kellee's blog

StoryCorps, the acclaimed national initiative to document everyday history and the unique stories of America, is coming to Downtown Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade beginning Monday, January 9 to Sunday, February 5 to collect stories from Southern Californians as part of its tour across the country.

The StoryCorps MobileBooth – a state of the art recording studio, housed inside a silver Airstream trailer - will be located at Wilshire Blvd. and Third Street, at the north end of Third Street Promenade.

At the StoryCorps MobileBooth sound studio, people participate in pairs – oftentimes friends or loved ones – and one interviews the other. A trained facilitator guides the participants through the interview process and handles the technical aspects of the recording. At the end of a 40-minute session, participants receive a CD of their interview. With their permission, a second copy is sent to the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress where it becomes part of a high-quality, digital archive that will eventually grow into an oral history of America.

With more than 2,000 stories already recorded, StoryCorps, the largest storytelling project ever undertaken, will collect more than 250,000 interviews over the next ten years. In Santa Monica, StoryCorps anticipates recording at least 125 stories.

You can visit StoryCorps.net to make reservations for this and any other location on its tour (there are two stationed in NYC).

For those that can't make it, the website also features a Do-It-Yourself Guide to recording your own oral history.

via KCRW