“More Than One Story | Más que una historia”: Student Action with Farmworkers exhibition in Davis Library

“More Than One Story | Más que una historia” Student Action with Farmworkers exhibit, Davis Library, Jan-Dec 2017, Southern Folklife CollectionAs people across the country participate in actions for “A Day Without Immigrants,” we welcome all to visit “More Than One Story | Más que una historia,” an exhibit created by Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF), on view in the Davis Library gallery on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus through December, 2017.
Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1992 with the mission: “to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change.”
SAF accomplishes this mission in part through the sponsorship of Into the Fields, a ten-week summer internship program for students at North and South Carolina universities, targeted especially to those from families of farmworkers. All interns come with at least a working knowledge of Spanish. They then go on to work full-time in migrant health centers, legal services, education programs, policy agencies, and labor organizing groups in the Carolinas. As a means of reflecting upon their summer’s experience, interns complete documentary projects, collecting oral histories and recording the folklife, art, music, celebrations, and events of farm working communities.
As the UNC campus community delves deeper into the “Food For All” theme during the 2015-2017 academic years, the lives and stories of farmers and farmworkers in The Wilson Library and the work of organizations like SAF must be central to the conversation.
2 “More Than One Story | Más que una historia” Student Action with Farmworkers exhibit, Davis Library, Jan-Dec 2017, Southern Folklife Collection
“More Than One Story | Más que una historia” features twenty-five years of narratives from farmworkers mostly in the Carolinas, telling “stories of struggles and dreams, why people come and what they miss about home, what they like about farm work, and what they want to change, how they carry on and how they resist. The stories don’t have borders; they follow the workers from crop to crop, state to state, and country to country.”** This bilingual exhibit also includes edited oral history interviews that can be listened to as you tour the exhibit.
Please join us for an opening reception at Davis Library on March 29 for a chance to hear their stories in person.

  • 5 – 5:45 p.m. Reception and exhibition viewing, Davis Library gallery, 1st floor
  • 5:45 – 6:45 p.m. Talk, Davis Library Research Hub, 2nd floor

“More Than One Story | Más que una historia” is curated by Joanna Welborn and Lucia Constantine along with the SAF staff, interns and volunteers. The exhibit is sponsored by the Public Art Committee and Friends of the Library of UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries. Translation by Alejandra Okie Hollister. SAF’s documentary and community education work is supported by the Duke Endowment and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
For 25 years, SAF has been improving the lives of farmworkers with young activists, the majority of whom are from farmworker families. For more information: www.saf-unite.org. SAF’s material is archived by the Southern Folklife Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, Student Action with Farmworkers Collection (20317).
Ramiro Sarabia, Jr., member of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, holding “¡Hasta La Victoria!” sign at the Mount Olive Pickle Protest, July 1999. Photo by Lori Fernald Khamala and Mendi Drayton. Student Action with Farmworkers Collection (20317), Southern Folklife Collection.

 member of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, holding “¡Hasta La Victoria!” sign at the Mount Olive Pickle Protest, July 1999. Photo by Lori Fernald Khamala and Mendi Drayton. Student Action with Farmworkers Collection (20317), Southern Folklife Collection.

** from “More Than One Story | Más que una historia” exhibit panel