The Art of Listening

OUAT Blog for May 2nd

Over the years there has been an unmistakable shortcoming I have had, and still work on to overcome. And that shortcoming is the art of listening.  Recently I was having a conversation with a colleague and they were expressing the challenges of teaching college journalism students how to conduct interviews.  The challenge was not in the asking of questions so much as it was the challenge in teaching students how to ask "the follow up question".

What is the follow up question?  Well the follow up question is the question that confirms to the person with whom you are speaking, or in their case interviewing, that you were actually listening to their answer and digging deeper to gain more insight and understanding.

This week OUAT has been working with Historian and Curator Dr. Lauranett Lee to video record members of the Historic Jackson Ward community in Richmond, VA. The "conversations", aka interviews, have been just an amazing testimony of being transported back in time to see, hear and even feel what life was like in my home town from the 1920's to the present time.

Listening and responding to each persons account is, in my view, another "sweet science" that I feel is not only important within the profession of journalism and video documenting Oral Histories, it is also something that I find is just as important and applicable in my daily conversations with my friends and loved ones.

In short, the Art of Listening is something I will continue to work on as I spend quality time conversing with my mother, my father, my brothers, my daughter and every person I love and every person I come in contact with, whether or not the camera is rolling. 

The appreciation on the faces of those Dr. Lee has interviewed this week is a testiment of this craft. And, on a personal level, it causes me to see and realize that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to honing this craft because I want to convey to the ones I love and care for that they have been valued when they can see and hear that I have been listening.

Have a great week of listening my friends.

Dr. Lauranett Lee & Mr. Gary Flowers speaking with Dr. Oliver Hill, Jr.