All the work that the StoryCorps mobile tour does happens in a parked trailer. The recording, photos, editing and archiving all occur in an Airstream trailer, customized to include office space, a photo space and a recording studio. The trailer traverses the country over the course of the year, stopping in big cities and tiny towns, all to record and archive the voices of Americans today. See full story here.
Tag: StoryCorps
Oral History Association (in USA)
Middle Tennessee State University is the new home for the 900 member Oral History Association. Oral history collection is enjoying something of a renaissance, thanks in large part to the Association’s work. A good case in point: The popularity of StoryCorps histories as aired each week on National Public Radio. For full story click here.
Great Thanksgiving Listen
The holiday season is a time when families gather, usually for food and fun. But in an age of video games, cell phone chats and abbreviated texts, sometimes, thoughtful conversations with elders are missed. This year, St. Louis Public Radio, in partnership with StoryCorps, invited students from Maplewood Richmond Heights High School to spend some time asking questions of an important person in their lives. And then to just let the other person talk. For full article with audio excerpts click here.
StoryCorps Thanksgiving
In the span of just three minutes, NPR broadcasts excerpts from often deeply personal and frank conversations, allowing listeners to get a feel for what moves their fellow Americans, otherwise perfect strangers. Started 12 years ago by Dave Isay, a radio reporter, the project recently launched its smartphone app, StoryCorps.me, in the hopes of making it easier for people to participate. For full story click here.
Schoolchildren interview their elders
High school students across the country (USA) are making oral history this week by recording interviews with their elders in an unprecedented effort to stockpile wisdom for the ages. The Great Thanksgiving Listen was conceived by leaders of the nonprofit oral history project StoryCorps. They're encouraging kids to send their audio recordings to a Library of Congress archive, using a free smartphone app available online at StoryCorps.me. StoryCorps president and found Dave Isay hoped to double, in one weekend, the 65,000 audio recordings StoryCorps has collected since 2003. Read full story and take the links to listen to the interviews here.
StoryCorps ‘Great Thanksgiving Listen’
Teachers and high school students across the country are invited to use the StoryCorps app to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend. To listen to this story click here.
StoryCorps to enhance their app.
StoryCorps Goes Global
It's a big check for a big idea: $1 million, the annual TED prize awarded to a proposal that could change the world. The idea that won Dave Isay the TED grant was a phone app that puts his original big idea, StoryCorps, in the hands of anyone with a smartphone. For full story including an interview with Dave Isay, click here.
StoryCorps – Gay America
David Isay, the founder of the nonprofit oral history group StoryCorps, tried for many years with little success to raise money for a project to collect stories from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. When his father died two years ago on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots, he decided the project would proceed, with money or not. For full story, click here.
First 10 Years of StoryCorps
“Ties That Bind: Stories of Love & Gratitude from the First Ten Years of StoryCorps,” by Dave Isay, with Lizzie Jacobs. New York: The Penguin Press, 2013. 202 pages, $25.95 (hardcover). Dave Isay is founder of StoryCorps, the oral history project that has collected conversations between friends and family members for the National Archives and for airing on National Public Radio on Friday mornings for the past 10 years. As StoryCorps began its collection process, Studs Terkel stood in Grand Central Station at the first recording booth and proclaimed: “Today, we shall begin celebrating the lives of the uncelebrated.” During the past 10 years, StoryCorps has more than met all expectations for success by recording almost 50,000 interviews from more than 1,000 locations spread over all 50 states. Read full story here and listen to an interview with Dave Isay here.