Collections

Start Over Language [None Given] Level Collection Subjects Oral histories (literary works)
Oral History Archives at Columbia

Gail Mary Killian and Stephen Desroches sound recordings, 1970-2003

23 audiocassettes

The majority of the collection's interviews were taken by Gail Mary Killian and document her life in the 1970s-1980s as a woman living with Down syndrome in Eastern Massachusetts. Killian recorded her birthday starting in 1970, and many recordings capture the conversations that took place at these celebrations, which were attended by family members and neighbors. Topics discussed at these parties include music-related gifts received by Killian; rock music and Polish folk music; television shows and movies; employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the region; work at the United States Postal Service (her father's employer); and happenings in their local community. The family also sings together, both in English and Polish. Also included are recordings made by Killian during her daily life. Killian was an avid music fan, and she records thoughts on rock bands such as the Beatles, Journey, and Van Halen. Portions of the local New Bedford, MA radio program "Polish Happy Hour" are captured on tape.

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Oral History Archives at Columbia

Thomas Iorio Stonewall Vets video recordings, 1994-1996

28 videocassettes (Hi 8)
The Thomas Iorio Stonewall Vets video recordings document LGBTQ culture and heritage in New York City in the mid-1990s. Some footage in the collection was ultimately used in Iorio's short film Stonewall: The March Forward. This film is also found in the collection. Iorio took these videos to connect with LGBTQ history after he came out in the 1990s. The footage has a mixture of oral history interviews and recorded events and activities. Major themes of the collection are the activities of the Stonewall Rebellion Veterans Association (SVA), the lives of unhoused LGBTQ individuals on the piers west of New York City, drag performance, and LGBTQ life in Manhattan in the 1990s. Figures featured include Sylvia Rivera, Williamson Lee Henderson (Willson Henderson), Stephen Van Cline, and Queen Allyson Ann Allante.
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