Jae Nale (R), an Orlando resident, always knew she wanted a baby, and she was determined that coming out as a lesbian wouldn’t change her chances of having one. Jae was artificially inseminated in the early 1980s, which was almost unheard of among lesbians in the south. She came in with her daughter, Stacy Nale (L), a psychologist, to talk about Stacy’s often difficult experiences being raised in rural Mississippi by a lesbian mother. Stacy then told her own coming out story. Both women have worked hard to change people’s conceptions of lesbians, and, in Jae’s words, “they can only stereotype us if they don’t know who we really are.” Read the rest of this entry »

Want to break a world record? No better place than with Orlando’s History Center!

On Saturday, January 26, over 1 700 yo-yo enthusiasts (and the yet-to-be initiated) gathered in downtown Orlando’s Heritage Square. Undeterred by the overcast sky, people came out en masse to support the Guiness World Record-breaking attempt at the local Orange County Regional History Center. Yo-yo-ing, a long-loved sleight of wrist activity, is just one event as part of its latest exhibit, “Kid Stuff: Great Toys from our Childhood,” running through April 13, 2008.

Oh, and here’s what a real Orlando gator looks like!

If you feel like wrasslin’ with a gator, here’s exhibit A (and don’t forget to wear a hat!):

Soo Na and Jenna finally had the chance to try some real Florida oranges… er, clementines. We saw a big tree full of orange fruit and busted into a lovely Florida backyard (with the home owners’ permission, of course), and savored the flavors of the world’s most celebrated citrus fruits.

YUM!

YUMMIER!

Facilitators Jenna Weiss-Berman and Soo Na Pak recorded MobileBooth East’s first field recording for 2008 at Zora’s Place.

Zora’s Place, named after writer Zora Neale Hurston, is located in Eatonville, Florida, the nation’s oldest all-black incorporated municipality, founded in 1887 by a community of formerly enslaved Africans, who dreamed of raising their families off of plantations, in a community of their own choosing – and succeeded.

Read the rest of this entry »

(L-R: James Ransom; Dave Isay; Cherie Johnson)

So spoke Cherie Johnson about Sunday school teacher, Miss Divine. StoryCorps alumni and special guests, cousins Cherie Johnson and James Ransom, drove from Tampa, Florida, to join Dave Isay during yesterday’s book signing at the Orlando Public Library.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Eliza Bettinger, Mobile Booth Senior Coordinator at StoryCorps, standing with JosÈ A. Fajardo, President and CEO of WMFE.)

MobileBooth East began its first stop of 2008 with opening day in Orlando, Florida. After kicking off with breakfast provided by Orlando’s very own Z-CafÈ, located inside of the Orlando Public Library, Cornerstone Society members of WMFE heard a presentation from MobileBooth Senior Coordinator Eliza Bettinger. A sincere thank you to the members of WMFE who helped make StoryCorps’ stop in Orlando, Florida, possible!

Read the rest of this entry »

Facilitators Soo Na Pak and Jenna Weiss-Berman recently rolled into Orlando, Florida with StoryCorps’ MobileBooth East, where they were shocked and awed when they looked at the thermometer on their rear-view mirror (see for yourself below!).

They parked the booth in front of the Orlando Public Library in downtown Orlando, where StoryCorps will be recording stories with local NPR station WMFE for the entire month of January.