StoryCorps, the pioneering oral history project, has launched “The Great Thanksgiving Listen” – its most ambitious initiative to date. WKSU and 5X are promoting the project in hopes of encouraging high school and college students throughout Northeast Ohio to participate.
StoryCorps is working with high school teachers across the country to ask students to interview a grandparent or elder over Thanksgiving 2015 using the new free StoryCorps mobile app. Resources available at include a short video tutorial on creating good audio interviews. The app allows students to use their smartphones as recording devices, eliminating the need for them to have access to expensive equipment. Thanksgiving weekend is Thursday, Nov. 26, through Sunday, Nov. 29. Information about the project can be found online at .
Participants will upload their recordings to the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In one holiday weekend, StoryCorps hopes to gather more interviews than it has in the 12 years since its founding, and to capture an entire generation of American lives and experiences. StoryCorps has established a reputation for drawing attention to the lives of individuals who could be anyone’s neighbor – proving that everyone has a story to tell and it is vital to capture these diverse narratives for future generations. StoryCorps segments air each Friday during NPR’s Morning Edition, heard on WKSU at approximately 6:20 a.m. and 8:20 a.m.
Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps, launched the StoryCorps mobile app using the $1 million 2015 TED Prize. The app takes the StoryCorps experience out of the booth and puts it entirely in the hands of users, enabling anyone, anywhere to record conversations with another person for archiving at the U.S. Library of Congress and on the new website.
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