Thank you for your interest in the Lift Every Voice Project. We are grateful and excited for the community to create an archive celebrating local Black, Latina, Asian, and Indigenous women and the valuable role they play in our communities. Whether she is a well-known community leader or a neighbor that quietly plays a vital role in helping those around her, this is an opportunity to recognize the women who give us strength and improve our lives.

To create this archive, we believe a personal conversation with the woman you’ve nominated will evoke a more personal connection and genuine conversation. We were inspired by StoryCorps, an organization dedicated to capturing people’s stories to build connections and create a more just and compassionate world.

We ask that you try to keep the recorded conversations focused and brief. The volunteers that edit and format the videos struggle with cutting any of the wonderful content submitted. A length of 3 to 7 minutes is ideal. This typically fits 2 to 3 open-ended questions (see our conversation starter samples for ideas).

Thank you for participating. We appreciate your time, effort, and desire to highlight these inspirational women. Hopefully the information below is useful, but if you run into issues please contact us and let us know how we can help.

Video or Audio?

The Lift Every Voice Project’s foremost goal is creating a collection of conversations with inspirational Women of Color from the Orange County, NY region. These conversations can be submitted as either audio or video recordings. Since we’re hosting the archive online, if you’re able to - videos would be greatly appreciated, but not necessary. When submitting an audio recording, it would be greatly appreciated if a photo or two of the woman being celebrated was included to display in the posting with the audio recording.

Regardless of the format you choose, we ask that you target a length of 3 to 7 minutes.

Recording Video

There are many ways to capture a video, but we find these two to be the most straight-forward:

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Smartphone or Tablet - One of the most convenient ways to capture video is on a smartphone or tablet. If you do this please, please, PLEASE record using the horizontal or long and wide view that looks more like a movie or TV screen (Examples diagram in the adjacent image). It may feel more natural to hold your phone so the image is tall and narrow, but that video doesn’t display well on video players. 

Zoom - This is an online video conferencing tool that has been WIDELY used for meetings and gatherings during COVID. If you’ve never used it, ask around and someone you know can likely help you get set up. If you’re exploring it for the 1st time on your own - it is pretty intuitive and made to be user-friendly for non-technical users. Zoom offers a free account that lets you set up a video conference and email or text the person you’ve nominated for the Lift Every Voice Project a link to join the video conference. It requires internet access. And while you can host a zoom call from your phone or tablet - you must be on a computer to record the call, but the person you are having a conversation with can be on a phone. 

Learn more about the Zoom here. If you run into trouble and don’t have someone to help - contact us and we’ll work with you. Enabling you, and others, to capture your conversation highlighting and celebrating the woman you’ve nominated for Lift Every Voice Project is our goal.

Lift Every Voice Project can accept video files in the .MOV, .MP4 and .AVI formats.

Recording Audio

The inspiration for Lift Every Voice Project, was StoryCorps which began in 2003 as a project to remind one another of our shared humanity. It is still predominantly audio recordings of conversations. Since our project will be hosted online rather than the radio, we are asking for video recordings if possible. However, the priority is to archive and share conversations with women that inspire their communities; to hear and lift up their reflections, experiences, and hopes.

Smartphones and tablets are great for recording a conversation if both people are in the same place. This is by far the easiest set-up. Smart Recorder is a convenient tool if you’re using Androids and the Voice Memo app on iPhones and iPads is a good option. From both of these tools, you can share the audio file via email to ocprogress@nypan.org

If you aren’t able to work out recording the audio for your conversation, please contact us and we’ll work with you to figure out an option that can work.

Preparing for Your Recording

Many people get nervous recording themselves and technology can make it even more overwhelming. Hopefully, the tips below are helpful. 

  • Practice with the technology before your actual interview/conversation. Find someone that you can run through making a recording with and see how the recording looks and/or sounds. One or two practice runs before recording with the woman you’d like included in the archive will go a long way to ensuring the best recording with her.

  • When you start recording, wait a few seconds (count to 3 slowly) before you begin talking. This avoids losing the beginning of your conversation in the recording and the Lift Every Voice Project can shorten that portion if necessary. 

  • The best archive recordings are conversations that feel natural and the participants are at ease. To achieve this, it may be good to have a few warm-up questions so you can each get over initial nervousness.

  • Be aware of background - avoid places that are busy. Visual or sounds distractions like people walking by or sounds from traffic or a television in the background can distract from the conversation you want to share.  

For Video

In this Zoom recording, we will crop video to only include the section in the red rectangle. This allows us to capture all the audio, but focus the video on the woman being included in the archive.

In this Zoom recording, we will crop video to only include the section in the red rectangle. This allows us to capture all the audio, but focus the video on the woman being included in the archive.

  • Some distance from the camera is good. Think about recordings you’ve watched of interviews, it looks best when there is a little space between the camera and the subject. Framing their face & upper body is helpful. Also - be careful to avoid cutting off the top of their head! We can crop a video to focus it more, but we can’t add space!

  • If using Zoom - use Gallery view. Please do not use Speaker view. We can crop the video to focus on the woman you’ve nominated. Speaker view produces a recording that bounces back and forth between speakers whenever a sound is captured. That means every, ”oh” and “uh huh” cuts away from the woman the conversation is meant to focus on.  

Sending Your Conversation(s) to the Archive

Once you’ve recorded the conversation, you’ll need to send it to the Lift Every Voice Project team.

Audio files and photos can usually be attached to an email. For these, please send them to ocprogress@nypan.org. We will send a confirmation within 24-hours of when it is received and let you know if we need any additional information.

Video files that are not too large (usually under 5MB) can be sent via email. If the file is larger than 5MB, you may run into trouble sending it by email. If you try sending a file to ocprogress@nypan.org and do not receive a confirmation within 24-hours, it likely was too large and we didn’t receive it. In those cases, please use an online tool like Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer to send the file. All of these tools have free account options that allow you to upload a large file and then share the file with ocprogress@nypan.org (If using Google Drive - please share/send it to ocnyprogress@gmail.com). Once received, we will send a confirmation within 24-hours of when it is received and let you know if we need any additional information.

Emailing or uploading the video is the most convenient way for us to receive the recordings, but if you need to text it (usually limited to under 1 minute by phone services), contact us and we’ll give you a number to text the video.  

Conversations Starters

The Lift Every Voice Project archive is asking contributors to share 2-5 minute recordings of a conversation with a local Black, Latina, Asian, and Indigenous woman that has inspired them.

Feel free to ask your own questions - the list below is provided as a brainstorming aid. We also encourage asking open-ended follow-up questions like, “Can you tell me more about that?” or “Why do you think that was?”.

  • What in your experience motivates you? That you want people to know about you.

  • Tell me about a woman that was a great influence in your life? How do you see her influence in the decisions you've made?

  • What supported your success or your commitment to be a community leader? What were key turning points for you?

  • How has your life been different than what you’d imagined it would be?

  • What do you think is your most valuable impact on your community?

  • What would you advise your younger self?

  • What relationships in your life have most guided you?

  • What future would you like to see? What do you think is needed to get there? What tasks would you give the community listening to the Lift Every Voice Project? 

  • If you had a magic wand, what change would you like to see in our society and why? 

  • How do you think our region can better uplift all of its community members?

Additional Tips to Consider

  • These videos will be shared online in the Lift Every Voice Project archive. Make sure the woman you’re interviewing is OK with that! 

  • Privacy - if preferred, we are happy to only use first names. We would like to identify participants by the town they are from, but no more specific information about them or where they live/work will be included (unless they mention in the recording).