Self-Preservation: Making Space for Your Memory

You’ve dedicated your life working behind the scenes — bringing people together to create connection, stewarding projects to completion, and joyously helping your clients capture their best moments to create memories. But when was the last time you slowed down to document your own story?

In this 3-hour interactive workshop, you’ll discover the importance of preserving your own story and ensuring your life experiences are remembered for generations to come. Together, we will learn how self-preservation is as vital as the care you offer others, techniques to reflect on and organize key life moments and memories, and leave with a personal action plan to get them documented in a way that captures your essence, wisdom, and legacy.

Let us turn the mic and the lens on yourself and ensure your voice and your journey are cherished. This workshop is for service-oriented individuals — photographers, family historians, caregivers, and those who are used to putting others first and are ready to be remembered. [Introductory experience to oral history preferred but not required]

Ambar Wortham (née Johnson) is an urban planner and oral historian based in New York. She has a decade of experience working with cities, agencies, and policymakers across the United States to increase mobility and access for people. Her work often intersects with emerging mobility, tech, development, and sustainability.

Ambar received a Master of Arts in Oral History from Columbia University in 2024. As a graduate student at OHMA, Ambar scaled her focus from large cities to family systems, exploring intergenerational dynamics and family business management and conflict. Her thesis culminated in a mobile exhibit, a documentary, and an essay on the Labor of/for Love bridging relationships across distance, time, and technology.

Ambar continues this labor of love through her oral history practice, Dandelyons Studios, transforming stories into legacies that blossom across generations.

Registration will be on a sliding scale, with registration free for participants based outside of the United States, and starting at $5 otherwise.

These events are open to all. You can use this quick survey to let us know how we could make these events more accessible for you. Note that we are able to provide ASL interpretation for any event, but need two weeks' notice. Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at [email protected] with specific access requests or questions.

Host or Publisher Columbia Oral History MA Program