Jamie Niland
Managing Editor
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By Jamie Niland
Every person you walk past on the street, drive by on the road, and come face-to-face with has a story to tell.
We’ve all lived, loved and lost. And, done a lot of other things in between. Sharing these stories can potentially teach people the value of listening while also helping to better understand the value of everyone’s stories.
“We’ve only been (in San Antonio) a few days, but in general, I’ll just say that every single time I sit down with someone to record, I’m surprised,” said Stacey Todd, StoryCorps site manager. “You can’t make any assumptions on people just based off the way they look. Everyone will surprise you with their story.”
StoryCorps is a non-profit organization whose mission revolves around creating a more just and compassionate world by sharing recorded personal interviews on National Public Radio (NPR).
On Feb. 6, StoryCorps returned to San Antonio to record 140 interviews with residents of South Texas in their mobile recording booth. The booth will be located outside of San Antonio Public Library’s Central Branch at 600 Soledad Street through March 5.
StoryCorps tells the stories of average Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs, through the power of digital broadcast. With a little over 65,000 interviews, StoryCorps has one of the largest collections of human voice recordings.
Texas Public Radio sponsored StoryCorps’ visit to San Antonio to gather stories compelling and interesting enough to broadcast on NPR.
When recording an interview, a person can choose to speak in English or Spanish. A facilitator will guide individuals through the recording session to help the process go smoothly.
“I’m the project manager of the mobile StoryBooth, so I’m on the road 100 percent of the time,” Todd said. “With me, I have two full-time facilitators who travel about 75 percent of the time, because they have a facilitator that they rotate tours within Brooklyn.”
StoryCorps launched in 2003, in the middle of Grand Central Station. Originally StoryCorps consisted of just this one StoryBooth located in the New York terminal, but the brand grew fast. By 2010, StoryCorps established a well known and respected brand, with numerous awards and recognitions, including a Peabody Award awarded in 2007.
Now, StoryCorps has three main recording studios in Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as a mobile StoryBooth that stops throughout the United States.
To share a story, or a family member’s story, visit the StoryCorps website to make a recording reservation.
