Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling

10/09/2026

And just like that, we’ve reached Day 4. ✨

Our final day brings together more conversations, creative work, screenings, and reflections to close out four days of storytelling and exchange.

10/08/2026

Two days of stories, memories, creativity and connection. From conversations and films to poetry, food, art and powerful narratives, the first two days of the Storytelling Festival have been full of ways to listen, share, and most importantly, imagine a better future together.

We have two more days of festivities, we hope to see you there :)

10/08/2026

Day 3 is on the move. જ⁀➴

Today’s festival program takes us beyond the usual rooms, with a walking tour alongside performances, workshops, and a roundtable.

Check out the schedule, lace up your shoes, and come explore with us !

10/07/2026

Day 2 is here — because one day of storytelling wasn’t enough.

We’re excited to share today’s schedule, featuring cooking workshops, screenings, talks, and conversations exploring oral history and creative practice.

Take a look at the schedule and join us for Day 2 of the COHDS Storytelling Festival.

˚࿔ See you there ˚࿔

10/06/2026

We’re excited to share the Day 1 schedule of our festival — and it all starts TODAY!

✩ Check out the full program and come celebrate with us ✩

10/06/2026

Oct 6 - 9 at Concordia University: Screening of "Living Rooms: une pièce partagée"

Our filmed performance will be running at the 4th Space gallery this week as part of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling festival!

How do the unique standpoints through which we inhabit our bodies and move through life cause barriers to connecting and relating with one another? Which of our bodily, sensory, and emotional experiences elude words—and how might live arts and technologies offer entry points into those unspoken worlds? Living Rooms: une pièce partagée was a participatory research-creation project that brought together circus and new media artists, people living with Parkinson’s disease, caregivers, and neuroscientists to explore how interactive technologies and immersive performance might help us connect and relate across bodymind differences.

More details and full festival program here:
https://storytelling.concordia.ca/cohds-storytelling-festival-oral-history-creative-practice/

Photo: Heidi Blais (left) and Serge Boily (right), filmed by Naomi Silver-Vézina
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Le 6 - 9 octobre à Concordia: projection de "Living Rooms: une pièce partagée"

La version filmée de notre performance jouera dans la galérie 4th Space cette semaine dans le festival du Centre d'histoire orale et récits numérisés!

En quoi les perspectives uniques à travers lesquelles nous habitons notre corps et évoluons dans la vie constituent-elles des obstacles à la connexion et l'empathie envers l'autre ? Quelles expériences corporelles, sensorielles et émotionnelles échappent aux mots — et comment les arts vivants et les technologies pourraient-ils offrir des points d'accès à ces mondes inexprimés ? Living Rooms: une pièce partagée était une recherche-création participative qui a réunit des artistes de cirque et en nouveaux médias, des personnes atteintes de la maladie de Parkinson, des proches-aidant·e·s et des neuroscientifiques afin d’explorer comment les technologies interactives et la performance immersive pourraient nous aider à tisser des liens et à mieux se comprendre au-delà des différences corporelles et neurologiques.

Pour plus d'infos et le programme du festival:
https://storytelling.concordia.ca/cohds-storytelling-festival-oral-history-creative-practice/

Photo par Naomi Silver-Vézina, avec Heidi Blais (gauche) et Serge Boily (droite)

10/05/2026

Our festival is starting tomorrow and our exhibitions as well!

🩷

09/25/2026

09/20/2026

Join us October 6–9, 2026, for the COHDS Storytelling Festival: Oral History & Creative Practice, a four-day celebration marking COHDS’s 20th anniversary.

𖥔 When: October 6 - 9
𖥔 Where: COHDS, SHIFT Centre and 4th Space

Bringing together scholars, artists, students, and community practitioners from COHDS and beyond, the festival celebrates two decades of oral history, digital storytelling, and research-creation while looking toward the future of creative practice. Across 26 events and 69 storytellers, the program features film screenings, performances, listening workshops, artist talks, roundtables, sound works, digital stories, installations, and more.

We warmly invite you to explore the full program and the program at a glance and and join us in celebrating 20 years of storytelling, collaboration, and creative practice at COHDS!

09/17/2026

What happens when we create space to talk about the interviews that stay with us?

The COHDS Monthly Listening Circle is a new space for oral historians and COHDS community members to come together, listen, reflect, and share the experiences that emerge through interview work. This is the first iteration of a new monthly series, facilitated by an intergenerational group of oral history practitioners.

Facilitated by Anna Sheftel, Stacey Zembrzycki, and Cassandra Marsillo, Kitchen Table Collective members, the listening circle invites participants to think through the varied challenges of oral history practice. Together, we’ll talk about what is said and unsaid, stories that have a beginning but no end, tangents that lead to possibilities or dead ends, and the interpersonal dynamics that make collaboration possible or problematic.

These conversations offer a space for debriefing, building relationships, and thinking collectively about the work we do. Bring questions, uncertainties, difficult moments, unexpected discoveries, or stories that you’re still trying to make sense of.

All interview stories welcome. This work should not be done alone.

𖥔 September 25, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

𖥔 LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS

𖥔 Free and open to all (registration required through our website)

COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá territory, in Tiohtiá/Montreal.