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KENW hosts StoryCorps
February 12, 2018STORYCORPS, THE GROUNDBREAKING ORAL HISTORY PROJECT,
TO VISIT Portales, New Mexico
KENW will host StoryCorps for 4 weeks to help record the stories of local residents
February 15, 2018 – StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans, will record interviews in Portales from March 15th to April 13th 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 collection of human voices ever recorded.
StoryCorps’ MobileBooth—an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio—will be parked on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. Reservations will be available at 10am on March 1st and can be made by calling StoryCorps’ 24-hour toll-free reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or visiting storycorps.org.
In StoryCorps’ MobileBooth, two people are able to 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 Portales, StoryCorps will partner with KENW-FM, eastern New Mexico’s NPR station. KENW-FM 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.
“KENW is so pleased to have been selected as one of ten NPR stations to partner with StoryCorps to record the voices and stories of our local residents. They hope to record over 100 interviews during the time they are in Portales – and we hope you will tell your story,” says Sheryl Borden, Project Chair for KENW.