The Griot Initiative is unique in many ways. Not only can participants come to the GriotBooth to record an interview, StoryCorps facilitators go out into the community every day with portable recording equipment. Pictured above are StoryCorps facilitator Elaine Davenport (center) with participants Carlton Cox (left) and Sam Rush (right) at Task Force for the Homeless, an organization that is hosting StoryCorps recordings in Atlanta. We are working with several Atlanta organizations and institutions, like the Task Force, who provide a room to record in and help organize interviews for people in their community. This service is similar to the StoryCorps Door-to-Door program. If you’d like to bring StoryCorps facilitators to your organization and record interviews of people in your community, please visit the StoryCorps Door-to-Door page of our website.

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Nazeeh Rasheed grew up on his parents’ farm in rural Georgia, constantly working hard and sometimes getting into trouble for being too curious. He admired his father’s entrepreneurship but was also critical of his acceptance of the status quo, of segregation. As a young man living in Atlanta, like many his age Nazeeh explains, he worked towards overcoming the fear that had dominated African Americans and killed their spirit. To Nazeeh, the Nation of Islam seemed most apt to answering his longstanding questions and obtaining respect for the community.

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Gloria Anne Jackson (above, left), Madeliene Jackson-Smith (center) and Bennie J Rivers grew up in what they describe as a loving and blessed family of ten children. “Bless my children, and my children’s children”. -That is the prayer that their father, a preacher, would utter every Sunday morning over breakfast and it is a prayer that is being passed down through generations in this family. The sisters’ father, although very loving, was rather strict and austere. Their mother, however, would compensate a lot for this by allowing, for example, her children to dance the twist at home and even joining in.

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…

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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.

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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.