Imagine sitting in a library listening to a conversation you had with your grandmother about her first love years before she passed away. It is possible.
StoryCorps, an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to collect oral histories of everyday Americans, is coming to Eugene from May 7 through May 30. The organization has collected more than 24,000 interviews since it began in 2003, and more than 16,000 of those interviews have been archived in the Library of Congress.
“We have a lot of people who come to Washington, D.C. on vacation and want to listen to the interviews they did with loved ones; but watching visitors listen to the voice of someone who passed away, someone they can’t talk to anymore, is especially touching,” said Ann Hoog, folklife specialist at the Library of Congress.
Many of the interviews done through StoryCorps air regularly on National Public Radio, and Eugene’s public radio station KLCC will sponsor StoryCorps’ visit to Eugene.
“When they contacted us and asked if we wanted them to come to Eugene, we were ecstatic,” KLCC General Manager Steve Barton said.
Don Hein, KLCC program director, says StoryCorps is great for both the families of the interviewers and radio listeners.
“We consider StoryCorps both an opportunity for people to interview someone they care for as well as an opportunity for people to find wisdom, wonder and poetry in the lives and stories of everyday people,” Marisa Karplus, a StoryCorps spokesperson said. “People find inspiration in the stories of people they have never met before. What a lot of them discover is that there is more that binds us in the world than divides us.”
People interested in interviewing someone for StoryCorps must sign up online starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday. There are only 35 slots available on Thursday, and the additional 35 slots will be open for people to reserve at 10 a.m. on May 8.
StoryCorps seeks to collect the stories of everyone, from couples who have been married for 50 years and want to share the story of their marriage, to the children of immigrant families who want to know more about their parents’ lives.
“I can’t even imagine the sort of stories we are going to get right here in Eugene,” Hein said. “Students should sign up. They represent a significant part of the community, and StoryCorps is all about collecting the stories of people who represent their community.”
The city’s cultural services department will host StoryCorps at Broadway Plaza in downtown Eugene. The city is also reaching out to members of community organizations that may have interesting stories to tell.
“We want to provide Eugene citizens with a slice of what life was like in Eugene in 2009, 100 years from now,” Barton said. “We have contacted some community groups like Birth to Three, the City of Eugene and the Northwest Youth Corps to send some people, so we can truly get a broad sample of what Eugene represents.”
Hein added that even after StoryCorps is gone, KLCC is trying to brainstorm a way to keep recording the stories of Lane County residents.
“We would like to try and encourage people to keep telling their stories,” he said.
[email protected]