Spend a day at the colorful VOX office and you will walk away impressed by the seriousness, imagination, creativity, and audacious energy of the teens in the program. They dream, and they dream big.

VOX Teen Communications is a non-profit youth development organization located in downtown Atlanta, GA, dedicated to “giving us teens the skills and resources to raise our voices about issues that most matter to us.” They publish a teen newspaper and maintain a web site. Some VOX teens are active in the Just Georgia project, an initiative to revise Georgia’s Juvenile Code related to youth living in foster care.

So, what issues did these teens voice when StoryCorps spent a day at VOX? They articulated dreams and hopes for their future, concerns about their peers, and what they think college life will be like. Of course there were pop culture references to music, television, and movies as well. The teens also chose to talk about more serious topics.

For example, Cassandra Maddox (15) and Teyonna Ridgeway (18) discussed body image and its effects on the age at which girls become sexually active. They came to their StoryCorps interview with pages of notes and questions for each other. After discussing how they work to maintain a positive image of themselves in spite of messages they might receive from media, Cassandra noted, “When a guy says you’re sexy, he’s looking at your body. If he tells you you’re pretty, he’s looking at your face. If he tells you you’re beautiful, he’s looking at your inside.”

If it seems teens or millenials are hard on us older folks, they’re equally hard on themselves and their peer groups. For example, Teyonna is concerned that “our generation is selling out…we keep borrowing ideas without expanding them.”

Other VOX teens who shared their hopes, opinions, and dreams with us include Kelcie Willis, Giovan Bazan, Safia Hurst, Chernail Arnold, Veronica Coates, Octavia Fugerson, Tracy Jackson, Stanley Stewar Ot, and Modupe Alabi.

Just knowing the future belongs to teenagers like the ones we met at VOX makes me feel good about them and the future. Keep raising those voices, VOX!

Julia decided she would not be a “happy camper” and fight her disease with stoic passivity. She describes participating in a breast cancer event not long after her diagnosis. “I was confused when they saluted breast cancer survivors. I was told that I was a survivor even though I had just been diagnosed. What other disease labels you a survivor based on just the diagnosis?”

A self-described “cancer curmudgeon,” Julia dislikes the ubiquitous breast cancer “pink fluff.” Says Julia, “I prefer white – the color of research labs – rather than pink.”

Julia’s curmudgeonly ways extend to the way she views cancer and suffering. “I hear people say that cancer is a gift. To me, cancer is not a gift.”

Saying good-bye to her breasts was an expected emotional hurdle. Julia’s reconstructive surgical team worked with her to select a “perfect” pair of breasts, which Julia enthusiastically showed off immediately prior to her StoryCorps interview.

Although her current diagnosis shows no evidence of cancer, Julia is haunted by the young women who keep getting cancer diagnoses. “We’ve got to keep focusing on research.”

In early March, StoryCorps Atlanta spent a day recording stories of hope, redemption and service at City of Refuge, a neighborhood-based service center in the Vine City community of Atlanta. We had an opportunity to listen to some of the staff, volunteers, and residents while we were there. Based on the stories we heard and the people we met, City of Refuge assists the helped to become the helpers.

“It’s a privilege to be in this space and place and do what I do,” says Dr. Charles Moore, who heads the free clinic at City of Refuge. Dr. Moore and his research advisee, Sheri Davis-Faulkner, were one of the six pairs to share their stories at City of Refuge. As a physician treating patients with head and neck cancers, Dr. Moore grew frustrated that by the time he saw patients, they had few treatment options left. He kept thinking, “Somebody needs to do something to help these patients.” One day he thought, “Maybe that person is supposed to be me.”

As a young girl, Sheri studied ballet from ages 3-13 and her ballet instructors told her she needed to lose weight. Her baby-sitters armed Sheri with the self-confidence to “decide what my body looked like and not to feel like I needed to fight my body.” As part of her doctoral research, Sheri wanted to help middle and high school students in urban food deserts (locations with limited access to whole foods and fresh fruits and vegetables). She needed a site that would agree to provide space for her field research on childhood obesity and body image.

Both Dr. Moore and soon-to-be-Dr. Davis-Faulkner credit “divine intervention” for leading them to City of Refuge, which is now the site of Dr. Moore’s HEAL (Health Education Assessment and Leadership) clinic and Sheri’s programs for addressing childhood obesity and building positive body images among Black girls. Like City of Refuge, Dr. Moore and Sheri are committed to working within the neighboring communities. “The leaders who are going to change this neighborhood live in this neighborhood,” observes Sheri.

City of Refuge is committed to “bringing hope to those who live on the margin.” With inspiring staff and volunteers like the ones we met, City of Refuge is just what the doctor ordered to serve and inspire its neighboring community. Hope blooms year-round in Vine City.

