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WMPG's Blunt Youth Radio Project at the University of Southern Maine Brings StoryCorps, The National Oral History Project, To Portland
Area Teens Urge Public to Become Part of History: StoryCorps Mobile StoryBooth Opens Registration for a National Project Capturing Stories of Ordinary Mainers.
On August 17 registration will begin for StoryCorps, providing Mainers the opportunity to record the personal histories of their families and friends. Made famous by National Public Radio, the StoryCorps mobile booth will be at Portland's Congress Square and organizers are looking for Mainers to sign up to interview a friend or family member.
REGISTRATION DETAILS:
Beginning August 17, individuals can reserve interview slots by calling (800) 850-4406. The registration line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or you can register online at StoryCorps.net. "It's really important that you sign up to tell your story because we want a wide range of community voices to be heard," said Johanna Greenberg, a 17-year-old member of Blunt Youth Radio Project who attends Deering High School in Portland. "I plan to interview my mother and ask her what her life was like before I was born." The mobile recording booth, housed in an Airstream trailer, is making its first-ever stop in Maine. StoryCorps' booth will be in Portland for a month, during which organizers expect to make 160 recordings.
TIMEFRAME:
The StoryCorps Mobile Booth will open in Portland, August 31 through September 25 on Congress Street.
The project is a national initiative to instruct and inspire individuals to record oral histories and create meaningful personal experiences for the participants. With over 2,000 stories already collected from the project's first year-and-a-half, StoryCorps, the largest oral-history project ever undertaken, will collect more than 250,000 interviews over the next ten years. Traveling to every corner of the United States, the project will be documenting everyday history and the unique stories of grassroots America.
HOW TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEWS FROM PORTLAND AREA RESIDENTS:
In Portland, StoryCorps is partnering with the Blunt Youth Radio Project which is part of USM's community radio station, WMPG. A selection of the local stories will air on WMPG 90.9 and 104.1 FM. Selected segments may also air nationally on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
THE LOCAL CONNECTION:
"We are excited to be able to partner with this amazing project," said Blunt member Johanna Greenberg. "StoryCorps and Blunt make great partners because Blunt Youth Radio Project brings listeners the voices of young people who you don't normally hear on the radio, and StoryCorps records the stories of people from all walks of life."
HOW IT WORKS:
At the Mobile Booth, a trained facilitator will handle the technical aspects of the recording and assist participants as they work through a question list. At the end of a forty-minute session, participants walk away with a CD of their interview. With their permission, a second copy will be sent to the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress where it becomes part of a high quality digital archive. StoryCorps is the first born digital audio collection for AFC, the largest oral narrative collection in the nation. This collection will eventually grow into an oral history of America.
IMPACT:
"We've seen the profound effect StoryCorps has had on the lives of those who have participated in the project, and we've seen the power that these stories have had on the millions who have heard them," said Dave Isay, the project founder. "We believe that listening is an act of love. StoryCorps will engage communities, teach participants to become better listeners, foster intergenerational communication, and help Americans appreciate the strength in the stories of everyday people they find all around them."
ABOUT STORYCORPS:
StoryCorps was created by award-winning NPR documentary producer and Mac Arthur "Genius" Dave Isay. The project opened its first StoryBooth, a freestanding soundproof recording studio, in New York City's Grand Central Terminal in October 2003. Over the course of the 10-year project, StoryCorps plans to open StoryBooths, both mobile and stationary, across the country. StoryCorps is a project of Sound Portraits Productions, a non-profit public radio documentary production company founded by Isay (http://storycorps.net).
ABOUT WMPG'S BLUNT YOUTH RADIO PROJECT:
Founded in 1994, Blunt Youth Radio Project is a nationally award winning, youth produced, call-in radio program that airs Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on USM's community radio station WMPG (90.9 and 104.1 FM). Fifty high school-aged members of the program from nine area high schools, Portland's Kennedy Park neighborhood, and the Long Creek Youth Development Center work together to produce the weekly program. Blunt-produced stories regularly air on National Public Radio and regional outlets around the country (http://www.bluntradio.org).
For more information, contact: WMPG's Blunt Youth Radio Project, Kerry Seed curio@kerryseed.org 207-65-5911.
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