A number of StoryCorps alumni were invited to share their stories and to talk about why they came to StoryCorps. (Use the links to listen to their stories online.)

Theresa Nguyen came to the United States after the fall of Saigon. She and her daughter, Stephanie, described how the intimate conversation they had at StoryCorps has helped bring them closer.

Sara Takele fled her home country of Ethiopia decades ago. She has spent more than twenty years now navigating this country, not only as an immigrant, but as the mother of a special-needs son. After playing her story, Sara explained she thinks it’s important to speak out as a mother of a son with autism.

Representatives from the Global Village School, which provides an enriched education to teenage girls whose formal education has been interrupted by war and refugee camp experiences, described the day that StoryCorps recorded at their school.

Laura Murvartain, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as child explained that she recorded her story to honor her parents. She feels that her success is really her parents’ success.

Sara Totonchi brought her parents, Emil and Louise to StoryCorps. Emil is from Iraq and Louise is from Ireland. At first, neither of their parents were happy with them dating a foreigner. They told Sara how their families began to overcome their prejudices. At the event, Sara reminded us that these personal stories help humanize the issue of immigration.

You can watch a video of the event at Atlanta Forum Network. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Auburn Avenue Research Library for listening, and to our StoryCorps Alumni for sharing their experiences.

Kerrie Cotton Williams, Archivist and Manager of the Archives Division at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History and StoryCorps alumna discussed the importance of archiving our stories.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Representatives of two community partner organizations, Touching Up Our Roots and Lambda Legal, spoke about the work they are doing with StoryCorps Atlanta.

Dave Hayward from Touching Up Our Roots is recording stories with pioneers of Georgia’s gay rights movement. He brought several of his storytellers with him to share their experiences.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Connor Gillis described the work Lambda Legal is doing to record stories of trangender individuals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’d like to thank the sponsors of Out & Outloud: Atlanta Pride Committee, The Phillip Rush Center, Radial Café and WABE 90.1.

The evening began with opening remarks by John Weatherford, Chief Operating Officer of WABE, and a special message from Dave Isay, Founder and Executive Director of StoryCorps.

We listened to several StoryCorps Atlanta stories that evening, starting with the very first story that aired a year ago, a conversation between mother and daughter, Joyce and Errin Haines.

City Council member and StoryCorps Alumnus Kwanza Hall talked about his experiencing interviewing his mother. While he had known about his father’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, at StoryCorps, he learned about his mother’s role.

One participant, Kiplyn Primus, has interviewed ten friends and family members, including her father, mother, aunt, sister, friend, classmate, and best friend.  She spoke about why she keeps returning to StoryCorps and encouraged everyone to bring a loved one and record their story.

Cindi Johnson, Executive Director of Side by Side Brain Injury Clubhouse, described her experience working with StoryCorps Atlanta as a Community Partner.

Then we switched gears to pay tribute to Lillie Love, our beloved Facilitator who passed away this summer. Her co-worker, Anthony Knight spoke of their first meeting and how they grew to be friends. Lillie’s very first pair of participants, Aqualyn Laury and Randy Walls, described how Lillie was able to encourage Randy to open up and tell his story. “Lillie was able to pierce his defenses with encouraging words,” she said.

Another participant, Renea Winchester read the letter that she sent to StoryCorps upon hearing of Lillie’s passing. “It’s rare in this hurried world to encounter someone who instantly makes you feel significant,” she read, “Lillie Love was that kind of person.”

The StoryCorps Atlanta staff presented Lillie’s sister, Alberta Love, with a plaque commemorating Lillie’s contributions to StoryCorps Atlanta.

After the program, guests mingled and enjoyed desserts provided by Marjan Yavari,, owner of Tasty Pastry. She and her daughter, Leila, recorded a StoryCorps conversation at the Atlanta International School. Thanks to our attendees and to everyone who has helped make StoryCorps Atlanta a success in its first year!

Members and their caretakers recorded their stories  Although the members can’t remember the details of their accidents, they clearly remembered their lives before the accident.

