentaries are all about making Houston history fun! They're HAM Slices.
We have taken our video experience and brought it to bear on tiny little
slices of Houston History! The long term plan is to bring you a new HAM Slice
every two weeks, and we're getting closer to making that timetable a reality.Our YouTube channel is going strong, and you can see all the HAM Slices there. Twice a year, we'll offer a compilation DVD that will let you watch the Slices on a full sized screen in beautiful high-resolution. You'll want them for your video library. So watch for that later in 2008!
Watch the video via our site here.
N2N Oral Histories
We are entering the third year of our N2N Oral
History project. We are still looking for dedicated
volunteer interviewers who are willing to help us preserve the stories of longtime Houstonians. We'll give you training, suggested questions and guidelines, and you will meet some remarkable folks and make sure their memories can be enjoyed by future genertaions. In fact, we'll be holding an interviewer training session immediately before our next Meetup on Saturday, June 14 at Mojo Risin'.
These digital audio recordings are
donated to both the Houston Metropolitan Research Center at the Houston
Public Library and the Woodson Research Center at Rice University's
Fondren Library. We have already donated about 150 hours, and we will continue to gather these histories as our Houston Neighborhood Series progresses.
We would love an opportunity to talk to the community and civic organizations
you may be involved with to share the work we're doing and to look for
people to interview as well as volunteer interviewers. Please contact
us here if you would
like us to come speak to your group.
What's Your HQ?
As many of you know, we have completed a prototype of our educational
Houston trivia game called What's
Your HQ?. We are currently looking for a Houston corporation who
wants to help contribute to the community by sponsoring this project and at the same time to be recognized for their community service.
Historic Schools of Harris County
We are still working on research for the book Historic
Schools of Harris County, the first in our Houston Neighborhood
Series. We're hoping to have the research completed and the book ready
for release by mid 2009.
HAM Houston History Road Rally
We've done it twice, and it just keeps getting better. The next one is set for Saturday, November 8. Teams of up to five people have exactly two hours to drive around inside the Loop, solving clues that lead them to Houston landmarks. What a great way to learn about our city and its past. Read more here.
On the early evening of Sunday, August 24, we'll have a special bicycle version as part of the Happy Birthday Houston! Celebration. We know it's gonna be hot, so hydrate and take part in what will be part history lesson and part Amazing Race, all without ever leaving downtown Houston. Keep checking the website for more details.
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Stay Cool to End the Summer - September 25, 2008
Everyone who came out to our fundraiser last year at St. Arnold Brewing had a fabulous
time enjoying legenday blues music, a terrific silent auction, a nice buffet and the best beer in town. Including us! So we're doing it again.
We only do this kind of party once a year, so make firm plans to be there that Thursday evening after work.
Road Rally - November 8, 2008
Everyone who came out to our Road Rally reported to have a fabulous
time. Including us! So we'll mention this twice. We raised a few hundred dollars, but mostly our
goal was to raise awareness of Houston's history and to raise awareness
of the kind of work our group is doing to support it We're planning on scheduling 2 of these a year and hope we can get
many more of you out there on the roads finding some hidden Houston
historic gems!
As long as we are developing our expertise in organizing these road rallies, we thought we might suggest your that company lets HAM put one together for you as a team building exercise that also happens to be educational. Give us a shout to discuss.
GoodSearch
We have signed up with GoodSearch, a Yahoo-powered search tool
that donates a small amount to our organization each time you use the
engine. To support us with this tool, go to www.goodsearch.com,
and type in Houston Arts and Media into the "Who do you search
for?" field. Couldn't be simpler!
Amazon
As always, we want to remind you that if you do any shopping
at Amazon.com, please use the search engine on our homepage.
We get a small percentage of your purchase. It won't pay for office
space, but it might cover a ream or two of printer paper, and that works
for us.
HAM Store
We also have some nice t-shirts and other merchandise with our
spiffy logo available through our CafePress store.
They make great gifts!! So have fun shopping.
Recent Donors
We would very much like to take this time to thank all of the wonderful people and companies who have been supportive of the work we do at HAM. We try to recognize those businesses who support us, and patronize them as often as possible. Above all, we hope you can see the videos, books and events we produce and be proud that you helped make it possible. Thanks so much!
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Volunteers
We've been working non-stop for more than two years on our projects,
and we've made a lot of progress. But we need your help. We need volunteers
to:
- interview long time Houstonians
- interview the owners of long-time Houston businesses
- identify Houstonians with stories to tell about their neighborhoods
- transcribe interviews
- photograph historic Houston buildings, parks, landscapes, bridges,
schools, businesses, industrial areas
- do library research
- SPREAD THE WORD!!!
Donations Needed
We also need donations of:
- a vehicle to become a rolling art cart/recording studio
- tripod
- and, as always, money.
Thank you so much for your support and your interest in Houston Arts
and Media…
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