D.C. Public school teacher Lisa Jones and her student, Louis Wingfield, III

Lisa arrived at StoryCorps with one of her former 4th-grade students, Louis Wingfield, III. Louis began the conversation describing what he was like before entering Lisa’s class. “I would describe myself as shy,” he said. “I was just waiting for a teacher that was really good. I was waiting for a chance to express myself as the real me.”

As it turned out, Lisa was the teacher Louis had been waiting for. When Lisa discovered that Louis had an uncanny ability to dance like Michael Jackson, she hinted that he should perform his moves at the school-wide assembly. “There were a lot of kids sitting there,” Louis remembered. “I got up on the stage and I looked, and I thought ‘This isn’t that bad.’ You told me ‘Don’t be nervous or afraid because you are doing what you like and you do it well.’”

Because of Lisa’s guiding hand, Louis is now a rising 6th grader with aspirations in law or medicine. He is no longer reticent to share himself with those around him. Through our National Teacher’s Initiative, StoryCorps hopes to record more stories like the one shared by Louis and Lisa and the positive effect teachers have on their students throughout the country.

Check our website this Fall for information about the official launch of the National Teacher’s Initiative.

Last month, StoryCorps Door-to-Door once again visited our nation’s capital. This time, Facilitator Susan Lee and I had the privilege of recording stories at the American Library Association’s annual conference. JoAnn Jonas (L) and Lisa Von Drasek (R) are two lovely ladies who shared with us why they love their jobs as librarians.

Lisa inspired Jo Ann to become a librarian, and she used the StoryCorps interview to ask her mentor, Lisa, about what had inspired her to become a librarian. Lisa remembers meeting the Coordinator of Children’s Work at the Brooklyn Public Library. After speaking with Lisa about her love of children’s books, she suggested Lisa explore becoming a children’s librarian.  Within one month of that conversation, Lisa quit her job at a prestigious publishing company, landed a job as a librarian trainee and began her graduate work at Pratt Institute in library sciences.  Of her first week working in the library, Lisa says, “I remember feeling comfortable immediately. I remember thinking that ‘this is what I was meant to do.’”

So, why do Lisa and Jo Ann love their jobs? As Lisa says, “A kid who is looking to build a model rocket and the kid who is looking for information about spiders…to be the person there for them at that moment and to know that that individual is growing and changing. The ability to be in that position, that’s why I love my job. Every minute is different. Every minute is changing. It’s always a surprise. By the end of the day, I could never have predicted what happened.”

Thank you Lisa, JoAnn and the thousands of librarians around the country who help us all learn and grow!

The Latin American Youth Center, (LAYC) Art & Media House is the perfect place for a creative teen. Picture this: the school day is over and you can head to a building that serves as Art Gallery, Recording Studio, Computer Lab, has a basketball hoop out back, a yard big enough for you to garden in, and a room full of musical instruments. All that AND there’s some popcorn while you hang out with your friends in the kitchen? Yep! Perfect.

StoryCorps Door-to-Door made an Historias stop in Washington, DC and the Art & Media House served as one of our local partners, letting us use their amazing recording studio for two recording days, as well as helping us celebrate the Historias Initiative at their Art Gallery.  There we had the opportunity to meet some very talented youth. Among them were Jefferson, a filmmaker, Joel, a photographer, and Shannon (also known as Lady Limelight), a poet.  These teens shared with us their talent and hopes, with Lady Limelight gracing the attendees of the Historias celebration by reciting one of her poems about the impact of gentrification in D.C.  During his StoryCorps interview, Joel talked about all the Dominican delicacies his grandma cooks, and about how the food helped him connect with a country he’s never visited. In his part, Jefferson spoke about his fascination with horror and suspense movies, about how they instilled in him the desire to direct, and how relevant to everyday life they can be. StoryCorps had the chance to record the voices of these youth, right as they are preparing to create goals for themselves and to discover who they are. The Art & Media House encourages them to discover their true self through art, in its many forms.

“My parents moved [to Brookland] in 1946 and got the house on the G.I. Bill. And the blessing that I am showed up in 1947,” said David. His younger brother, Eric, quickly added, “And they improved it in 1951 when I showed up!”

Eric remembered Brookland as a diverse, middle-class neighborhood that was a great place to grow up. “Every house on the block had two or three kids, if not more, so you had plenty of playmates. You could just go from house to house all day long until the street lights came on and it was time to go home.”

“The most valuable commodity Brookland had was its children. The whole community knew we were going to go places that the black community had never gone before,” said David. “They nurtured us and made sure we were prepared to step out. A lot of the dignitaries of the world were our neighbors.” Prominent former Brookland residents include professor and Nobelist, Ralph Bunche, HUD Secretary and Ambassador, Pat Harris, as well as singer and actress Pearl Bailey.

At the end of the interview, David reflected on some of the lessons he learned from growing up in Brookland. In a recent argument, a white colleague told David, “You know what your problem is, you don’t know you’re black.” To David, that wasn’t a problem, “That’s what I got from living in Brookland…I am who I am. As far as me shuffling and bowing my head, that is just not going to happen.”

David and Eric’s interview was recorded in partnership with the Black Women Playwright’s Group.

