"
We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
— Joan Didion, writer, and journalist
Stories are a daily part of our lives, helping us understand each other and ourselves. When a loved one shares a story, we may wish we had it taped or written down, but often the moment quickly passes.
What if you could tell an exceptionally important story about yourself or loved ones and have it recorded and preserved to be heard far, far into the future? That’s what StoryCorps does as its portable recording studio travels around the nation. Recently they spent a month recording stories in Kalamazoo.
StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to build connections, encourage compassion between people, and share stories, big and small.” Founded 20 years ago, StoryCorps has given over 645,000 people, in all 50 states, the chance to record interviews about their lives. The recordings are placed in its archive at the
American Folklife Center, part of the Library of Congress. They are the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. Selected stories are broadcast weekly on National Public Radio (NPR) to over 12 million listeners.
A StoryCorps team began recording in Kalamazoo on July 6 and made its last recordings on Aug. 4. Ninety-six recordings were made, says Franchesca Peña, who is the manager for the mobile recording tour. She worked with two facilitators who took turns operating the recording equipment and coaching participants if necessary. The team came from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and were traveling on to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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Franchesca Peña answers questions during a public meeting at the downtown Kalamazoo library.People who register are recorded and can use a maximum of 40 minutes to tell practically any kind of story. Most recordings are a conversation between two people who have a special connection. Peña, 27, who lives in New York City, says, “People often find that 40 minutes go by quicker than they think. People usually are very grateful for the experience and just happy to do it, like I think it’s a very nice experience to spend 40 minutes of uninterrupted time with someone if you love that someone — that someone that is a part of your life that you care about.”
One recording made here was by a Kalamazoo couple, Tomme Maile, 77, and his wife, Dale Abbott, 60. “It was a childhood-adventures-in-a-small-town kind of story,” Maile says. “It had to do with immersion in naturalism,” Maile answered questions posed by his wife.
He grew up in Schoolcraft “in a dysfunctional family with an abusive father,” he says. “I spent a lot of time out of the home because I didn’t like being at home.” He often rode his bike to a place formally called Big Island Woods.
“I would go into this woods, which I call Coopy’s Woods, and kind of lose myself. It was my refuge and my place of escape, and I had some unique immersion experiences, like with trees and the water . . . and I talked about that.”
The couple recorded for only about eight minutes. Maile says it was enjoyable and he praised the staff. “They were delightful young women,” he says.
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Tomme Maile interviewed by Dale Abbott (top) participated in Kalamazoo's StoryCorps visit.By necessity, a StoryCorps team member is present when sometimes intimate and especially emotional stories are told. So how do staff handle the personal intensity of that?
“I consider part of my job is to hold space for others, and I also remember that though I may have reactions to what I’m hearing, it’s not my story and so there is a level where I don’t need to be a part of the experience," says Peña. "And if you were talking about something especially moving, then I always thank them for the trust that they were having.”
Recordings are archived and some may be edited and used for a radio broadcast, podcast, or a short video — sometimes they are even turned into an animated video. However, those decisions are each person’s choice.
“StoryCorps considers our work a public service in that we’re helping people record their stories," says Peña. "So it’s not actually required that you share the recording with us. It’s something that you would choose to do.” Most people let StoryCorps decide how to use their recording.
WMUK and StoryCorps history intersect
StoryCorps works with an NPR station wherever it goes; in Kalamazoo, the station was
Western Michigan University’s WMUK. This had special significance for a retired WMUK general manager, Gordon Bolar, 75, of Kalamazoo. He started at the station in 2006 as its development director.
StoryCorps’ first visit here was in 2007. Bolar notes that a great effort always is made to record people representative of the entire community. “We were able to take our case to the community, promote it, get a lot of people to sign up, and reach really all areas of the community,” he says. “That was one of our goals. . . . It wasn’t just the usual NPR/WMUK listener.”
At the end of that StoryCorps visit Bolar learned that his son, Army Cpl. Matthew T. Bolar, 23, had been killed in action in Iraq on May 3, 2007. Eventually, the founder of StoryCorps, Dave Isay, learned of this and that led to Isay launching the
Military Voices Initiative to record stories of military people and their families. Isay asked Bolar to be at the Library of Congress for the inauguration of Military Voices and the new project was dedicated in honor of Matthew Bolar. Isay and Bolar began a long friendship.
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Gordon Bolar, retired WMUK Station Manager, helped inaugurate the first Kalamazoo StoryCorps visit in 2007.Military Voices came to Kalamazoo in 2012 and recordings were made of veterans from World War II through almost every military campaign since then.
Isay next started StoryCorps OutLoud for the LGBTQ community. He asked Bolar whether or not that program should visit Kalamazoo since it’s very small compared with cities like Chicago and San Francisco that had been visited already. OutLoud did come, in 2015, and the visit was successful.
Two years ago Bolar was asked to introduce Isay at the
Fetzer Institute for the
One Small Step project. In that endeavor, a participant is paired with a stranger who has different political opinions and they have a conversation to determine what their shared common values are.
“So I’ve had a long relationship with Dave and his work and the work of his staff at StoryCorps,” Bolar says. “Of all the things I have done since I’ve been in Kalamazoo, that really stands out and it’s really been a great boon and a great experience to be associated with StoryCorps and their work, which I think has been very successful.”
If you weren’t able to tell your story during the mobile team’s visit to Kalamazoo, you still have an opportunity to do so. With the technology StoryCorps uses, you can make a recording from home and even include a loved one a thousand miles away. You can start learning how by checking out
StoryCorps.org.