She believes that one of the ways to heal the polarization, separation, injustice and inequity of our collective history and of our present situation is to bring it all out into the light— and for white people especially to do the work of reckoning with our past, and to make changes in the present. She believes in the healing power of bringing our ancestors with us into the present, acknowledging and honoring ther strengths and struggles, celebrating their accomplishments, and offering forgiveness for their flaws and gratitude for giving us life.
She also believes in the healing power of stories, and in lifting up the stories of regular people, telling history through their eyes. With friends, community, and students from every country, culture, and walk of life, she aims to share the tools of listening, recording and research, to create documents that help rewrite history, one that includes all of our voices. In the tradition of cultural and oral historians Ronald Takaki, Howard Zinn, and Studs Terkel, she wants to train young people to connect with their elders and learn from their stories, and she wants to help people of older generations record their own stories— to interview themselves and each other, to tell it like it is and like it was, and to pass on the gems of wisdom and the gold of insight to those that are coming into their own in a complex world in need of meaningful stories.
Kym Kuzmic has been conducting interviews and research in her own family and community since she was in high school. She has interviewed teachers, mentors, community elders, as well as her parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. She has recorded everything from life stories to dumb jokes, to recipes and poems. She has some of the only recordings of family members who have since passed into the realm of the ancestors.
She is currently sifting through and editing these recordings, and will be sharing bits and pieces as she goes, with her eye on a larger piece in the future.
Meanwhile she has been researching her family tree, using primary documents and Ancestry.com to assemble a family tree that dives back centuries, into early American history and across the pond in Europe. She has been writing stories of the individuals and groups she comes across, putting them in historical context. She reflects on their legacy, on the ripples they created that can still be seen today.
Kym’s Story
GEMS Story Project podcast is on its way!
Stay tuned…
Listen in as Kym interviews people from around the world, across the generations and walks of life.
They share some gems and drop some knowledge gleaned from a life well-lived.
Come join the conversation as we crowd-source cultural history!