This is neat

For the past few weeks NPR has been promoting the book “Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project” by telling some of the favorite stories from the StoryCorp Project. It has become one of my favorite NPR segments. StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps started with the opening of a StoryBooth in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. In 2005 the first two MobileBooths - traveling recording studios housed in Airstream trailers - launched from the Library of Congress. By the close of 2007, they recorded stories in more than 70 cities in 46 states. They now have opened booths in several cities across the US and have a website that you can log on to and record your own story or listen to other people’s stories. I have always had a fascination with oral history {I only wish my Grandparents were still alive so that I could record some of their stories} and these stories are especially compelling because of how the interview is set up, oftentimes the interviewer is as invested in the story as the interviewee which creates a very intimate dynamic. One of my favorite stories was a daughter with Down syndrome interviewing her Dad about what was like when she was born. There is another one with a Dad and his daughter talking about the death of her Mom, his wife. The one they did this morning was about a woman who went to college in the 60’s at a school that had just gone from all boys to coed and the abuse she suffered from her teachers and what it felt like to be a woman in business at that time. She was interviewed by her daughter.

StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind. It’s mission is “By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity.” It is really fascinating, You should check it out http://www.storycorps.net/