Husband and wife Bisi and Deborah Alabi immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria. They were on the way back from a family friend’s college graduation, when they skidded on ice.  After the crash,  Deborah, a nurse, could tell that her husband was alive, though badly injured. Now years later, they talked about how happy they are. Bisi can’t work due to his traumatic brain injury, but that seems quite alright with his wife. Before the accident, he worked three jobs as a pharmacist (a day job, a night job and one on the weekends). Now he spends more time at home with his family. Since he volunteers in the kitchen at Side by Side, he’s started helping his wife out in their kitchen (something he never did before the accident). And every day he Skypes with his grandchildren in Las Vegas.

Doctors did not think that Marc Baxley, now 35, would ever walk or talk again after his motorcycle accident. But his mother, Cathy Dinning, never gave up on him. She brought him home and took charge of his recovery. Today, if you met Marc, you wouldn’t guess that he suffers from a traumatic brain injury. He recently moved into his own apartment and has a job at a local gym, where he feels he can inspire people with his story. Marc is an avid cook and is frustrated because ever since his accident, he hasn’t been able to remember the secret to his marinara sauce.

Frank Ford was a typical college student. He was social chair of his fraternity and had a 4.0 GPA.  However, everything changed when his immediate family was in a car accident in 1987. Frank suffered from subdural hematoma and his parents have been taking care of him ever since. In his conversation with his mother Claudia, they talked about the impact his injury has had on both of their lives. They also talked about some of his favorite hobbies. An excerpt of their story was edited by WABE and aired during Morning Edition and City Cafe on June 29, 2010. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

Despite the traumatic injury that changed the lives of these StoryCorps Alumni forever, everyone exuded joy. They were all thankful that they were alive and grateful for their loved ones.  I’m grateful we had an opportunity to hear and record their stories.

Hear Me Today: The Voice of Today’s Teens is a Sagal Radio Services program created by Clarkston high school students who intern with the International Rescue Committee over the summer.

This summer, I visited Sagal Radio Services, where interns, Nawal Abdirahman from Somalia and Ram Koirala and Tara Powdyal from Nepal interviewed me about StoryCorps. After my time in the hot seat, I invited them to return the favor and visit us at the WABE studios to learn how we create StoryCorps. They toured the Atlanta StoryBooth, met WABE on-air personalities, asked questions of the News Director, Michael Fields, and saw how producer, Kate Sweeney edits a story.

At the end of their visit, we showed them how to use the StoryKit to record their own stories. Over the next week, they interviewed each other about their experiences as refugees. During her conversation, Nawal talked about her father, “My most important person in my life is my father. My father died when I was like 1-years-old. I haven’t seen him, but I heard a lot of great things about him.”

They compiled the interviews to create an episode of Hear Me Today all about their experience with StoryCorps. You can listen to this episode on their website.

“I think StoryCorps is about… kind of people only listen or read or talk about famous people, we are more important than famous people,” Newal says during their show.  “I believe everyone in this world has a story to tell.” And as they told their stories through StoryCorps, they all agreed that they learned something new about each other.

Chaplains Mary McQueen Porter and Lynn Bledsoe visit isolated elders to sing, play harp, and provide human and canine companionship. In their own way, they exemplify the StoryCorps motto, “listening as an act of love.”

Mary and Lynn are now incorporating StoryCorps interviews into their senior outreach visits. To date, they have recorded over a dozen interviews with elders using a StoryKit.

StoryKits are portable packages that include professional recording equipment and a User’s Guide to record interviews in the comfort of your own home. Individuals can rent a StoryKit for a week and we also loan StoryKits to community organizations to do their own recordings.

In February, they interviewed New Beacon Hospice patient, Mildred Oyston, and her son Bill. 90-year-old Mildred talked about serving her country during World War II as a riveter on a B-17 Bomber.

Six weeks after the interview, Mildred passed away. The family said it meant a lot to them to have the recording to share as they remembered, celebrated, and mourned.

