how we listen – News from Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Event | Oral Histories Behind Every Tile – a session with Nicole Wong + The Mahjong Project

Posted on 2026-02-06 by Kimberly Springer

Tuesday, February 10th at 4pm EST This event offers a chance to hear from The Mahjong Project’s history keeper, Nicole Wong about her efforts to preserve mahjong’s rules, etiquette, and personal anecdotes for generations. Her beautiful website and companion book, Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora illustrates how the game bridges families across […]

Event | How We Listen: Behind the Boxes…When Archivists Get Personal About Their Own Family Histories

Posted on 2025-11-15 by Kimberly Springer

A banner for an event titled "Behind the Boxes: When Archivists Get Personal About Their Own Family Histories." The title text is in a large, monospace font on the left side, set against a bright teal background with a faint green-and-yellow, swirling, ghosted pattern. To the right of the text is a low-resolution, color image that appears to be a still from an older video recording. It shows three people, possibly children or teenagers, holding hands and standing in a line. Below the main title and image, smaller text centered on the banner reads: "a candid talk with David Walker (Archivist at The Easton Foundation & Louise Bourgeois Archive) on memory, meaning, and the records we keep".

Join the Oral History Archives at Columbia for a candid conversation that explores where the professional world ends and the personal one begins! What happens when archivists confront their own family histories? On Tuesday (11.18), as part of the Oral History Archives’ How We Listen series, join us for a conversation with David Walker, […]