StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans, will record interviews in Oklahoma City from February 8 to March 9, 2018 as part of its cross-country MobileBooth tour. Having collected more than 65,000 interviews from Americans in all 50 states, StoryCorps has gathered one of the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded.
StoryCorps’ MobileBooth—an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio—will be parked at Pop-Up Park at NW 10th St. and N. Hudson Ave. in Oklahoma City. Reservations will be available at 10am on Thursday, January 25 and can be made by calling StoryCorps’ 24-hour toll-free reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or visiting storycorps.org. Additional appointments will be available on Friday, February 9.
In StoryCorps’ MobileBooth, two people are able to record a meaningful conversation with one another about who they are, what they’ve learned in life, and how they want to be remembered. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides them through the interview process. At the end of each 40-minute recording session, participants receive a complimentary CD copy of their interview. With participant permission, a second copy is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for future generations to hear.
Founded in 2003 by award-winning documentary producer and MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, StoryCorps has traveled to every corner of the country to record interviews in the organization’s effort to create a world where we listen closely to each other and recognize the beauty, grace and poetry in the lives and stories we find all around us.
“StoryCorps tells the true American story—that we are a people defined by small acts of courage, kindness and heroism. Each interview reminds people that their lives matter and will not be forgotten,” said Isay. “By strengthening connections between people and building an archive that reflects the rich diversity of American voices, we hope to build StoryCorps into an enduring institution that will touch the lives of every American family.”
In Oklahoma City, StoryCorps will partner with KOSU, who will air a selection of the local interviews recorded in the StoryCorps MobileBooth and create special programs around the project. StoryCorps may also share excerpts of these stories with the world through the project’s popular weekly NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk2pbqZJnvM
About StoryCorps
Founded in 2003 by Dave Isay, the nonprofit organization StoryCorps has given more than 350,000 people the chance to record interviews about their lives, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future. It is the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered.
Recording a StoryCorps interview couldn’t be easier: You invite a loved one, or anyone else you chose, to one of the StoryCorps recording sites. There you’re met by a trained facilitator who greets you and explains the interview process. You’re then brought into a quiet recording room and seated across from your interview partner, each of you in front of a microphone. The facilitator hits “record,” and you share a 40-minute conversation. At the end of the session, you walk away with a copy of the interview, and a digital file goes to the Library of Congress, where it will be preserved for generations to come. Someday your great-great-great-grandchildren will be able to meet your grandfather, your mother, your best friend, or whomever it is you chose to honor with a StoryCorps interview.
With the 2015 TED Prize awarded to Dave Isay, StoryCorps has also launched an app that puts the StoryCorps experience entirely in the hands of users and enables anyone, anywhere to record meaningful conversations with another person. The app guides users through the interview experience, from recording to archiving to sharing their stories with the world. It provides easy-to-use tools to help people prepare interview questions; record high-quality conversations on their mobile devices; and upload the audio to the Library of Congress and StoryCorps.me website, which serves as a home for these recordings and also provides interview and editing resources.
StoryCorps shares edited excerpts of the stories we record through its weekly podcast, NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. These powerful stories illustrate our shared humanity and show how much more we share in common than divides us. StoryCorps has launched a series of national recording initiatives including:
- The Justice Project, an effort to preserve and amplify the voices of people affected by incarceration, their families and communities;
- The September 11th Initiative, helping families memorialize the stories of lives lost on September 11, 2001, in partnership with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center;
- The Griot Initiative, now the largest collection of African American voices ever gathered, in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture;
- Historias, the largest collection of Latino stories ever gathered;
- StoryCorps OutLoud, which documents the powerful, varied experiences of LGBTQ people across America, with a focus on lives lived before Stonewall; and
- The Military Voices Initiative, honoring the stories of post-9/11 service members, veterans and their families.
StoryCorps is working to grow into an enduring national institution that celebrates the dignity, power, and grace that can be heard in the stories we find all around us, and helps us recognize that every life and every story matter equally. In the coming years StoryCorps hopes to touch the lives of every American family.
About KOSU
Established in 1955, KOSU is a member-supported public radio network that operates 91.7 KOSU in central Oklahoma including Stillwater and Oklahoma City and 107.5 KOSN in northeast Oklahoma including Tulsa, Bartlesville and the Grand Lake area. KOSU can also be heard at 107.3 in south Tulsa and at 94.9 in Ponca City. Reaching thousands of listeners every week, KOSU features local music with The Spy and distinguished public radio news and information service with award-winning local news coverage and NPR news content.
About Phillips Murrah P.C.
After 30 years, Phillips Murrah P.C. has grown from a four-lawyer start-up into one of the largest full-service law firms in the state of Oklahoma. They provide a comprehensive line of business and litigation solutions and empower clients with the insight and strategic legal counsel necessary to maintain a competitive edge.
