Spend a day at the colorful VOX office and you will walk away impressed by the seriousness, imagination, creativity, and audacious energy of the teens in the program. They dream, and they dream big.

VOX Teen Communications is a non-profit youth development organization located in downtown Atlanta, GA, dedicated to “giving us teens the skills and resources to raise our voices about issues that most matter to us.” They publish a teen newspaper and maintain a web site. Some VOX teens are active in the Just Georgia project, an initiative to revise Georgia’s Juvenile Code related to youth living in foster care.

So, what issues did these teens voice when StoryCorps spent a day at VOX? They articulated dreams and hopes for their future, concerns about their peers, and what they think college life will be like. Of course there were pop culture references to music, television, and movies as well. The teens also chose to talk about more serious topics.

For example, Cassandra Maddox (15) and Teyonna Ridgeway (18) discussed body image and its effects on the age at which girls become sexually active. They came to their StoryCorps interview with pages of notes and questions for each other. After discussing how they work to maintain a positive image of themselves in spite of messages they might receive from media, Cassandra noted, “When a guy says you’re sexy, he’s looking at your body. If he tells you you’re pretty, he’s looking at your face. If he tells you you’re beautiful, he’s looking at your inside.”

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When Julia Anne Bourne was diagnosed with cancer, she got mad. Then, she got busy raising awareness and money for breast cancer research. Since she was “incredibly” healthy – a marathon runner and a cyclist – Julia felt blindsided by her cancer diagnosis. One of her friends was uneasy about Julia’s breast cancer diagnosis. “It  scared her. If this (breast cancer) could happen to me, it could happen to her.”

Julia decided she would not be a “happy camper” and fight her disease with stoic passivity. She describes participating in a breast cancer event not long after her diagnosis. “I was confused when they saluted breast cancer survivors. I was told that I was a survivor even though I had just been diagnosed. What other disease labels you a survivor based on just the diagnosis?”

A self-described “cancer curmudgeon,” Julia dislikes the ubiquitous breast cancer “pink fluff.” Says Julia, “I prefer white – the color of research labs – rather than pink.”

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In early March, StoryCorps Atlanta spent a day recording stories of hope, redemption and service at City of Refuge, a neighborhood-based service center in the Vine City community of Atlanta. We had an opportunity to listen to some of the staff, volunteers, and residents while we were there. Based on the stories we heard and the people we met, City of Refuge assists the helped to become the helpers.

“It’s a privilege to be in this space and place and do what I do,” says Dr. Charles Moore, who heads the free clinic at City of Refuge. Dr. Moore and his research advisee, Sheri Davis-Faulkner, were one of the six pairs to share their stories at City of Refuge. As a physician treating patients with head and neck cancers, Dr. Moore grew frustrated that by the time he saw patients, they had few treatment options left. He kept thinking, “Somebody needs to do something to help these patients.” One day he thought, “Maybe that person is supposed to be me.”

As a young girl, Sheri studied ballet from ages 3-13 and her ballet instructors told her she needed to lose weight. Her baby-sitters armed Sheri with the self-confidence to “decide what my body looked like and not to feel like I needed to fight my body.” As part of her doctoral research, Sheri wanted to help middle and high school students in urban food deserts (locations with limited access to whole foods and fresh fruits and vegetables). She needed a site that would agree to provide space for her field research on childhood obesity and body image.

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In 83 years Callye Fears Chatman’s life has undergone dramatic changes. From her beginnings as the daughter of sharecroppers (“It was my job to carry water to the workers and to ring the dinner bell”), to her educational journey at Clark College in Atlanta, to her work as an educator, to her and her husband’s decision to move their family to a white suburb so their children could attend better schools, Mrs. Chatman witnessed the social, economic, and political changes that shaped the South in the 20^th century. Yet, when Mrs. Chatman and her daughter, Faye Capers, participated in the StoryCorps Memory Loss Initiative, Mrs. Chatman did not come to talk about the social and political changes she had lived through. Instead, she wanted most to talk about her mother, who had died a month earlier at age 103.

“It was a true blessing to have five generations and everybody able to communicate with each other,” says Mrs. Chatman of her life with her mother, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. When Faye asked what Mrs. Chatman would write in a letter to her mother, the words sprang forth immediately:

“Dear Mom, how are you doing with the saints up in heaven? I know you are still singing, especially your favorite song,  ‘How Great Thou Art.’ We really miss you, but we know you are there with the rest of your family, your eight siblings, your mother and father, and all your friends who passed on before you. So we are looking forward to joining you as well.”

