I have been blessed in my new post-K life that I have happened upon some interesting projects helping the media document what has happened, what is happening as we make progress and how people are dealing with their situation. I have been following StoryCorps since it’s inception and have visited the one in NYC and am really honored to be a part of it right now.

StoryCorps is an oral history project whose mission is to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound. The idea is simple and powerful: you sit down with someone close to you - a friend, colleague, family member - and talk about the things that matter most to you. A trained StoryCorps facilitator makes two professional-quality recordings of the 40-minute interview. You receive one copy; the other, with your permission, is sent to the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress. There it will be preserved for the benefit of future generations.

Working at the PRC, I hear stories almost every day and I never really get tired of hearing them. Some days when l am out just taking care of business, someone begins talking and there I am, an hour late. I do not like to chat much but I do love to listen. Periodically, all these stories of people’s fear and struggles make me really blue, but ultimately, these stories motivate me to stay and to work and I like to hear the way people tell them. I can’t be trusted to remember them all on my own. So, please, come and tell the world your story so that people can hear your account in your own words.

StoryCorps, in conjunction with National Public Radio and WWNO 89.9 FM, will bring its MobileBooth to New Orleans May 4-28, 2006. For information, visit http://storycorps.net. StoryCorps was scheduled to come to New Orleans before Katrina.

NPR’s presentation of the project offers a bit more polish: NPR StoryCorps

To schedule a StoryCorps interview at the MobileBooth, you can do so online or call the reservation line at 800-850-4406.

I remember they did this after 9/11 too . . you can see the results here: http://understandingamerica.publicradio.org/

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1. Love Letter Number 5
2. Love Letter Number 4
3. The Seven Love Letters to New Orleans
4. I love ciders……really, it’s weird.
5. Love letter number 2