The Working Waterfront Festival is pleased to announce the publication of Voices from the Waterfront: Portrait of the New Bedford Fishing Industry.
The 80-page book is based on interviews conducted over a five year period with 43 individuals from the New Bedford/Fairhaven fishing community. Their voices provide a rare first hand accounting of life and work in the port.
Those interviewed include retired and active fishermen, lumpers, auctioneers, shoreside business owners, fisheries scientists, a tug boat captain, fishing family members and others. Oral history excerpts are accompanied by black and white portraits taken by photographer Markham Starr.
Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.
The text of the press release for the launch event on Thursday, January 14th at the Whaling Museum follows…
WORKING WATERFRONT FESTIVAL PUBLISHES BOOK Voices from the Waterfront: Portrait of the New Bedford Fishing Industry
New Bedford, MA, January 4, 2010—The Working Waterfront Festival is pleased to announce the publication of Voices from the Waterfront: Portrait of the New Bedford Fishing Industry.
The 80-page book is based on interviews conducted over a five year period with 43 individuals from the New Bedford/Fairhaven fishing community. Their voices provide a rare first hand accounting of life and work in the port. Those interviewed include retired and active fishermen, lumpers, auctioneers, shoreside business owners, fisheries scientists, a tug boat captain, fishing family members and others. Oral history excerpts are accompanied by black and white portraits taken by photographer Markham Starr.
A reception to celebrate the release of the book will take place at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Thursday, January 14th at 6:30 PM in conjunction with AHA which has as its theme “Collective Memory: Stories About Growing Up and Living New Bedford”. The reception is free and open to the public. Photographer Mark Starr and Co-editors Kirsten Bendiksen and Laura Orleans will be on hand to talk about creating the book which will be available for purchase.
The Working Waterfront Festival is an annual educational celebration of commercial fishing culture which takes place on the New Bedford waterfront on the fourth full weekend of September. The event was established in 2004 with a threefold mission: to celebrate the commercial fishing industry, to document the culture of the working waterfront and to educate the public about that culture through programming which presents, interprets and explores its’ many facets. In addition to producing the annual festival, project staff present a variety of public programs, develop curriculum materials, offer school-based and out of school programs for youth including a summer camp, provide professional development for teachers and conduct oral history interviews with members of the working waterfront community.