There are many reasons to love KALW, our local public radio partner in San Francisco. Let me count (a few of) the ways: For one, they are a community-driven radio station that really puts the public back in public radio. Two, their news magazine program, Crosscurrents, is award-winning and the best way to stay informed on Bay Area issues and events. And last, but not least, because of their support and commitment to airing locally-recorded StoryCorps clips on a weekly basis, they have become one of the most successful, long-term public radio partners in StoryCorps history!

Plus, they are all really wonderful people. Which is why it was so lovely and amazing to host them for a day at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. In January, the KALW crew came for a bagel breakfast, listening session, and discussion. While they had heard many-a-StoryCorps clips on the radio, some had no idea what actually happens during a StoryCorps interview, nor the Facilitator’s exact role in the process. We also talked about how we could make our partnership even stronger…discussing ways we can further reach out to the community and provide even more stories for the station to edit and broadcast. This radio rap session was followed by a group museum and booth tour.

One KALW volunteer, Julia Halprin Jackson was able to do an interview with her mom Lyra Halprin, as well. The ladies coincidentally wore matching sweaters–mom thought this was cute, daughter thought this was embarrassing–and shared a moving story about Lyra dealing with her father’s sudden death, which happened during one of the best walnut harvests on the family farm when she was 25 years old.

KALW day was such a success that we are already planning our next gathering. Word on the street is that KALW’s conference table doubles as a ping-pong table…this has me thinking a KALW/StoryCorps ping-pong tournament is a necessary next step in our amazing partnership.

Here are some of my favorite KALW-produced StoryCorps clips:

Moonwalking

Zebras

First Kiss

Happy Listening!

This event not only gave these co-workers a chance to find out what we do as StoryCorps Facilitators, but also gave us the chance to get to know some of the amazing stories behind these familiar faces. In addition to English, interviews were recorded in Swahili and Tagalog.

Sean, born and raised in San Francisco, talked about his love of cinema and his hopes to pursue a career in film making.

Carolyn brought in her boyfriend Greg, and told the story of how they met.

James came in with his newlywed wife, Annix. The two described their long distance courtship–San Francisco to the Philippines–and the advantages and challenges of a cross-cultural romance.

We have plans to include more of the security staff in our future recording schedule, and are so happy to have gone beyond a mere “Hello” with our CJM colleagues.
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We listened to a variety of conversations that have taken place inside the StoryBooth: George DiVincenzi’s account of his first day as a guard at Alcatraz and Ken Hopper’s description of what it’s like to work at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge – just to name two. Spanning a wide spectrum of emotion, from fall-on-floor-hilarity to contemplative sadness, the conversations showcased the most basic pillar of StoryCorps’ mission: everybody matters.

Listen to the amazing excerpts from San Francisco interviews that were played at the event here.

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It was a great opportunity to hear how the participants themselves felt about their own stories, and for them to tell the stories that didn’t make it to the final tape. Most of all, it was a chance for people to come together and share a few memories and a few laughs with one another.

(Eloise Melzer and George DiVincenzi)

As you may know, our San Francisco StoryBooth will be open until November of next year.  Make your reservations now.

Here’s to an amazing 2010!

Visitors to San Francisco who come to Chinatown see a colorful, picture-postcard view of this densely populated area. San Francisco’s Chinatown has one of the largest population of Chinese people outside of Asia. Chinatown is familiar as a center of restaurants, shops and other businesses owned and operated by Chinese Americans, but in addition to being a major tourist attraction, it is the epicenter for Chinese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area and the West Coast.

On October 20th, StoryCorps paid a visit to On Lok Powell Street Center to record the stories of this amazing community. Since 1971, On Lok has been providing services for San Francisco seniors in centers throughout the city. The Powell Street Center offers a comprehensive package of services: clinics, doctors, nurses, physical and occupational therapies as well as recreational activities. On Lok’s focus is on supportive and preventative measures to keep it’s members within their communities and families for as long as possible. Beyond that, On Lok provides a place for seniors to meet and participate in group outings, companionship, and ethnic and cultural activities. For 38 years On Lok has helped people maintain their independence and dignity. StoryCorps came to honor and celebrate a few of these elders by recording their words in conversation with sons, daughters and social workers in the language that is native to them, Cantonese.

