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StoryCorps records the tales of the ordinary American
BY PHYLLIS SIDES
Journal Times
MILWAUKEE - Everyone has a story to tell. Quite often, though, they don't have the opportunity or the means to do so.
Residents of southeastern Wisconsin will have a chance to tell their stories of work, life and death through StoryCorps, a project that arrived Thursday for a six-month run in the Oriental Room at the Milwaukee Public Library.
StoryCorps is an oral history project that is collecting the stories of America.
How it works
You have a story to tell. First, you make a reservation. Then you talk someone - a friend or family member - into coming along to interview you.
The project's kickoff was held Thursday morning at the library where organizers listened to some of the stories that have already been told.
Sandy Rusch Walton, Marketing and Public Relations Officer, said the stories were amazing.
"We listened and some of the things we heard were amazing," Walton said. "There was the young man who proposed to his girlfriend in the sound booth. He used the same ring his father used to propose to his mother."
National ties
The concept was unveiled in New York in October 2003, and two years later, mobile booths were dispatched across the country. Milwaukee was a stop on a MobileBooth tour in 2005.
Milwaukee is the first outpost outside of New York.
"We're very proud," Walton said. "David Isay, StoryCorps' founder, is a lover of libraries and thought this library would be a perfect place for an outpost. They would like for them to spread. They would like to have them in small towns, too."
StoryCorps is an oral history project modeled after the Works Progress Administration project of the 1930s. Under the WPA
Federal Writers Project workers interviewed everyday people with the aim of publishing their stories in anthologies about American life.
The Writers Project included studies on such topics as architecture, science for children, and American Indians. Among its most important work are the oral history archives created by the workers, including priceless archives like the Slave Narratives and collections of folklore.
Collaborative history
StoryCorps interviews are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and excerpts are broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
StoryCorps is a collaboration between Sound Portraits Productions, the Library of Congress, and public radio stations nationwide.
If you can't make it to Milwaukee, go to the
StoryCorps Web site
at
http://www.storycorps.net
To check out alternative ways of including your story in the project.
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