'Monemvasia: People, Place, Presence' named as Inaugral book for UCLA's new library

To donate, please click here . Following the successful publication of our book Monemvasia. People. Place Presence in 2019, the Monemvasia Society has realised that part of our role, indeed responsibility, is to record the personal stories of the residents of Monemvasia. This is closely linked to our photographic collection and will truly contribute to the record of the social history of Monemvasia over the recent past. The Society has been extraordinarily lucky to have had the voluntary assistance of Effie Anagnopoulou, an archaeologist and archivist. She has created a professional archive together with collecting further photographic material from the local people. However, we will now require funding for in order to undertake the new project over the next few months. It is apparent that the local people of the area welcome the opportunity to share their life stories with us, and record them for posterity. We have therefore decided to create an oral history collection. We have become formal members of The Oral History Society based at Royal Holloway, University of London and taken advice to ensure that the collection is professionally collected and preserved. The plan is to start creating the archive over this summer while there is strong local interest and we have a professional to undertake the project for three months. We need 4,000 euros for equipment, software and the professional management of the recordings. The funding request is going out on GoFundMe, a new and hopefully effective way of raising money in the short term. An application for the long-term funding to ensure the future of the entire archive, of which this oral collection will form part, is in hand but not anticipated until early 2022. Time must not be lost and we want to concentrate on recording the memories of the residents - particularly the older people of the Monemvasia area - over the coming summer. Effie will undertake the organisation of the project with the assistance of members of the Monemvasia Society. I hope you will agree it is exciting and valuable work and feel able to support us. Our donors will receive regular highlights from our work, visual and oral, as a thank you.