Since I do not speak Cantonese, I was unable to understand exactly what was said during the recordings, but afterwards I asked the interviewers about the content of their conversations. Storytellers were asked about their years growing up and the memories of their parents and grandparents. Some told the saga of their immigration to the United States. At one point, Ting Foon Lee, while recalling a memory, began what sounded to me like the recitation of a poem. When I asked her daughter, Yvonne Lee, about this she said her mother loves poetry and had committed many poems to memory as a student and recited one for her daughter during their recording. As well as receiving the respectful care provided at the Powell Street Center, six Chinese-American elders were honored by their conversation partners and San Francisco StoryCorps facilitators.

Due to popular demand—and the generosity of our host, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, our StoryBooth has been extended through October, 2010!

To celebrate, we’re having a party.

Please join us at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on Sunday, November 8th from 2-4pm to listen to never-before-heard highlights from year one of our San Francisco StoryBooth—and toast to year two!

More information can be found here, on the Museum’s website. We would love to see you there.

In addition, reservations at the San Francisco StoryBooth are now open through February, 2010. We still have some open slots on the calendar, so now is the perfect time to make a reservation to record a conversation with a family member over the holiday season or schedule a Valentine’s Day surprise. Reservations can be made through our website or by calling 1-800-850-4406. Interview times go quickly, so make sure to sign up now.

It has been a true honor to listen to Bay Area stories for the past year, and we are beyond thrilled to have the chance to preserve even more stories from this incredibly diverse community.

Come visit us at the booth one of these days, okay?

The opportunity arose to hear more from Frank when he brought his niece, Jo, into the StoryBooth. Frank and Jo spoke honestly about regrets and second chances in life. Frank told Jo that having her in his life is a ‘wonderful gift.’ The love and understanding he and his niece explored during that 40 minutes was a beautiful thing to witness. It strongly reinforced why it is so incredibly important to sit down with the people you love and have a conversation.

I can only say how honored I felt to be a part of it and to have an opportunity to know my colleague and friend better.

Here are some thoughts from Frank:

The tables were turned when I recently moved from one side of the StoryCorps booth to the other, when I went from facilitator to participant with my 28 year old niece, Jo. I was surprised at how different it was to be the designated storyteller. The physical immediacy of where we were receded as our voices became the dominant reality. The soft light of the table lamp illuminated an intimate and comfortable space. Jo and I found an atmosphere of trust and acceptance that permitted us to open our hearts. Eloise, our facilitator, did a superb job of actively listening and asking helpful questions. Her participation was genuinely nurturing and helped the process of discovery and revelation
that took place.

We couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome. Thank you, Eloise, and thank you, StoryCorps!

Outside of StoryCorps, I work at St. Anthony’s Technology Lab where our mission is to educate people and familiarize them with the technological tools of the 21st century. Many of the clients who come in have served sentences in prison, are recovering addicts, or have just never had the confidence to actively learn how to use a computer—much less navigate through the internet. I like to think of the Lab as a melting pot; from Cairo to Kyoto, Sweden to New Orleans, it is as if 60 people from across the globe were selected at random and placed on the 3rd floor of 150 Golden Gate Ave. In other words, it is a perfect place for StoryCorps to capture a wealth of experience and emotion.

(Chris Mardirosian)

Recently, my two different worlds came together for a day of recording StoryCorps interviews at the St. Anthony Foundation. In a quiet room at the back of the lab, we were able to talk with many of the clients about their lives. There was Chris Mardirosian, who was born on an Indian reservation and lost many of his family members by the time he was a teenager, Jim Oxley who taught himself how to gamble and eventually became a professional. There was Stephen Chinazzo, who revealed to us his longstanding passion for ballroom dancing, and Jody Spaziani, who helped his mother through her battle with Alzheimer’s. Each man had a completely different story, but the themes were common: friendship, community, love, adventure, loss and acceptance.