Atlanta Outreach Project provides innovative solutions to ending homelessness in collaboration with other agencies. Life Without Walls project was a 10-week writing and theater workshop designed to teach and improve writing and artistic skills. In the workshops, individuals who are or have been homeless were guided through an artistic process in which they created poems and scenes based on their own stories. As part of the process, they used a StoryKit to interview each other and tell their stories.

Their hard work was on display this past weekend, as they performed Life Without Walls to packed audiences at the Little 5 Points Community Center. The members of the ensemble, Murray, Scotty, Tracy and William, each directed an act based on their life and then told their story, often incorporating poetry.  After the performance, the audience had an opportunity to ask questions and share their thoughts about the performance.

StoryCorps Atlanta is proud to have played a small part in this process. And long after the applause has faded from the performance, their stories will live on in the StoryCorps archives at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian for African American History and Culture.

After seeing the studios, the girls learned about StoryCorps and the National Day of Listening. They listened to StoryCorps clips and talked about the importance of listening as an act of love. The girls decided who in their in their family they’d like to interview for the National Day of Listening, the day after Thanksgiving. By interviewing a family member, the girls will earn the Her Story patch. “We really learned to listen to each other,” says Angelina Capponi.

To practice for their National Day of Listening interviews, the girls came up with a list of questions they wanted to ask Sarah Harris, their troop leader and sat her down for a StoryCorps interview. “We got to learn more about someone we love–our Girl Scout Leader,” says Carly Krauth.

They asked about when she was younger:

• Where did you grow up?
• Have you ever lived in other countries?
• Where is your favorite place that you have lived?
• Will you say something in French?
• What did you like to do in your spare time?
• Did you ever swim in a lake?
• Where is your favorite place to swim?

Being a Girl Scout Troop Leader:

• Why did you want to be a troop leader?
• How did you learn all this cool stuff?
• Tell us about when you were a Girl Scout.
• What does the Girl Scout Promise mean to you?
• What are your favorite Girl Scout cookies?

And some tough questions:

• What has been the biggest mistake in your life?
• What has been the most fun?

“Now we know how to interview our families for the National Day of Listening,” said Annalie Harris. The Brownies left the station prepared for the National Day of Listening and ready to earn their Her Story patch.

You can download a Do-It-Yourself Guide for the National Day of Listening at www.nationaldayoflistening.org.

Everyone at StoryCorps is excited to have a StoryBooth in the South, especially the Atlanta team: Lillie Love, Anthony Knight, Lola Ibitoye, Katrina Singh, and me! We are thrilled to be recording and preserving the stories of the South for our nation and future generations to hear. And we are very grateful to 90.1 WABE for hosting us for our first year in Atlanta.

Anthony, Lola, Lillie, Katrina, Amanda

We spent two weeks training and learning the ins and outs of StoryCorps. We learned how to record stories and archive them for the Library of Congress.

Katrina, Lillie, Lola and Anthony practice recording

Last week, we hosted a Friends and Family Week to practice our facilitation skills. I had a great time facilitating a conversation between two of my new friends, Alex West and Chris Appleton, best friends and co-founders of Wonderroot. Chris and Alex grew up together in Atlanta. When they were in college, they started planning to create a community arts organization in Atlanta with their friend Whit. Now their vision has come to life – the Wonderroot community arts space in Reynoldstown has now become a staple in the Atlanta activist and art scenes. Chris and Alex also talked about the people who inspired them, their visions for Atlanta, and the pranks they play on each other. We hope to partner with Wonderroot throughout the year.

Chris Appleton and Alex West

We will be recording on Thursdays and Saturdays at our booth, located in Studio 3 at 90.1 WABE. We will also be working with community organizations to do recordings out in the field each month.

To record an interview with a loved one at our Atlanta StoryBooth, make a reservation online or call 800-850-4406. (If there are no available appointment times, please sign up for our wait-list!) Then, prepare for your interview by reading what to expect, and create a list of great questions using our Question Generator.

Stay tuned to 90.1 WABE to hear stories recorded locally in Atlanta. You can also hear the weekly StoryCorps broadcast every Friday morning on NPR’s Morning Edition.

We look forward to recording your stories, Atlanta!