StoryCorps Plans Next Swing in Oral History Project, Names Station Partners

The StoryCorps oral history project will go on a six-month tour starting in January that includes the area hit by Hurricane Katrina. Its first tour, visiting 26 cities, ends this month with about 2,000 stories collected.
The project wants to create an oral history of America. The new tour starts with the opening of booths in Los Angeles/Santa Monica and Tampa; mobile booths will travel the East and West.
The tour is done in partnership with NPR member stations. Cities and station partners include Atlanta (WABE); Austin (KUT); Flagstaff (KNAU); Los Angeles/Santa Monica (KCRW); Miami (WLRN); New Orleans (WWNO); San Diego (KPBS); Raleigh/Durham (WUNC); Tampa (WUSF); and Washington. Local stations will air selections of stories from their areas.
The project was created by producer Dave Isay. Mobile and fixed recording booths “document the everyday history and unique stories of ordinary Americans.” Participants are asked to pay a $10 donation.
The tour is sponsored by NPR, CPB and carmaker Saturn. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress is a partner.
The project’s first fixed recording studios were opened in Grand Central Terminal in 2003 and at the site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan last July. More are planned.
NPR President/CEO Kevin Klose said StoryCorps “has proven to be a phenomenon.”