"When Trees Are National Security" - a talk about a tree-planting campaign in World War II at the Society of American Foresters 2019 convention in Louisville, KY.

FDR said, “One hundred years from now, my administration will be known for its art, not its relief.” How did that turn out? This talk looks at artists and writers who recorded American life for the New Deal programs. Those artists could stir controversy, and some of their works have been banned by officials and citizens’ committees up to the present. By tracing how these artists and writers cut against the grain of convention, we'll explore art’s power to shift American identities. Copies of my book Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America, now in paperback, will be available for sale and signing afterward. Advance registration required: http://bit.ly/CreativityDT2

Docs In Progress and Women in Film and Video-DC co-host the Documentary Roundtable via Zoom. This evening organized by Docs In Progress will focus on peer feedback with presentations and review of several directors' 'Trailers.' This evening's will invite feedback on, among others, Melchor Marsa's story. There is a $10 fee for the general public.… Read More »Documentary Roundtable: Trailer Night

Docs In Progress, with support from the City of Takoma Park, hosts the Community Stories Film Festival via Zoom, November 20-22, 2020. Celebrate 10+ years of stories of people, places, and events, including a screening of my short documentary, Enemy Alien: Italian-American in Baltimore. The film features one of the family stories in my book… Read More »Community Stories Film Festival

Free virtual screening of Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, with panel discussion afterward. Hosted online by the Los Angeles Public Library. Visit www.lapl.org/events for more information. This screening is a timely reminder of why the 21st-Century Federal Writers’ Project Act (HR 3054) is gathering support from members of congress and their constituents. Los… Read More »Virtual film screening – Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story

Please join a special night with the editors and writers of the 2021 anthology, This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia from Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Virtual live readings of original selections from the anthology by poets Laura Shovan, Myra Sklarew, Nancy Naomi Carlson, and Robert Herschbach, and… Read More »Fiction reading – This is What America Looks Like

As people in publishing and journalism lost their jobs during the Great Depression, the WPA started the Federal Writers’ Project. Their mandate became documenting local histories and creating a series of state guide books that changed how Americans viewed history. FDR Library and Museum Director Emeritus Paul Sparrow talks to David about “Soul of a… Read More »Soul of a People, Author Talk with David Taylor

A screening and discussion of Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story will be hosted by the St. Augustine Free Public Library. This program is free and open to the public, and will take place at The Waterworks, 184 San Marco Blvd., which shares a parking lot with the Main Library. Soul of a People… Read More »Film screening – Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story

Join us for an evening of true, personal stories about science. Four storytellers share tales of finding and forming our own version of family through science.

Join a discussion of Personal Narratives in Portraying Maryland Life, in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Industry. From the oral histories of The Baltimore Book to multimedia portraits seen recently in the Enoch Pratt Library, this will be an informal conversation about documenting Maryland in various forms of personal narrative, and why those stories matter. A… Read More »Personal Narratives in Portraying Maryland Life

In the 1930s, Federal Writers’ Project researchers with the Works Progress Administration interviewed formerly enslaved Virginians to preserve their stories. Library of Congress (LOC) Reference Specialists Dr. Sibyl Moses and Angela McMillian and author David Taylor will discuss the project, its legacy and LOC resources documenting the voices of enslaved African Americans. Read a recent… Read More »Narratives of Formerly Enslaved Virginians

This panel of award-winning authors and “author enablers” who provide professional support for writing, publishing, and marketing books, will discuss writing process options and how to craft a “must-read” book that readers love.

The presentations by a wide array of participants have the broader aim of considering how the stories of Americans are central to our diverse national identity and to preserving our democracy.

Join us for a virtual conversation about the pioneers of the Federal Writers' Project who uncovered Virginia history in the 1930s and what their work tells us now. The writers hired in the commonwealth as part of this New Deal effort challenged conventional academic approaches to American history and paved the way for new representations.… Read More »The Legacy of the Federal Writers’ Project in Virginia – A Conversation

This workshop focuses on writing your documentary treatment with exercises to bring out your film’s storytelling strengths.

This workshop with Docs in Progress focuses on tools for writing your documentary treatment, with exercises to bring out your film’s storytelling strengths, identify audiences (for the film and the treatment), and identify what you need for your narrative. You will practice exercises that explore main characters and scene visualization. We’ll conclude with a brief… Read More »Writing the Documentary Treatment

Highlights include the municipal Daly Building, built with PWA funds, the Federal Trade Commission Building with massive stone sculptures by WPA artists, and the Washington Monument, which needed repairs in the 1930s.

This virtual conversation will center on the experiences of L.A. artist Miné Okubo and her family in the Japanese American community during World War II, when they were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps, how they survived, and how Okubo used her art to bear witness in her visual memoir Citizen 13660.