1 year ago
The Oral History Project
The makers of What You Hope Will Happen are getting started on a new and large-scale long-term undertaking. Michele is currently seeking strong women, couples in love, mothers/daughters, and New Yorkers to conduct full-length oral history interviews with.
An oral history interview is a 1-3 hour interview based on questions about a person’s memories and past that provoke a narrative-structured life story from the subject, which usually results in a deeply personal but also anthropological chronicle.
When the interviews are complete and transcribed, Carly will set up a photo shoot with the subjects. The photo shoots will take place in studio or around the city depending on what the photographer feels is appropriate to the story that had been told and what the subject feels comfortable with.
The works will combine into a complete, comprehensive project to somehow enter the public view and will make a larger point about the uniqueness of the city, the strength of our generation’s diverse women, and the surprising resilience of human connections in contemporary technology-driven American culture.
If interested in:
- Setting up an interview
-Referring someone you know who seems right for the project
-Supporting financially or otherwise the production of this vision
Please email michele.koury@gmail.com
2 years ago
“Become a rock star, of course.” -Pella
“Elizabeth #1: What do I hope will happen?
Husband: I hope I win the fucking lottery.
Elizabeth #1: That’s not practical because I’ve never bought a lottery ticket.
Husband: Well, I do.
Elizabeth #1: I hope we’re going to live and work in the same town some day.
Husband: Oh, that would be good. Because she works in California and I work in New York.
Elizabeth #1: And we’ve been married for fifteen years, so figure that out. So yeah, I hope we live in the same town.
Elizabeth #2: It will. It will happen. Sometime in the next decade.
Elizabeth #1: I can’t keep it up much longer. Two years. Next two years.
Husband: I want the lottery.
Elizabeth #2: My hope is I’m ready for the sunshine. I’m ready for warm weather and sunshine. Enough snow.”
“That I have a great night with my girlfriend tonight. We’re going out to dinner and we have a nice connection together.” -Dave
2 years ago
“I hope my cat when I come home tonight, he’ll be like, ‘What’s up?’ and actually start talking, that’s what I always hope will happen. Like every single day when I come home, I hope that he’ll be like, ‘I love you too!’” -Jackie
“I hope that we’ll all get to sleep in a real pile to quote Max, king of the wild things. I can elaborate if necessary, because it’s very meaningful and full of meaning. If we all slept in a real pile, that’s why I hope that we do, we’d have something to look forward to and it’d be real and earlier in the night I could have elaborated better but it’s all anybody really wants to do is cuddle and put down your defenses, and live in the moment in a pile, a real pile.” -Chris
“No snow, hopefully. I hope not, I guess that’s not really a hope for. I hope for a nice day without snow.” -Veronica
“I hope it’ll be a fun day. I’m going to meet Rupaul. He’s doing a book signing.” -Emily
“What do I hope will happen? My middle name is Hope. So maybe hope will happen. I’m sure someone has come up with a really smart answer, haven’t they? You know, I’ve thought about this recently. This is what I hope: I hope that I can stay in the front of my mind enough so I can remember people I meet. Like you. I just thought like, ‘why would she even start a project like this? She must be a great person. I hope we get to meet you again.’ That’s what I would hope. I think a lot about deterioration and how you age, and I just hope that I would stay aware, all the time. And honest. I hope my life is just filled with honesty and awareness. As cheesy as that is, because then you can form healthy relationships with people and ask them, what do you hope for?” -Emily
“There’s a difference between a hope and a wish, right? There’s things I wish would happen. I wish I don’t have to make decisions based on money. That’s my thing right now. Making too many decisions because of financial reasons. I’m working on starting up a nonprofit and I’ve had to decide whether or not my living situation was going to be lesser so that I could keep the organization going. I think everyone experiences this, you think about what’s in your bank account instead of what you really want to be doing. Without money I would be volunteering everyday, teaching music to kids but instead I have to teach recorder to kids which is also music but I’m not doing what I want to be doing.” -Karen
