Oral Histories

The Waterfront Writers and Artists Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with founding members of the group. Conducted between 2019 and 2022, the conversations document the group’s founding and early history, the artistic development of its members, its eventual dissolution, and its legacy. The transcripts are hosted by the Oral History Center at The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

To date, interviews have been conducted with three WWA members:

What is oral history?

Since 1954 the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable.

This interview series was partially funded by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley.