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Inside the CJM

Posted by on January 5, 2010, from San Francisco, California

Community Partners:

Last month, StoryCorps San Francisco opened up the booth for some very special participants: The security staff at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. We have worked for over a year at the museum with these guards and became intrigued by their varied origins, diverse backgrounds, and unique stories.

On a day when the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) was closed to the general public, the museum put on a holiday reception for the security staff and their guests. There was food, drink, and music. We were also able to record five conversations in our StoryBooth with the guards, their family, and friends.

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.

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

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

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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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One Response to “Inside the CJM”

  1. Whitney says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 9:21 pm

    This is so cool. What a wonderful way to go behind the scenes and see the museum from a totally different perspective!

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