StoryCorps to begin recording interviews with Yumans on Nov. 20
November 5, 2019KAWC/Border Radio will host StoryCorps for 5 weeks to help record the stories of local residents
Yuma, AZ (Nov. 5, 2019) – StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans, will record interviews in Yuma from November 20 to December 21 as part of its cross-country MobileBooth tour. Having collected more than 65,000 interviews from Americans in all 50 states, StoryCorps has gathered one of the largest single collections of human voices ever recorded.
StoryCorps’ MobileBooth—an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio—will be parked at the Yuma Art Center, 254 S Main Street. Reservations will be available at 10 am on November 5 and can be made by calling StoryCorps’ 24-hour toll-free reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or visiting storycorps.org. Additional appointments will be available on November 21.
In StoryCorps’ MobileBooth, two people can record a meaningful conversation with one another about who they are, what they’ve learned in life, and how they want to be remembered. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides them through the interview process. At the end of each 40-minute recording session, participants receive a complimentary CD copy of their interview. With participant permission, a second copy is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for future generations to hear.
Founded in 2003 by award-winning documentary producer and MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, StoryCorps has traveled to every corner of the country to record interviews in the organization’s effort to create a world where we listen closely to each other and recognize the beauty, grace, and poetry in the lives and stories we find all around us.
“StoryCorps tells the true American story—that we are a people defined by small acts of courage, kindness, and heroism. Each interview reminds people that their lives matter and will not be forgotten,” said Isay. “By strengthening connections between people and building an archive that reflects the rich diversity of American voices, we hope to build StoryCorps into an enduring institution that will touch the lives of every American family.”
In Yuma, StoryCorps will partner with KAWC, public radio for Yuma and La Paz Counties. KAWC will air a selection of the local interviews recorded in the StoryCorps MobileBooth and create special programs around the project. StoryCorps may also share excerpts of these stories with the world through the project’s popular weekly NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books.
“Hosting StoryCorps is a great opportunity for Yumans to share their stories with the wider public radio community,” said Dave Riek, KAWC/Border Radio General Manager. “This is the second time we’ve welcomed StoryCorps to Yuma—the first time in 2010—and we’re proud to be the final stop, and the smallest community, of the 2019 tour.”
About StoryCorps
Founded in 2003 by Dave Isay, the nonprofit organization StoryCorps has given more than 350,000 people the chance to record interviews about their lives, pass wisdom from one generation to the next, and leave a legacy for the future. It is the most extensive single collection of human voices ever gathered.
Recording a StoryCorps interview couldn’t be easier: You invite a loved one, or anyone else you choose, to one of the StoryCorps recording sites. There you’re met by a trained facilitator who greets you and explains the interview process. You’re then brought into a quiet recording room and seated across from your interview partner, each of you in front of a microphone. The facilitator hits “record,” and you share a 40-minute conversation. At the end of the session, you walk away with a copy of the interview, and a digital file goes to the Library of Congress, where it is preserved for generations to come. Someday your great-great-great-grandchildren will be able to meet your grandfather, your mother, your best friend, or whomever you chose to honor with a StoryCorps interview.
With the 2015 TED Prize awarded to Dave Isay, StoryCorps has also launched an app that puts the StoryCorps experience entirely in the hands of users and enables anyone, anywhere to record meaningful conversations with another person. The app guides users through the interview experience, from recording to archiving to sharing their stories with the world. It provides easy-to-use tools to help people prepare interview questions; record high-quality conversations on their mobile devices; and uploadthe audio to the Library of Congress and StoryCorps.me website, which serves as a home for these recordings and also provides interview and editing resources.
StoryCorps shares edited excerpts of the stories we record through its weekly podcast, NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. These compelling stories illustrate our shared humanity and show how much more we share in common than divides us. StoryCorps has launched a series of national recording initiatives including:
• The Justice Project, an effort to preserve and amplify the voices of people affected by incarceration, their families and communities;
• The September 11th Initiative, helping families memorialize the stories of lives lost on September 11, 2001, in partnership with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at
the World Trade Center;
• The Griot Initiative, now the largest collection of African American voices ever gathered, in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture;
• Historias, the largest collection of Latino stories ever gathered;
• StoryCorps OutLoud, which documents the powerful, varied experiences of LGBTQ people across America, with a focus on lives lived before Stonewall; and
• The Military Voices Initiative, honoring the stories of post-9/11 service members, veterans, and their families.
StoryCorps is working to grow into an enduring national institution that celebrates the dignity, power, and grace that can be heard in the stories we find all around us, and helps us recognize that every life and every story matter equally. In the coming years, StoryCorps hopes to touch the lives of every American family.
About KAWC
Since 1970, KAWC has been a public service of Arizona Western College, providing local public radio for Yuma. KAWC hosts two programming streams: NPR, BBC, and local news coverage on 88.9 FM and kawc.org for Yuma, Parker and surrounding communities, and Arizona community music on 94.7 FM, AM 1320, on the Arizona Community Radio Network and at borderradioaz.org for Yuma, Williams, Flagstaff, Kingman, and Prescott.
From the Robert E. Hardy Radio Studio Complex on the Arizona Western College campus in Yuma, KAWC/Border Radio produces local programming highlighting local issues and Arizona musical artists designed to educate, inform and entertain our listeners. In partnership with local and regional media, KAWC’s vision is to become the go-to source for local media programming.