Gorgeous weather, friendly people and a real life griot greeted us on opening day in Detroit, MI. Indeed, standing at the podium (next to Melvin Reeves, Manager for the StoryCorps Griot Initiative), Cardinal Mbuyi Chui explained the traditional role of griots such as himself and the significance of the StoryCorps’ Griot Initiative.

The Cardinal is with the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church and he is partnering with us to record the stories of church members. StoryCorps is partnering with many community organizations in this city, including the Michigan Veteran’s Association. Richard Chatman (pictured here on the left and from the back) was the first from that organization to kick off interviews over the weekend. He is also actively involved in signing up people to record their stories.

StoryCorps facilitator Jason Reynolds (below, right) enjoyed Atlanta so much that he came back to learn more from his elders. Like Jason, Jonah Engle and Maddy Nussbaum are veteran facilitators, but they are joining the Griot tour for the first time. Nadja Middleton is still on board too, but invisible at the moment because she is behind the camera! Our StoryBooth will be stationed downtown at the Campus Martius Park until June 16th and facilitators are present Thursday through Monday.

With the mass conversion of Nation of Islam members to orthodox Sunni Islam in the 1970s, the temple that Nazeeh helped found became the Atlanta Masjid or mosque. StoryCorps has been paying regular visits here to record the stories of some of its members, including Nazeeh’s. We have been collecting stories of the civil rights struggle, accounts of war veterans, conversion narratives, and tales of growing up Muslim in Atlanta, GA.

It was revealed that Gloria, in particular, loved dancing. Indeed, as the sisters talked about attending Ebenezer Baptist Church and recalled their relationship with the King family, Gloria shared a long kept secret…

Desperate to obtain a tuxedo for her escort to a dance event, Gloria was able to put two and two together very fast: Her sister was babysitting again for the King family that evening, Martin Luther King Jr was out of town and he most definitely owned a tuxedo that would fit her escort… The rest is history, history that StoryCorps has enabled the sisters to shed a spotlight on!

Below, the three sisters chat with NBC news reporter Martin Savidge.

General Larry Platt (above) returns to our StoryBooth this year. Last year he was interviewed by facilitator Nadja Middleton. This year, General Platt was interviewed by Kevin Cook (below), a great admirer of his, while Nadja facilitated. General Platt talked about how Reverend Hosea Williams bestowed upon him the title “General” for his heroic efforts during the Civil Rights struggle.

Kevin was later interviewed by Nadja. A week later a clip of Kevin’s interview was being edited for broadcast on WABE, one of StoryCorps’ partners here in Atlanta, GA… and Kevin (below, right) interviewed one of his friends in the sanctuary of the Omega Holiness Church -during which time Nadja snapped a shot!

Kevin and the person he interviewed at his church share their stories of drug addiction, recent recovery and faith in the Lord.

95 year old Myrtis Walker is an American griot. Echoing traditions from the continent where her grandfather was captured and enslaved, Walker came to StoryCorps to tell her daughter the stories of their ancestors. In West Africa, griots serve as the repository of a community’s history and often recount the stories through poetry and song. Here in Atlanta, GA, Mrs Walker recounted the story of her grandfather who called himself Romulus, choosing a “White man’s” name to counter the “White man’s” nicknames “nigger”, “boy” and “coon”. Mrs Walker also sang a gospel she sometimes sang at her husband’s church and a childhood favorite: Bessie Smith’s “All you women better leave my man alone”.

Mrs Walker sometimes combines apparent seriousness with sharp wit. For example, she recalled time wasted looking for babies in cabbage patches and how a marriage counselor’s intervention finally ended her search. Her daughter, thinking she was concluding the interview says: “Well now you know where babies come from.” To which Mrs Walker replies: “I know where mine come from but I don’t know about other women”.

… to come share their story and standing by to assist: StoryCorps facilitators (l to r) Nadja Middleton, John Randolph, Elaine Davenport and Jason Reynolds.

StoryCorps is back in Atlanta, GA, this time with a new initiative aimed at collecting African American stories. Our recording booth is parked once again by the visitor center of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site at 450 Auburn Ave.

Jonathan Borofsky’s sculpture is planted right on the campus of his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. At the base of the pole stand 3 fiberglass figures and 2 StoryCorps facilitators. Michael Ramberg and his replacement Sarah Kramer gaze at the 80 foot pole erected before them.

The artist says he sees his piece as a “celebration of the human potential for discovering who we are and where we need to go”. As Michael leaves the mobile booth tour, he appears ready to tap into that potential and walk to the sky!

After moving to Pittsburgh a few years ago, Carolyn Lambert (right) started dreaming of life on the river and conceiving the Ohio River Lifeboat Project. With funding from community organizations and the help of talented friends, Carolyn renovated and furbished an eco-customized pontoon boat which she plans to drive down the Ohio river over the course of the summer. At each stop, those who have stories about the river will be invited on board to share them along with a potluck dinner. We had no stories to tell about the Ohio river but got invited for dinner nonetheless! Carolyn plans to record peoples stories and produce an audio documentary for national distribution. In the meantime we recorded her story at our StoryBooth.

The Carrie Furnaces employed were part of Homestead Works, a steel mill site planted just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, extending for 3 miles along the Monangahela river and covering hundreds of acres. At their peak, these blast furnaces processed 1000-1250 tons of iron a day.

Today, organizations such as the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area which invited us to the furnaces, are lobbying to have Homestead Works incorporated into the National Park Service. The Carrie Furnaces are examples of early production techniques. The Pumphouse, another vestige of Homestead Works, was the site of the historic Battle of Homestead. (The 1892 battle ended with the repression of thousands of striking workers and is credited with stifling the US labor movement for decades).

Back at the Rivers of Steel headquarters in Homestead, PA, Nadja Middleton and Michael Ramberg facilitated a conversation between Edward Sninsky and his wife Anna Marie. They talked about loving the immigrant neighborhoods where they grew up, neighborhoods where sounds and smells of Europe intermingled. Ken Kobus (below & center) painted a romantic picture of the steel making process that both he and his father were involved in for most of their working lives.