Part of their story was edited by WABE and aired during City Cafe on Tuesday, December 28, 2009. Listen to that broadcast at www.wabe.org/storycorps.

Two of the most memorable interviews we’ve recorded so far in Atlanta were with two of our youngest participants: eleven-year-old Danielle Dinberg and nine-year-old Noah Jernigan.

Danielle and her mother, Carolyn Dinberg, came to the Atlanta StoryBooth to record a conversation about Danielle’s unbridled equine love.

“She would rather muck stables than clean her room,” is how Carolyn laughingly describes her daughter. Danielle agreed and said she even likes the smell of a barn, including horse manure, because that means horses are around.

With such passion comes the risk of heartache. Danielle experienced this early when her pony, Cocoa Puff, developed cancer and died. “She spent two hours saying good-bye to him,” Carolyn remembers. After Cocoa Puff’s death, Danielle stopped riding and helped children with disabilities learn to ride horses through hippotherapy.

Two of Danielle’s major life lessons – patience and responsibility – came to her via her four-footed friends. Cocoa Puff helped her slow down and not rush things. Danielle says that when she cannot be with a horse, sketching a horse helps calm her down. She says she “feels” the horses as she sketches them.

While young Danielle’s passion is horses, Noah Jernigan’s passion is of a different kind: he loves all things NPR. Although he cannot get his driver’s license for another six years, Car Talk is Noah’s favorite program. The StoryCorps segments on Morning Edition are a close second.

Noah brought his grandfather, Bill Mays, to the StoryBooth to learn more about his grandfather’s military service, his marriage, his role as a parent, and what it means to be a grandfather. Bill, who says he has experienced seven wars in his lifetime, recalls how he slowly realized, “war is not the answer.” After their StoryBooth conversation, Site Supervisor Amanda Plumb took Noah and his family on an impromptu station tour, where Noah met several WABE hosts and chatted with station general manager, John Weatherford.

On Monday, November 23, five Brownies from Troop 565 of Newnan, Georgia visited StoryCorps Atlanta to prepare for the National Day of Listening. Ava, Chloe, Angelina, Carly and Annalie started their visit with a tour of the WABE and PBA studios where they met a number of Atlanta celebrities: Alicia Steele, Steve Goss, Rose Scott, John Weatherford, Lois Reitzes, and John Lemley. The scouts got to listen in as Lois mentioned their troop’s visit on air. The scouts had a chance to visit the Atlanta StoryBooth where they talked into the mics and learned how the facilitators adjust the sound. “I loved learning how to use the microphones!” says Annalie Harris.

After seeing the studios, the girls learned about StoryCorps and the National Day of Listening. They listened to StoryCorps clips and talked about the importance of listening as an act of love. The girls decided who in their in their family they’d like to interview for the National Day of Listening, the day after Thanksgiving. By interviewing a family member, the girls will earn the Her Story patch. “We really learned to listen to each other,” says Angelina Capponi.

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As the Atlanta StoryCorps team settles in our new home at WABE, we want to make sure to thank WABE for their hospitality. We have been welcomed by all WABE staff – from the General Manager John Weatherford, who gave us a personal tour of the station, to the Director of New Media Wayne Sharpe, who participated in a StoryCorps interview, to the lovely front desk staff person, Jeanine Osborne, who happily buzzed us in the front door every day. Whether the topic is football (WABE has its own league), the best way to prepare stew (“never let it boil!”), or participating in our Friends and Family week (“yeah, sure, I’ll sign up for an interview slot”), our new hosts have been engaged, hospitable, and eager to make sure our needs are met.

The Atlanta StoryCorps audience has also been welcoming. Our first month of interview slots were filled within 48 hours. To make sure the city is even more attuned to our work here, WABE will air selected Atlanta StoryBooth interviews on their program City Café.

Thank you, WABE, for your gracious hospitality! Thanks also for the “conversations of a lunchtime” that you helped provide during our training weeks!

Today was our first day of recording at our newest StoryBooth in Atlanta, Georgia!

Everyone at StoryCorps is excited to have a StoryBooth in the South, especially the Atlanta team: Lillie Love, Anthony Knight, Lola Ibitoye, Katrina Singh, and me! We are thrilled to be recording and preserving the stories of the South for our nation and future generations to hear. And we are very grateful to 90.1 WABE for hosting us for our first year in Atlanta.

Anthony, Lola, Lillie, Katrina, Amanda

We spent two weeks training and learning the ins and outs of StoryCorps. We learned how to record stories and archive them for the Library of Congress.

Katrina, Lillie, Lola and Anthony practice recording

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