The Cultural Center and the Hungarian Consulate (where we conducted the recordings) brought in a diverse and fascinating group of Hungarians, including Evi Blaikie, a child survivor of the Holocaust. Evi brought with her a book (pictured below) she wrote about her mother, whom she was separated from as a toddler, and later reunited with.

We look forward to recording more stories at Extremely Hungary this weekend in New Brunswick, New Jersey!

The organization now umbrellas many inspiring projects. For more info, or to schedule a canoe trip with these incredible people, visit www.bronxriver.org

StoryCorps’ partnership with Sandy Ground began about a year ago on the New York City portion of the Griot tour. We were fortunate enough to go back to record twelve more interviews thanks to Sylvia Dalessandro and the community outreach department here at StoryCorps. Sylvia brought in African-American ministers from churches all over Staten Island and Brooklyn. She even interviewed some of them herself, including Rev. Maggie M. Howard.

Rev. Howard was the first female pastor of her church. Many of the ministers who came in shared incredible stories of struggle though racism, poverty, sexism, and faith. For some of the participants it was the first time visiting the museum, and the artifacts (photos of segregated schools, documents of sale, tools, etc.) triggered memories and family stories that might not have been recalled otherwise. For me, this was a great reminder of the value of the Door-to-Door department, and the significance of the recording spaces we choose.

I facilitated an interview at our Brooklyn office. Afterwards NYC Outreach Coordinator Andre Lancaster (himself a writer/playwright), hosted a clip-focused writing workshop where Other Countries writers listened to StoryCorps Griot interviews.

Andre explained the workshop to me. “The writers were given prompts that riffed off the clips and group discussion that followed the clip listening. In the end, all of the writers present produced new writings and vibrant characters, all inspired by StoryCorps interviews! While this workshop model was catered to Other Countries, it does typify the kind of direct relationship building that StoryCorps NYC Outreach seeks with community partners.”

Other Countries meets monthly at the LGBT Center in New York City. For more information please visit the LGBT Center’s website. An anthology of new Other Countries writings is available through RedBone Press.

Last week Facilitator Kate Brown and I visited Gleason’s, one of the oldest boxing gyms in Brooklyn, and now we want to be boxers. Veronica Ordaz, the New York City Community Outreach Coordinator who set up the day of interviews, told me that after visiting the gym, she’d resolved to do the same thing. She told me she was convinced after meeting with Bruce, the owner of Gleason’s, who was also our first interview of the day.

It’s incredible to me how drawn I was to the place, considering how exclusively male I’ve always assumed boxing to be. And my assumptions were validated when we first walked in. Gleason’s looks like the set of an old movie (and is still used for shoots, Bruce told us), with sunlight streaming in through big dusty windows and punching bags that look like they could beat me in a fight.

We’d heard from Bruce how popular the gym had become with women, but I didn’t really understand it until we interviewed the female boxers, like Fire, an amateur world champion and long-time member of Gleason’s.

Fire told us about winning her first tournament (on her birthday), fighting someone who had never lost. She described how surprised she was to find her talent for the sport and how intimidated she had been at first. Fire is an actress, and before she started boxing was always hired to play “victim” roles. She told us that she now gets hired as stronger characters and credits it to her training.

Fire is also a self-described fashion-diva and was embarrassed to wear anything but dirty old sweats when she started training at Gleason’s. Now, with her many titles, she is always dressed up when she fights and works out. As we left, she was running on a treadmill proudly wearing a cute white tennis skirt, hot-pink bandanna, and Juicy Couture knee socks.

Most of our participants grew up on farms and are now working in offices for their respective states’ farm bureaus. They described their memories of farm life and how the sense of hard work and family is still with them today. One participant told me he’s never understood why some people can’t manage to get to work by 9am. “9am is the middle of the day!” he said. So it was no surprise that events started early at this conference, and that everyone was milling around well before 8am, having coffee, chatting about the day’s upcoming events.

At our presentation I met a few of the still-farmers attending the conference. One gentleman introduced himself, and with a thick Southern accent told me, “I’m a swine farmer.” “Wow, a swan farmer?” I said. He laughed, telling me that I wasn’t the first Northerner to miss-hear him. People used to think he was a poet when he told them he worked with “poultry.”

We were fortunate to have a few pairs of participants sign up for interviews on the spot after hearing our presentation. One of those pairs was LaTanya (LT) and Shellie, who have been working together in Washington, DC for a long time and are now best friends.

LT and Shellie were our only participants not from farming families, and their appreciation for the culture of Farm Bureau was incredibly touching. They both gave thanks for the support that Farm Bureau has offered. LT said, “I just feel as though they will always be my family, and I, their’s.”