On Sunday, January 18, StoryCorps Door-to-Door had the pleasure of recording stories for Every Child Matters at their first-ever Children’s Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC. This free, kid-friendly event gave children the chance to celebrate and welcome our new president, and featured live music, arts and crafts, interactive exhibits, play areas, and a story-time stage. Parents and children from all over the country were in attendance, including members of Congress with their families.

Michael Petit, Founder and President of Every Child Matters, kicked off the recording day in an interview with his daughter Nicole (pictured below). Michael talked about how his parents taught him to value education, hard work, and compassion. He was proud to be the first to attend college in his family, where learning about government and the effects of poverty in the U.S. led him to embrace politics as a vehicle for change. He founded Every Child Matters because, “if politicians aren’t friends of children, they shouldn’t hold office.” We’re glad to say everyone we met on Sunday was a friend to children, and we’re honored to help preserve and share their stories!

From “Where Can I Find Them?” by J. Holley Watts

We have all heard about the Vietnam War. Some have lived through it and some, like me, have only seen it in films like Apocalypse Now and Platoon. We are familiar with the voices of the men who bravely served, but what about the women? I had the unique opportunity to talk with and listen to the stories of American women who served alongside their countrymen in a war far from home.

_{J. Holley Watts (L) and Maggie Godson (R).}

In her StoryCorps interview, Holley Watts tells her friend and fellow Vietnam veteran, Maggie Godson, about her experience as an American Red Cross worker during the Vietnam War. Lovingly referred to as “donut dollies” by the American servicemen, young female volunteers like Holley provided recreation activities for the G.I.s at base camps and in the field. Holley remembers the procedure at the recreation centers. When soldiers arrived, “first we’d check their weapon. We would give them a number and park that little bugger right behind the front desk. Some of them gave us a very hard time for doing that.” From there, the soldiers could hang out, play cards, read and even put on impromptu shows. “It was as close to normal as they could get and we were happy to oblige.”

_{Holley in her “donut dolly” uniform and “mud sox” taken while serving in Tay Ninh Province.}

During her service, Holley served in Da Nang and often flew via helicopter to more remote regions including Chu Lai and Cu Chi. On one helicopter ride flying high above the green of the Vietnamese rice patties, Holley remembered being hit by a strange deja vu and felt that she has been in Vietnam before. On another run, Holley’s helicopter crashed into a radar tower. She was saved because, against orders, she had unbuckled her seat belt right before landing. Of all her memories, it was clear that when she returned home, Holley was a changed person.

_{Navy Hospital Corpsman, Harry T. Bowman, II. Harry is pictured here in his homemade loin cloth.}

Many years after returning home, Holley wrote two books about her service in Vietnam entitled Who Knew…Reflections on Vietnam and Mud Sox ‘n Other Things. Holley says, “I didn’t set out to write a book.” One day she opened a drawer and re-discovered letters written to her by a young G.I. named Harry “Doc” Bowman, who was killed on Mother’s Day 1965. As Holley re-read his letters, she recalls, “I remember his eyes,” and she was inspired to put her feelings on paper. Today, Holley continues to write and share her experiences in Vietnam and in life.

For more information about Holley Watts and to read excerpts from her book Who Knew…Reflections on Vietnam, visit www.holleywatts.com.

Opened in 1921 by Founder Duncan Phillips, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection is America’s oldest museum of modern art, and during our visit we toured the museum’s extensive collection that is still mostly housed in its founder’s 1897 Georgian Revival home. What makes The Now so special for the museum is that its walls are now the temporary home of African-American artist Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. Told through vivid patterns and brilliant colors, Lawrence’s series is the first to narrate the 20th-century exodus of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. The Phillips Collection only owns the odd numbers of Lawrence’s series, but for the first time in years the entire 60-panel series is on view at the museum until October 26, 2008.

Pictured above with his favorite piece in the collection is Chris Celauro, the Phillips Collection’s Jacob Lawrence Education Project Coordinator, who gives new meaning to “taking your work home with you.” Chris says that hanging over his bed is a print of Lawrence’s painting No. 57, an image of an African-American woman hunched hard at work, whose description reads ‘The female workers were the last to arrive north’.

For Chris: “The figure in the painting represents a universal symbol of strength. As the caption depicts, African-American women were the last to leave the South during the Great Migration. Those who stayed in the South needed courage, perseverance, and strength to stay behind and survive the violence, discrimination, segregation, and Jim Crow Laws. For me, this panel stands as symbol for all people who are facing adversity to never give up and stand strong in the search for a better life.” Panel No. 57 is a reminder of strength with which Chris begins each day.

Contributing to oral history, the Phillips Collection brought StoryCorps to Washington to gather the migration stories of the museum’s patrons and employees. During our weekend, graduate student and museum volunteer Taye Akinola shared his own migration story, describing his life as a deaf person and his frightening move alone from Houston, Texas to Washington, D.C. to StoryCorps facilitator Kate Brown. Taye remembers his migration as one that pushed him to make the first adult decision of his life: Despite his parents’ objections, Taye moved away from home to pursue higher education at Gallaudet University, a school whose programs cater to the deaf and hard of hearing. Although the move was a difficult one for Taye without his parents’ support, he is thankful for the growth that he and even his parents have seen in him as a person. Taye is now a graduate student at Gallaudet with a concentration in deaf studies, and he hopes to make the art world a bit more inclusive of the deaf, a population that primarily operates visually.