For any of you who listen to NPR’s Morning Edition you have probably heard some of the moving stories recorded as part of the StoryCorps project. Last week I had the pleasure of attending a lunch where Dave Isay, StoryCorps Founder, was the guest speaker. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the project, I recommend you check it out. The idea is pretty simple and comes from of the time-honored tradition of oral storytelling. Their website says that their “mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening”.
During the presentation Mr. Isay played recordings of a few of the thousands of interviews recorded since The Project’s inception. We heard a ten year old girl interview her lesbian mother and ask questions about love. He played the interview of a husband and wife and listened to the story of their first date fifty years earlier. We listened to a young woman interview her Mexican-immigrant mother and reminisce about what it was like as a child in pajamas going with her mother to the night job she had cleaning office buildings. She thanked her mother for the inspiration and example she provided by attending college while working full-time and raising two jobs. And we heard a woman recount the last half-hour of her husband’s life which was spent on the phone with her from an upper floor of the World Trade Center. Two weeks ago, that woman died in the plane crash near Buffalo.
The simplicity of the concept is striking: listen and honor. Mr. Isay spoke of listening as a way to learn from those around us. “It celebrates our shared humanity. It tells people that their lives matter and they won’t be forgotten. Through StoryCorps, we hope to create a kinder, more thoughtful and compassionate nation.”
The idea reminds me a little of what us bloggers do by sharing bits and pieces of our lives on our blogs, and how comments by readers can be such a strong affirmation.
The Project has released a book filled with transcripts of hundreds of interviews of regular people. It’s a powerful read and I’ve got a copy up for grabs.
Leave me a comment and I’ll enter your name in the drawing. If you feel like it, tell me about someone who you’d like to interview and why.
That’s awesome Amy! What a fantastic prize.
StoryCorp is cool. I interviewed my mom several years ago when she came to visit. I think I’ll have to get out the CD and listen to it again.
Thanks for reminding me. Thanks for the giveaway! How fun.
NPR is my weakness and I’ve heard such great things about that book. I’d love to interview someone random off the street…I think their life story would be so wonderful to learn about.
oh, this is so up my alley. in fact, i think this book could be my roommate. i need it.
i would, of course, love to interview my grandparents. too late for that. i would also love to interview my hubby’s father. too late for that as well.
so if i could choose, i’d interview my cousin lisa, who i only met last year (and so far only online), but who has had a very interesting life and who might not even answer my questions. but i’d love to try.
i love story corps…i used it all the time when i was teaching…wonderful way to share history and motivate kids to talk and write. i would love to interview my mom and dad and both of my kids.
…I love it…you’re so generous! I can imagine sharing this with my family and finding lots of inspiration in those pages. Once upon a time I interviewed my grandpa, who was born and raised in Chicago during the years of prohibition. It was fascinating, and I’m so sad that I can’t find the pages I typed up all those years ago. Maybe someday they’ll turn up…
I’d love to win! I’m feeling very shallow right now, so I would choose George Clooney or Javier Bardem to interview…
What a beautiful post, Amy. It’s remarkable how just listening – or reading – honors the storyteller. I’m involved in a local writing center for kids (TellingRoom.org) which has (among other things) worked with immigrant high school students to tell their coming-to-America stories. Their stories are so amazing, so powerful. I’d interview more…
This sounds like a very interesting book. I would like to interview my Grandmother – about her "real" life. The things that really happened, not the good front that she put up for everyone else to see.
Last fall my uncle died while I was visiting my brother for Thanksgiving. My brother found an interview that he had done with my uncle many years before, and it was an amazing tribute to read him talking about his own childhood and difficult early years. I want to interview everyone! Especially the older people who remember a very different world from the one we live in now.
What a wonderful give-away! Hope I can join even if I’m posting from overseas..?
I’m often thinking that I wasted the chance to interview my grandma, she was always around- and then one day gone. So much I will never know, now. So do I take the chance to interview the dear ones around me today? You know the answer…
Amy! I too love this idea. I interviewed my parents years ago on on Martha’s Vineyard…I must dig up the tapes. I think it is so important to honor each other’s experiences…and listening is truly one of the biggest gifts we can offer one another. Thank you for sharing with me and I LOVE that you are a blogger…can not believe I didn’t know this! Send me links to your blogs!
XXX
Auntie Cousin
Amy, you are so generous, and you’ve touched on a favorite subject of mine, too. Oh, how I wait to hear these segments each week as I get ready for work. I wish I had interviewed my grandmother when I was younger…before Alzheimer’s took her memories and eventually her body. I wish I could have gotten her to talk more about those years while she was a teenager and a young woman, when she daringly went to business college, moved to D.C. and was independent…things that were hard to believe because she wasn’t daring or independent when I knew her.
I love this idea! Ordinary people have the most extraordinary stories. I would much rather pick up a copy of this and read it than People magazine.
I would love to interview my Dad’s niece, she spent a lot of time with my grandmother who I never knew.
What a wonderful give away. I’d love to interview the strange lady who walks past our house every day dressed to the nines, pearls and all, to go to the dairy.
What a wonderful idea! It reminds me of the "Mass Observation Project" I wrote about the other day, where Brits under World War 2 recorded their daily business, hopes and dreams. But this is almost better! Listening is special.
I would have loved to interview my grandmother, but I’m not sure I would have been able to ask her all I really want to know.
Thanks for a beautiful post.
Wow – I had never heard about this project before. However, I do think that you are right – our blogs also serve this purpose!
I would love to win this book! Thanks for the opportunity!
kathy
I heard about story corps a few years ago and was so excited! I can’t say enough good things about it. When I was in college I interviewed my grandfather. That interview is one of my most prized posessions. I haven’t had the opportunity to interview the rest of my grandparents, but I think I might be able to this summer. Even if it’s only one of them. I also really want to interview my parents. Every person has a lifetime full of rich stories to tell. Whether they think so or not! And I do love hearing them. Thank you for this giveaway!
I would interview Annie Leibovitz. Her portraits are almost shocking. She sees people from the inside out, which is something I’ve always admired. She really inspires me.
Steph
Oh I missed your post about this. Not writing to enter the drawing (obviously), but I just wanted to say how much I love Story Corps too. I have found myself parked in my own driveway, tears running down my cheeks, not wanting to get out of the car until I hear the end of the story corps interview they’re playing. I love NPR and I love the parallel you made to blogging.
My grandmother was the first person who popped into my mind to interview, but I think that was mostly because I would just love to see her again. I would also like to have a recording of her voice (too bad they can’t record smell yet).
Thanks for sharing..
Jill