Posted by Jonah on March 28, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
On our last morning in Atlanta, facilitator Nadja Middleton bids a heartfelt farewell to the East Mobile booth after 2 months on the road recording peoples’ stories.
Driving down Auburn Avenue as we left the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, a StoryCorps listener wishes us safe travels as she enthusiastically listens to StoryCorps on NPR.
Posted by Nadja on March 26, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
Facilitators Nadja Middleton, Jonah Engle and Veronica Ordaz (right) enjoy a hearty Southern breakfast at the Thumbs Up Diner before their last weekend of interviews in Atlanta. Veronica and Jonah will be heading on to North Carolina with StoryCorps’ mobile booth, while Nadja heads back to New York.
Being in Atlanta and recording interviews at the MLK Jr. National Historic Site has been a moving experience.
Posted by Nadja on March 21, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
Since her arrival in Atlanta, facilitator Nadja Middleton has gotten into the habit of bringing flowers to the booth. Last week, orange carnations to match the StoryCorps color scheme. This week, tulips to confirm that despite the gloomy weather, spring is here!
What was your best Halloween Costume?
Posted by Nadja on March 19, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
Rabbi Alvin Sugarman participated in the struggle for Civil Rights, was a senior rabbi at the Temple –Atlanta’s oldest synagogue- and he starred as the Temple’s rabbi in the Oscar winning “Driving Miss Daisy”. He appears rather media savy but his granddaughter, Amanda Hirsch, had prepared questions he probably wasn’t used to answering in front of a microphone. Amanda asked him about his school days, favorite games, best childhood friends and his faith. At the end of the interview she told her grandfather how much she loved spending time with him and listening to his stories.
Posted by Jonah on March 19, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
From Otis Redding to Outkast, from Ray Charles to REM
Georgia has long been a musical hotbed.
At Fat Matt’s, patrons come for BBQ ribs and nightly blues shows.
Here “The Crosstown Allstars” perform in front of a Mt Rushmore of Blues giants.
Posted by Jonah on March 19, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
Wayne Tention is President of the Parkview Nursing Home Resident’s council. The Nursing home sits directly beside the Martin Luther King National Historic Site where the StoryCorps Mobile booth is located. Wayne talked about his fiancĂ who gave him a reason to live after years of drug addiction. Asked to describe her, Wayne answered “How do you describe an angel”?
Posted by Nadja on March 16, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
On one of their first nights in Atlanta, facilitators Jonah Engle and Nadja Middleton were treated to a guided tour of the city and diner by Spelman and Morehouse (and StoryCorps) graduates Kay and Eric Hill. Like a number of graduates form those historic Black colleges, Kay and Eric decided to settle in a city that has been dubbed the country’s Black Mecca.
The second week, Rene Lindsay and Wanda Jackson of WABE brought bags full of Southern cookin’ to the booth: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, cornbread, corn, and apple pie. Thank you for your hospitality WABE!
Michael Black is a research scientist with a passion for marine biology, a passion he shared recently with Jonah and Nadja. He gave them a guided tour of the new Georgia Aquarium and shared a number of interesting facts like: clown fish change sex on occasion, Japanese spider crabs can grow to the size of a car, and the aquarium’s biggest tank holds 6.2 million gallons of water!
Posted by Nadja on March 13, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
After a StoryCorps interview, participants receive a designer CD copy of their conversation. In addition, most participants agree to have the interview archived at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. Some interviews are also excerpted for National Public Radio broadcast or for our website. On the Mobile Booth Tour, our local station partners get to extract their own clips from StoryCorps interviews.
Here in Atlanta, NPR affiliate WABE is our partner. In the picture above, the station’s Content Producer, Dave Barasoain admires a StoryCorps CD facilitator Jonah Engle has just handed him. During StoryCorps’ visit to Atlanta, public radio listeners in the area are treated to more than the weekly StoryCorps clips aired on NPR’s Morning Edition: Indeed, WABE listeners get an earful of poignant stories told by fellow Georgians!
Posted by Nadja on March 11, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
God seems to be at the forefront of many participants’ minds in a way that He doesn’t seem to be in New York where Jonah Engle and Nadja Middleton facilitated before joining the Mobile Tour. A couple of people have prayed before the start of their recording. Some have preached to their interviewer. Others have shared how faith has saved them. Many simply express gratitude towards God.
Joyce Averils told her brother Kenneth Averils about surrendering her life to God just as she was about to “check out”. No longer able to cope with her problems, Joyce decided swallowing pills was the best solution. That is until a long neglected Bible caught her eye. She picked it up, read from it and ended up choosing surrender over suicide.
Janet Lutz is a hospital chaplain who came to reflect on her years of service, shortly before her retirement. Janet feels privileged to have been in a position to witness what she calls “holy moments” and to bless the hands of hospital workers. Another fond memory: learning from operating room technicians that, unbeknownst to the public and their colleagues, most of them would pray for patients while preparing surgical instruments. Towards the end of the interview, Lutz concluded: “I think stories are what make us human and in telling those stories, we can find out who we are and we can connect to the larger story, which is the story of God in our lives
Posted by Jonah on March 7, 2006, from Atlanta, Georgia
Sisters Evelyn Sacks (left) and Annette Marcus (right) of Atlanta surprised their mother Charlene by bringing her to the StoryCorps booth. Charlene was visiting Atlanta from Indianapolis to celebrate Annette’s birthday that day.