(Stephen Chinazzo)

I see these people nearly every day, but never would have known the struggles they have endured, the joys they have experienced and the lessons they have learned had they not shared with StoryCorps. I was reminded once again of the power of telling one’s story. The ability for people to find common ground if they will take the time to stop and talk to each other. Sometimes it’s that simple.

(William Oberst)

(Jody Spaziani)

Margaret, center, in listening mode

From Margaret:

Last December I was laid off from my dot-com job. It was a blessing, really. A kick in the pants to do something more rewarding. I found that something in StoryCorps. I went to a wine-and-cheese StoryCorps event at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, and was so impressed by the project that at the end of the evening I cornered Sarah Geis and demanded to volunteer. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my new-found free time.

Luckily Sarah needed someone to meet and greet StoryCorps visitors on Thursday afternoons to explain the project, answer questions, and chat with people waiting to use the booth. Some people already knew about StoryCorps from NPR. Others had never heard of StoryCorps, and approached my end of the hall with looks of interest or confusion. Others gazed at the wall of photos next to me, snapshots of people from all walks of life who had recorded their stories in the StoryBooth (my favorite is the one of the guy with the little white dog), and asked me if StoryCorps was open to non-Jews. “Absolutely!” I told them. Others, often senior citizens, bashfully told me they didn’t have any stories to tell. I’d laugh and tell them that of course they did. Everyone has a story.

As a “merch girl” for touring bands for many years, I knew all about sitting behind a table and talking to customers. But with StoryCorps, I was promoting a project, not a band. And while I couldn’t wave down a horn player and ask him to get me a beer, I got to work in a well-lit, smoke-free, low-decibel environment – and sleep in my own bed every night. More importantly, I got to talk to all kinds of people I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet otherwise, like the founder of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. And the newlywed couple who came to the StoryBooth directly from their City Hall wedding. And the elderly woman who told me about San Francisco during World War II, when she was dating several sailors at the same time (she said she wanted to “play the field”). And the Sudanese “Lost Boy,” who was all smiles and whose struggles I couldn’t even begin to imagine. On my way home from the museum, I’d think about all the people I’d met and marvel at the variety of their lives and experiences.

This week I start a full-time job, so I will no longer be able to take my post outside the StoryBooth on Thursday afternoons. Thank you, Sarah, Frank, Alex, Eloise, and all the people who came in to tell their stories. You were the highlights of my week and I’m going to miss working with you.

Diane Daniels is one of the few people who actually helped make this dream a reality.

Patricia Fodor and Diane Daniels

At the age of 22, when most people are wondering what to do with their lives, Diane was working for a relatively new company called IBM. One day she was offered a position as a telemetry specialist on the Apollo 11 launch. Along with 800 other young programmers Diane handled communications between ground control, the lunar landing module, and (as if her job wasn’t complicated enough) the shuttle crew itself. At any given time ground control had to keep track of 5 modules—all of which were orbiting in space hundreds of thousands of miles away. Yikes.

As she puts it:

“We had 5 different modules, we had to make sure we didn’t drop any bits…if we dropped a bit…we’d lose track of them, they can’t get off the moon. There were times I was pretty terrified.”

Diane spent her days holed up in her office writing out computer code line by line on paper, testing it, getting stuck, asking coworkers for help, and having to explain to her managers what exactly she was doing when they traipsed by every hour or so. There was little time for peer interaction.

“It was a solitary type work…I liked it…it was like a puzzle.”

By the time of the moon landing Diane had switched to another project studying the effects of the American bombing in Saigon during the Vietnam War. It was in Saigon, curled up in bed at 3:00 in the morning with her radio tuned in, that Diane actually heard the broadcast of Neil Armstrong touching down onto the moon.

“I had been living in an apartment in Saigon, a traditional four or five story apartment, and it was a hot night in Saigon and I turned on the radio…lying there in bed…I don’t even know if I got to sleep because I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to hear it but I was also so terrified something would go wrong, but there was a huge sense of relief in giving myself a really good cry when he (Neil) was able to walk around.”

This July marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. A big thanks goes out to Diane and Patricia for sharing their stories and to the Contemporary Jewish Museum whose support of StoryCorps in San Francisco allowed us to capture this anniversary.

Congratulations and best wishes, Veronica and Tech!