Community Partnership with StoryCorps

YOUR EASY GUIDE TO RECORDING YOUR STORY 

"StoryCorps’ mission," as they say on their website, "is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world." And that is my goal for this partnership as well, to record and share the stories of people in our parish so that we come to know each other better and gather as a community with more understanding and compassion.

There are three simple steps to help you prepare for your interview and set up the interview itself:  

1. Listen to Recorded stories

Listen to excerpts from StoryCorps interviews by clicking these two buttons.

The second button is to StoryCorps' partner, The American Pilgrimage Project. Just listen to several clips (or as many as you wish, because they are wonderful) until you start getting ideas for the types of stories you might tell. And remember you will be sitting down with a family member or friend. It will be a conversation, not a formal interview. Here are a few to get you started: Grief and Grace in the Delivery Room, I want you to teach me, William Lynn Weaver, A Child's Fear.

2. prepare the stories you will tell

StoryCorps has a wonderful list of questions to help you and your interview partner think about the stories you might tell. You also should consider if you will designate one person to ask questions and the other to tell the stories, or if it will be more of a conversation, a back and forth, both of you contributing. Both models work well. Also, StoryCorps has a brief and clear description of what the interview session will be like.

3. Sign up

Now, all you have to do is sign up. StoryCorps makes it easy. You can schedule your interview at your convenience online. You will travel to the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago for the interview. Please take a picture of you and your partner in the booth that I can use for our website. Or if you prefer, please send me a different picture of the two of you together.

4. When the interview is over

StoryCorps will send you a digital recording of your interview. Please send me a copy of the interview at amyalz@gmail.com and also a photo of you and your interview partner that was taken at your interview. I will post a clip of your interview on the St. Greg’s website and a link to the full interview.