A "Big Shoes to Fill" documentation project: How to do it yourself

The "shoe card" posted on this page asks three not-so-simple questions:

In whose footsteps are you following (and why?)

When did you "take a stand?" or "walk the walk?"

If your shoes could talk, what stories of social change could they tell?

People have a lot to say in response to these prompts, which are drawn from often-used folk sayings. Paging through the notebook of shoe cards that was part of our exhibition, reading peoples' comments, and looking at hundreds of shoes arrayed on the floor were moving and inspiring experiences. We invite you to try it yourself, and to engage members of your community in building a display, and in thinking together, about the many kinds of steps that it takes to build solid pathways to more justice, more equity, a better world.

To gather the 120+ pairs of shoes covering the floor of part of the exhibition gallery for our "Folk Arts of Social Change" exhibition, we first compiled lists of people we knew as activists, defining that broadly. We asked people to recommend others, and we kept building our lists, thinking about various movements, campaigns and issues and learning about people who had played many kinds of roles in these efforts. And we also asked people who weren't identified as activists, hoping to pay attention to the complicated and deep ways in which serious change is accomplished. (You may be surprised by the answers you get on your shoe cards. The exercise in sending them out can be an exercise in getting to know your neighbors, social change movements, and versions of history, in slightly different and sometimes surprising ways.) Like any survey exercise, these cards are just the beginning of a project. You can precede or follow up this exercise with intensive follow-up interviews, focused research on particular movements, struggles or issues, and additional documentation of the people, places and policies involved.

The actual shoe card (pictured below) was reproduced on 8.5"x 5.5" cardstock - two on a 8.5" x 11" page. (For a xerox-able template for making your own shoe cards: View PDF / 1.8 MB) Along with the shoe cards, we wrote prospective participants a cover letter, introducing our project and asking for their participation, explaining that we wanted to make peoples' footsteps and efforts tangible and visible in a simple and concrete way. (Often we called people before we sent out this mailing. We find that folks often respond better to a conversation than to letters. Also, in phone conversations or visits, we could answer questions, and deepen our relationships with people we respected.) Both in conversations and in our letters, we asked people if they would fill out the shoe card and loan us a pair of their shoes. After people received the cover letter and the shoe card, we called again, to follow up and to encourage participation. Sometimes people preferred just to tell us what they thought, and we were happy to take on the job of transcribing their comments and reflections onto the cards.

When we went to visit people to gather their shoes and shoe cards, we carried a numbered paper bag, wrote participants' contact information on the bag, and gave them a correspondingly numbered receipt for their shoes. All shoes were tagged with the number of their bag; this became the number visible on both the shoes and the shoe cards in the exhibition. (This is simpler than it sounds. We just recommend a system to keep track of the shoes so that they can be identified in the display, clearly connected to the shoe card that serves as an exhibition label, and safely returned.) Of course, we thanked everyone with a note, and made sure that they were invited to the exhibition.

Back to the exhibition and examples of peoples' quotes here.

We hope that this project works well for you, and invite you to tell us about your experiences at pfp@folkloreproject.org