Our History Awakens: Creating Your Living History Avatar

Bringing history to life is about more than showcasing extraordinary people and events. It’s about remembering and recording the details of everyday life, details of our families and friends, to preserve our own history and to inform us about the history of others. Meet Bessie Stringfield, a motorcycle dispatch courier during World War II, stunt rider, nurse, and independent traveler. Discover the research process and tools I used to learn about Bessie and how I wrote, rewrote, and continue to rewrite the script for my first-person narrative performance, Bessie Stringfield: Motorcycle Queen of Miami.Our History Awakens: Creating Your Living History Avatar is an instructional guide for how to bring history to life. In clear, detailed steps, you learn how to record stories and events of family members, shed light on historical figures, and implement activities that connect people, past and present. For those interested in creating a living-history avatar, you’ll learn about the importance of using costumes and props to establish time and place and enhance your performance. Remembering and celebrating events and achievements inspires and empowers us all. Join me in awakening history by creating your living-history avatar. This is the second book in the Our History Awakens series. Book 1, Our History Awakens: Creating My Living History Avatar details my call to action and the creation of my first-person narrative performance of Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American woman and slave to have a volume of poetry published in the American colonies. Book 3, Our History Awakens: Presenting Your Living History Avatar is forthcoming.