What is the Kitchen Table Collective?
KTC is a school of thought.
KTC is a commitment to the potential of oral history.
KTC is a dedication to democratizing history.
KTC is an engagement with the political potential of oral history.
KTC is a vibe.
KTC is a school of thought.
KTC is a school of thought that views oral history as a process. It grounds our practice in love, care, and critical reflection, and animates us while making us better colleagues and humans. KTC is a school of thought that honours partnership and collaboration, recognizing that we think more deeply and create more fully when we put our heads together. Working as a collective has the potential to push us, as well as the field, forward. KTC is a school of thought that is rooted in rich and open exchanges, that acknowledges the road we travel as oral historians. Knowing that there is power in conversations without prescribed destinations, it is a school of thought that commits to understanding how the interplay of the personal and professional shapes our work and our field. KTC is a school of thought that recognizes our full humanity and, in doing so, acknowledges how both stability and precarity impact the work we can and cannot do. It is a school of thought that is open to creative and new forms of collaboration, writing, and making.
KTC is a commitment to the potential of oral history.
KTC is a commitment to understanding oral history as a relational practice, with all of the messiness that entails. It is a commitment to recognizing its magic, its ability to forge intimate connections, and its vulnerability. It is a commitment to people, communities, and stories, as well as to the responsibilities we make through the different ways we listen. KTC is a commitment to the gifts of time, listening, transmission, preservation, and amplification, while recognizing the embodied and sometimes contradictory nature of the craft.
KTC is a dedication to democratizing history.
KTC is a responsibility to use our brain trust and lean on each other to change how we understand the past, and how we can push positive change in the present both in our collective and our greater communities. KTC is the belief that the humility, commitment, listening, respect, relationality, accountability, vulnerability, and intimacy that make oral history unique are powerful tools for resisting an unjust and suffering world. KTC is a set of principles for living beyond institutional research and understanding the weight of responsibility attached to our work. KTC is a way of being with each other, and of being in the world through the practice of oral history.
KTC is an engagement with the political potential of oral history.
KTC is a responsibility to use our brain trust to lean on each other to change how we understand the past, and how we can push for positive change in the present, both in our collective and our greater communities. KTC is the belief that the humility, commitment, listening, respect, relationality, accountability, vulnerability, and intimacy that make oral history unique are powerful tools for resisting an unjust and suffering world. KTC is a set of principles for living beyond institutional research and understanding the weight of responsibility attached to our work. KTC is a way of being with each other, and of being in the world through the practice of oral history. KTC is about thinking through how listening, amplifying, and seeking to understand each other’s stories are essential practices for a world in crisis.
KTC is a vibe.
KTC is a vibe that is rooted in kindness, support, and solidarity. It is a vibe that prioritizes care, asking us to recognize the different ways in which we can relate to one another beyond the metrics of productivity. It is a vibe of love which enables us to share the passion we have for our work, the connections we create with people, the risks we take, and the costs we incur when listening with our whole selves. KTC is a vibe of intergenerational and international connections that enable us to commit to each other and contribute what we can when we are ready and able. It is a vibe of recognizing our varied capacities to show up in a given moment, and centering our unique strengths and diverse abilities, all while respecting each other’s limits. It is a vibe of positive affect, of sincerity, and of balancing this while making space for honesty about difficult truths and experiences. It is a no asshole vibe.