Part of Dr. Moore’s story was edited by WABE and aired during Morning Edition and City Cafe on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

In 83 years Callye Fears Chatman’s life has undergone dramatic changes. From her beginnings as the daughter of sharecroppers (“It was my job to carry water to the workers and to ring the dinner bell”), to her educational journey at Clark College in Atlanta, to her work as an educator, to her and her husband’s decision to move their family to a white suburb so their children could attend better schools, Mrs. Chatman witnessed the social, economic, and political changes that shaped the South in the 20^th century. Yet, when Mrs. Chatman and her daughter, Faye Capers, participated in the StoryCorps Memory Loss Initiative, Mrs. Chatman did not come to talk about the social and political changes she had lived through. Instead, she wanted most to talk about her mother, who had died a month earlier at age 103.

“It was a true blessing to have five generations and everybody able to communicate with each other,” says Mrs. Chatman of her life with her mother, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. When Faye asked what Mrs. Chatman would write in a letter to her mother, the words sprang forth immediately:

“Dear Mom, how are you doing with the saints up in heaven? I know you are still singing, especially your favorite song,  ‘How Great Thou Art.’ We really miss you, but we know you are there with the rest of your family, your eight siblings, your mother and father, and all your friends who passed on before you. So we are looking forward to joining you as well.”

Part of their story was edited by WABE and aired during City Cafe on Tuesday, December 28, 2009. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

March 7, 1965. It’s been almost 45 years since Amelia Boynton Robinson was beaten and tear gassed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. She was attempting, along with up to 600 other marchers, to cross the bridge from Selma to Montgomery to protest the earlier shooting of a protestor, as well as advocate for voting rights for Selma’s Black citizens. Now, approaching 99 years of age, Mrs. Boynton Robinson and her friend, Genise Kemp-Brown, came to the Atlanta StoryCorps recording day at the Auburn Avenue Research Library to tell Mrs. Boynton Robinson’s story of courage, determination, and eventual triumph.

“The air was thick with tear gas,” Mrs. Boynton Robinson remembers of the Sunday that became known as ‘Bloody Sunday.’ She said she was gassed so much that almost 45  years later her throat still burns. Front-page pictures the day after the march show Mrs. Boynton Robinson lying unconscious on the bridge. When she woke up  in the hospital the next day, Mrs. Boynton Robinson resolved, “I’m going to fight more than I ever [have].”

This story was recorded at Save Our African American Treasures, a project of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that was hosted locally at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. The event was designed to help families learn to preserve their heirlooms, stories, mementos, and memories. Many participants brought in frayed family Bibles that were held together with memories and prayers. Others brought in quilts, family photographs, paintings, and other treasured family items. StoryCorps’ own Anthony Knight and Amanda Plumb led a workshop about preserving oral family histories.

The Atlanta StoryBooth is continuing to partner with the Research Library by holding on-site recording days in February and March. Participants like Mrs. Boynton Robinson demonstrate that the real treasure in any community is the courage of its citizens.

Part of Miss Boynton’s story was edited by WABE and aired during Morning Edition and City Cafe on Tuesday, March 9, 2009. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

Danielle and her mother, Carolyn Dinberg, came to the Atlanta StoryBooth to record a conversation about Danielle’s unbridled equine love.

“She would rather muck stables than clean her room,” is how Carolyn laughingly describes her daughter. Danielle agreed and said she even likes the smell of a barn, including horse manure, because that means horses are around.

With such passion comes the risk of heartache. Danielle experienced this early when her pony, Cocoa Puff, developed cancer and died. “She spent two hours saying good-bye to him,” Carolyn remembers. After Cocoa Puff’s death, Danielle stopped riding and helped children with disabilities learn to ride horses through hippotherapy.

Two of Danielle’s major life lessons – patience and responsibility – came to her via her four-footed friends. Cocoa Puff helped her slow down and not rush things. Danielle says that when she cannot be with a horse, sketching a horse helps calm her down. She says she “feels” the horses as she sketches them.

While young Danielle’s passion is horses, Noah Jernigan’s passion is of a different kind: he loves all things NPR. Although he cannot get his driver’s license for another six years, Car Talk is Noah’s favorite program. The StoryCorps segments on Morning Edition are a close second.

Noah brought his grandfather, Bill Mays, to the StoryBooth to learn more about his grandfather’s military service, his marriage, his role as a parent, and what it means to be a grandfather. Bill, who says he has experienced seven wars in his lifetime, recalls how he slowly realized, “war is not the answer.” After their StoryBooth conversation, Site Supervisor Amanda Plumb took Noah and his family on an impromptu station tour, where Noah met several WABE hosts and chatted with station general manager, John Weatherford.

The Atlanta StoryCorps audience has also been welcoming. Our first month of interview slots were filled within 48 hours. To make sure the city is even more attuned to our work here, WABE will air selected Atlanta StoryBooth interviews on their program City Café.

Thank you, WABE, for your gracious hospitality! Thanks also for the “conversations of a lunchtime” that you helped provide during our training weeks!