50 years of storytelling
BY MARIA MCGINNIS
PHOTOS BY MIKEY INDRIOLO
The May 4 Oral History Project serves as a tool for reflection and healing
F
OR 50 YEARS NOW, PEOPLE FROM all walks of life have been telling their stories about May 4, 1970. For some people, with the passage of time comes greaterwillingness to share experiences, express concern, grieve and reflect.This wasn’t always the case throughout Kent State’s history. The tragedy that is May 4 left many people feeling like they couldn’t talk about it. And if they could, who would they talk to?
Sandy Halem came to Kent in fall 1969 with her husband, Henry, who co-founded the Glass Art Society and taught on campus for 30 years. For a while, Sandy taught high school in Akron but she always wanted to be a writer. She remembers 1969 going by very quickly. “Then of course, the shootings happened,” she says. “It was, I think for both my husband and I, a moment of our lives that would really influence the trajectory of who we were as people and as artists.”
1 says. “He said, ‘Absolutely. We need people like you and your husband, young people, to stay here and continue to make our community what it can be.’ He was so passionate about that.” When Halem stopped teaching in 1972, she started writing plays, many of which have won awards and were produced in local theaters. Most of her plays, if not all of them, touch on the lasting impression of May 4 and focus on ideas of whom to listen to, whom to follow and how to find peace.
ically counsel anyone. There was very little comfort for the suffering of people who were students, faculty, staff, Ohio National Guard and the community. I tend to see it as a greater landscape of suffering which included both the university and the town.” In 1989, Halem noticed that for the past 20 years, it seemed like the same people were always asked to tell the same stories about May 4. She had an idea that perhaps there were other stories to be told. Halem went directly to Nancy Birk, head of Special Collections at the Kent State Library to share her idea.
In the days following the shootings, Halem and her husband attended town meetings to discuss what was going on. Halem, who didn’t know much about the area, was worried and unsure whether she wanted to stay in Kent “These were motifs and themes I think were until then-editor of the Record-Courier Loris very much formed in the anger, frustration and Troyer talked to her. grief that followed May 4 that seemed unan- “As books were coming out and other things swerable at the time,” Halem says. “And sup- were happening, I suggested maybe there are “He was horrified when I said, ‘I don’t know if I pressed, because everyone was sent home other stories that will help us understand how want to stay here. Is this a safe place?’” Halem and unlike today, no one went in to psycholog- this event filtered through the history of not
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