StoryCorps Coming to Region
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The National Public Radio affiliate, KUAF 91.3 FM, will bring the national oral history project, StoryCorps, to Northwest Arkansas from March 8 to April 1. During its stay, StoryCorps will capture life stories of a diverse array of everyday Arkansans. The custom-designed StoryCorps MobileBooth will be stationed in the parking lot across from the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
StoryCorps, a creation of Sound Portraits Productions, an independent production company based in New York City, works to record and preserve stories from all types of Americans, from any region, background, occupation or orientation-stories that will become nothing less than an oral history of America. All interviews recorded by StoryCorps are archived in the StoryCorps Archive, housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In addition to preserving these stories in the Library of Congress, StoryCorps shares interview excerpts every Friday during NPR’s Morning Edition. Special segments will also air on KUAF’s news magazine program, Ozarks at Large.
“We’ve found that the process of interviewing a friend, neighbor or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and the interviewee,” says David Isay, the award-winning producer behind StoryCorps. “We’ve seen people change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer, understanding each other better.”
Isay started StoryCorps in 2003, by opening the first soundproof “StoryBooth” in New York’s Grand Central Station. In 2005, the project hit the road for its first national tour with two custom-built “MobileBooth” trailers outfitted with recording studios. Over the course of 10 years, he hopes to travel around the country collecting the stories of more than 250,000 Americans.
Participants come to the booths to record personal stories that are important to them. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides the interview and handles all of the technical aspects involved in recording it. At the end of a 40-minute session, participants walk away with a CD recording of the interview, and with their permission, a copy of the CD is sent to the Library of Congress.
Online registration for hour-long recording sessions, at the MobileBooth in Fayetteville, will open Feb. 22. Available slots are expected to fill quickly. Typically, the sessions involve two people interviewing each other-mother and daughter, father and son, two friends, life partners, caregivers and their loved ones, and the like.
Local sponsors of StoryCorps’ month-long visit in Fayetteville include the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History and DicksonStreetCondominium.com. Sponsorship opportunities, through KUAF, remain available.
For more information about StoryCorps’ visit in Northwest Arkansas, go to http://www.kuaf.com, or call (479) 575-7259.
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