StoryCorps - leading the way!

It's hard for me to remember when StoryCorps wasn't part of my life - and yet, it's only been with us for twelve years. 


It started in October 2003, in busy Grand Central Station.  A strange-looking BIG sort of orange-box appeared one morning, its sides blazing the message, “Listening is an Act of Love.” 

It was StoryCorps’ first-ever StoryBooth.  People dropped into the compact recording facility to tell their stories. Small stories, stories they might once have thought as inconsequential as my Mom long thought her stories were.  

The first StoryBooth was followed by a second in July 2005, bittersweetly located at the World Trade Center site in July 2005, which was subsequently closed in 2007 due to construction, the StoryBooth location shifting to Foley Square.  

The format is brilliantly simple.  People who have agreed to be interviewed arrive at the StoryBooth location.

It could be stationary...

...or mobile.   

Subjects never come alone - always with a friend or relative.  Because it is the friend or relative who will cpnduct the interview, with a StoryCorps "facilitator" is close at hand, ready with tips & to deftly manage the tech aspects.  

Participants receive a CD of the interview - and the knowledge that a copy will be sent to the Library of Congress for archiving!  Excerpts are often used as part of StoryCorps' NPR broadcasts.

 

 

StoryBooths are currently located in Chicago, Atlanta & San Francisco, with the mobile version parked in Omaha.  


I could easily spend the rest of my afternoon writing about StoryCorps.  And I will write more over the next few days - about its many initiatives, including Military Voices, StoryCorpsU, StoryCorps Outloud, September 11th, and especially its Memory Loss Initiative.
  
The elder care expert who suggested families have an "NPR story" event with elderly loved ones was possibly thinking about StoryCorps.  And she is right - listening to StoryCorps, steeping yourself in all the stories, will help any & all of us ask better questions, become better listeners, be better relatives friends care givers.  

I promise that I'll take a stab - and ask you to help out, too - at finding or figuring out ways that families & friends can become better story gatherers, appreciators, guardians!  Praise be, we have StoryCorps to help lead the way!

Almost forgot (and that elder care expert didn't mention either) - - want to interview someone, to be the caring listener who gets down their story?  

They have an app for that!

It's NOT easy getting personal histories!

Essential invaluable priceless - yes.  
Easy simple effortless - NO!

Drove me nuts, reading the following "inspiration" from a highly regarded elder care expert:
Spend a day in a combo "scrapbooking," "personal history" and "NPR Story" day - interview your loved one (not interrogate!) about their lives, where they worked, lived, past loves, military history, and more. Encourage your children or grandchildren to participate (*maybe even as a "school assignment"). Ask about humorous nicknames, favorite places, military base installations, past jobs, wonderful memories, and so on.  

 A  day?  Seriously?  My mother was about as well spoken, articulate & coherent as they come ~and~ it took me days, over weeks, and countless cups of Darjeeling & nibblings to get her comfortable enough to even consider that anyone might be remotely interested in hearing about her earlier life.  

Friends & even pleasant acquaintances find that shocking, since they are familiar with the end result.  But getting there?  It took a combination of sheer determination, diplomacy & flat out sneakiness on my part to make it possible.

Yes, I confess to sneakiness.  I set up a tape recorder ahead of time, then lulled her into a story-sharing mood through several cups of tea, a plate of freshly baked scones, slathered with butter & jam.  She had no idea her memories were being recorded, but when I played them back for her that night, over a glass of wine with cheese & crackers, she experienced how others might be touched by her memories of being awakened from her never-missed afternoon nap by Ian popping a well-buttered scone he'd just baked into her mouth.  

REALITY CHECK:   You do NOT just sit down with anyone - especially an oldster or ancient - and expect them to immediately open up with his or her personal history.

 

I am clueless what she means when she recommends having an "NPR stor day."   Is she referring to This American Life?  To StoryCorps?  Those stories don't just happen - they are the result of A LOT of work experience expertise!  

Hey, it's not easy to replicate Ira Glass - the man has his Bachelors from Brown, in Semiotics!  

   

As for Dave Isay - the man has won six Peabody Awards for StoryCorps ~and~ he's a MacArthur fellow!!! 

And how many people have a clue about how to interview someone?  

Again, it takes a lot of work experience expertise to effectively/successfully interview someone, even if she is your grandma!  Especially if she is your grandma!

with thanks to MY MOM - MY HERO (http://mommyhero.blogspot.com)

Read this awesome blog posting!  Short, sweet, heart-breaking yet uplifting.  The power of MUSIC!

 

 

Excerpt:
I must confess that my heart is sad when I think of all the things mom use to love to do and can no longer appreciate. She used to treasure reading books and going to the theatre. She loved to go to the movies, or visit a museum. She loved to travel or just take a walk on the beach. In her universe these pleasures no longer exist.

Yes, mom does not know the difference; yet I do. She is "locked" within the walls of the nursing home in a world that she is now entrapped in. I question and wonder if this is what being alive is about. Alzheimer's quickly crept into her soul and removed almost all of her life experiences. She is no longer aware of what she is missing; but I am.

Luckily there is an enjoyment left and that is the "sound of music".  I have
personally witnessed this with my mom and others who have dementia. Music brings a wakening and joy to their hearts. You can see this in their faces as they suddenly become more alive.


For more inspiration, check out Lisa's book  - My Mom, My Hero.