A number of StoryCorps alumni were invited to share their stories and to talk about why they came to StoryCorps. (Use the links to listen to their stories online.)

Theresa Nguyen came to the United States after the fall of Saigon. She and her daughter, Stephanie, described how the intimate conversation they had at StoryCorps has helped bring them closer.

Sara Takele fled her home country of Ethiopia decades ago. She has spent more than twenty years now navigating this country, not only as an immigrant, but as the mother of a special-needs son. After playing her story, Sara explained she thinks it’s important to speak out as a mother of a son with autism.

Representatives from the Global Village School, which provides an enriched education to teenage girls whose formal education has been interrupted by war and refugee camp experiences, described the day that StoryCorps recorded at their school.

Laura Murvartain, who came to the U.S. from Mexico as child explained that she recorded her story to honor her parents. She feels that her success is really her parents’ success.

Sara Totonchi brought her parents, Emil and Louise to StoryCorps. Emil is from Iraq and Louise is from Ireland. At first, neither of their parents were happy with them dating a foreigner. They told Sara how their families began to overcome their prejudices. At the event, Sara reminded us that these personal stories help humanize the issue of immigration.

You can watch a video of the event at Atlanta Forum Network. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Auburn Avenue Research Library for listening, and to our StoryCorps Alumni for sharing their experiences.

Kerrie Cotton Williams, Archivist and Manager of the Archives Division at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History and StoryCorps alumna discussed the importance of archiving our stories.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Representatives of two community partner organizations, Touching Up Our Roots and Lambda Legal, spoke about the work they are doing with StoryCorps Atlanta.

Dave Hayward from Touching Up Our Roots is recording stories with pioneers of Georgia’s gay rights movement. He brought several of his storytellers with him to share their experiences.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Connor Gillis described the work Lambda Legal is doing to record stories of trangender individuals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’d like to thank the sponsors of Out & Outloud: Atlanta Pride Committee, The Phillip Rush Center, Radial Café and WABE 90.1.

March 7, 1965. It’s been almost 45 years since Amelia Boynton Robinson was beaten and tear gassed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. She was attempting, along with up to 600 other marchers, to cross the bridge from Selma to Montgomery to protest the earlier shooting of a protestor, as well as advocate for voting rights for Selma’s Black citizens. Now, approaching 99 years of age, Mrs. Boynton Robinson and her friend, Genise Kemp-Brown, came to the Atlanta StoryCorps recording day at the Auburn Avenue Research Library to tell Mrs. Boynton Robinson’s story of courage, determination, and eventual triumph.

“The air was thick with tear gas,” Mrs. Boynton Robinson remembers of the Sunday that became known as ‘Bloody Sunday.’ She said she was gassed so much that almost 45  years later her throat still burns. Front-page pictures the day after the march show Mrs. Boynton Robinson lying unconscious on the bridge. When she woke up  in the hospital the next day, Mrs. Boynton Robinson resolved, “I’m going to fight more than I ever [have].”

This story was recorded at Save Our African American Treasures, a project of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that was hosted locally at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. The event was designed to help families learn to preserve their heirlooms, stories, mementos, and memories. Many participants brought in frayed family Bibles that were held together with memories and prayers. Others brought in quilts, family photographs, paintings, and other treasured family items. StoryCorps’ own Anthony Knight and Amanda Plumb led a workshop about preserving oral family histories.

The Atlanta StoryBooth is continuing to partner with the Research Library by holding on-site recording days in February and March. Participants like Mrs. Boynton Robinson demonstrate that the real treasure in any community is the courage of its citizens.

Part of Miss Boynton’s story was edited by WABE and aired during Morning Edition and City Cafe on Tuesday, March 9, 2009. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

Another community organization that StoryCorps Griot has reached out to is the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History (AARL), which offers specialized reference and archival collections for the study of African cultures. The library has been an exemplary partner, hosting at least one StoryCorps field recording a week, filling every interview slot for those days, and even helping fill interview slots in the GriotBooth, which is parked down the street at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

Kerrie Cotten Williams (pictured above left), Archivist at AARL, and Marie Cowser (above right), Community Programs Director for the Historic District Development Corporation, have been the powerhouses behind it all. To date, they have arranged over 20 StoryCorps Griot interviews with participants from the library’s staff and membership, and from the community at large. Both have stepped in to act as interviewer on several occasions. Kerrie interviewed Marie about her activism to preserve the Old Fourth Ward where Marie lives and where both the MLK site and AARL are located. All of us at StoryCorps are grateful for Kerrie, Marie, and AARL’s support of the Griot Initiative in Atlanta.