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Finding the extraordinary in ordinary lives
In recent months, on Fridays, some of the most captivating National Public Radio "Morning Edition" stories (heard locally on UB's own WBFO 88.7 FM (http://www.wbfo.org/) have been from the StoryCorps series http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516989). StoryCorps (http://storycorps.net/) is a national project to motivate and teach people to record each others' stories in sound. Modeled on the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) oral history project of the 1930s when everyday people were interviewed about their lives, StoryCorps is committed to constructing an oral history of 21st century America. To that end, StoryCorps staffers have constructed two soundproof recording "StoryBooths" in New York City, as well as two traveling "MobileBooths," which hit the road in May 2005.
Since opening the first StoryBooth in Grand Central Terminal in 2003, the StoryCorps team has facilitated the production of thousands of 40-minute interviews for a suggested donation of $10. For this modest sum, participants receive a CD recording of the interview and a second copy is sent to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/index.html). Participants have ranged in age from 10 to 105, with one being the interviewer and the other the interviewee. Stories highlighted on the NPR and StoryCorps Web sites reflect a wide range of pairings: husbands and wives; fathers and daughters; daughters and mothers-in-law; friends, including two prison inmate buddies; business partners; grandfathers and grandsons; sisters; aunts and nephews, etc., etc.
To help the process along and ensure interesting interviews, StoryCorps facilitators provide a "question generator" (http://www.storycorps.net/participate/question_generator/) for participants to fill out and ponder in advance of the recording session. Perhaps as a result of this advance preparation, the personal stories typically are compelling and tell, for example, of an arranged marriage, years spent running an extermination business, reminiscences of time in a psychiatric center, description of life in foster care, the pain of dealing with infidelity, time spent on a picket line, and so on.
A recent story, "Two in a Million: Danny and Annie Perasa" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230164), is a tribute to the marriage of a couple and their strength in coping with Danny's impending death. It was so moving I had to pull my car to the side of the road while listening to it, just to compose myself—this from a woman who doesn't cry at tear-jerker movies. (A postscript to the story indicates Danny died several hours after the story aired.)
StoryCorps staff members know it is not feasible to provide us all with an opportunity to record our stories in their StoryBooths, though their Web site makes available a form for booking a reservation, as well as provides their on-the-road mobile schedule. (No Western New York scheduled stops yet.) To assist anyone who wants to tell his or her stories, or to hear the stories of friends, family members and acquaintances, staff members have assembled a "do it yourself" guide (http://www.storycorps.net/participate/do-it-yourself_guide/). And, perhaps most importantly, they supply inspiration on their Web site's "about us" page:
"To us, StoryCorps celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity. It captures and defines the stories that bond us. We've found that the process of interviewing a friend, a neighbor or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and interviewee. We've seen people change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer, understanding each other better. Listening, after all, is an act of love."
—Gemma DeVinney, University Libraries