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StoryCorps oral history project coming to Buffalo
By KELLI BOCOCK-NATALE
Reporter Contributor
WBFO-FM 88.7, UB’s National Public Radio affiliate, is partnering with StoryCorps to bring the national oral history project to Western New York for a six-week stay.
During a typical
StoryCorps session, a trained facilitator guides participants through the interview process and handles the technical aspects of the recording.
PHOTO: TONY RINALDO
The StoryCorps team will arrive July 17 to collect the stories of Western New York residents as part of its cross-country tour. Its mobile StoryBooth—an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio—will be parked at the Central Branch of the Buffalo and Erie Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo. It will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, through Sept. 12. July 17, opening day, will be the only Thursday the booth will be open due to Thursdays in the Square. StoryCorps plans to collect 180 interviews during its stay in Western New York.
An initiative that aims to document everyday history and the unique stories of Americans, StoryCorps was created by Dave Isay, an award-winning documentary producer and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient. Since its launch in October 2003, StoryCorps’ mobile studio and its stationary recording studio in New York City have collected more than 18,000 stories in 78 towns in 46 states.
WBFO will air a selection of the local stories gathered during StoryCorps visit to Western New York and create special programs around the project. Selected segments also may air nationally on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project working in partnership with NPR and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
At the mobile StoryBooth, interviews are conducted between two people who know and care about each other. A trained facilitator guides the participants through the interview process and handles the technical aspects of the recording. At the end of a 40-minute session, the participants walk away with a CD of their interview. With their permission, a second copy becomes part of an archive at the American Folklife Center.
“As StoryCorps has traveled across the country, we’ve seen the profound effect it has had not only on the lives of those who have participated in the project, but also on the millions who have heard them each week on NPR,” Isay says. “We are so proud to continue our mission to teach people to become better listeners, foster intergenerational communication among families and communities, and help Americans appreciate the strength in the stories of everyday people they find all around them.”
For more information or to reserve an interview time, click here.