About
The Young People’s Archive, founded by Lisa Arrastia, PhD, records and interprets firsthand stories illuminating the tensions woven into American cultural values, norms, and beliefs. By training producers to listen across difference™ through aesthetics-based methods, YPA aims to center each narrator’s voice in creative audio and visual oral history remixes. This process reveals how lived experiences intersect with larger societal forces, and by doing so, YPA hopes to foster deeper social connection, develop critical awareness, and unsettle seemingly fixed notions about who we are and how we relate to one another.
If you are a researcher looking to access the collection or want to learn, study, and produce with YPA, please get in touch with us.
“A lot of us, when we listen to people, we’re already planning our response before a person even stops talking. At YPA, we use our audios as a way to connect with people in the way we’ve always wanted to. So, to be quiet and to listen, as YPA says, “beneath the words,” what we’re doing is actually understanding others’ perspectives. That’s life changing.”
– Adult Education Teacher
“I’ve actually started less talking and more listening. Then, when I ask questions, my friends are shocked because they realize I’m really listening.”
– College Baseball Athlete
