Give the Gift of Your Story This Holiday Season

StoryCorps® at Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade Inspires People to Record, Preserve their History through Program Compiling Largest Oral History Collection
SANTA MONICA, CA (November 27, 2007) – While baubles, bangles and beads, or the requisite sweaters, socks and jammies – not to mention gift cards and a brand new car parked in the drive – all are terrific gifts to get and give, consider giving a truly unique and long-lasting gift this holiday season.
With the help of StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives, you can share and record the story of a family, friend or colleague and have it become part of history through the largest oral history collection project.

“Everyone has a story to tell,” says Constance Constant, author of a family memoir, “Austin Lunch – Greek American Recollections.”


“Everyone has a story to tell,” says Constance Constant, author of a family memoir, “Austin Lunch – Greek American Recollections.” Constant’s personal storytelling journey that was 20 years in the writing reaffirmed this belief. When the Southern California resident heard about the StoryCorps project on its first visit to Santa Monica, she thought it was the perfect opportunity to capture some of her husband Bob’s family history during WWII – in a more abbreviated version than the second book she was planning to write.

“What I found through telling my family story was that an ‘ordinary’ family really can have extraordinary lives,” says Constant. “That’s what’s so terrific about the StoryCorps project – thousands of people can share for posterity their truly extraordinary stories.”
“Sitting with your father – your mother, your sister or your brother – offers a way to connect with our family, honor their lives, even maybe ‘set the record straight’ and maybe shed a few tears,” adds Constant.

Through December 8, StoryCorp’s MobileBooth recording studio will be in Santa Monica, Calif., courtesy of KCRW radio (kcrw.com) and the Bayside District Corporation (downtownsm.com) The Mobile Booth will be at the world-famous Third Street Promenade just off of Wilshire Blvd.


“Sitting with your father – your mother, your sister or your brother – offers a way to connect with our family, honor their lives, even maybe ‘set the record straight’ and maybe shed a few tears,” adds Constant.



Starting January 10, the MobileBooth will be at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Interview reservations for both locations may be made at http://www.storycorps.net.

Look for StoryCorps in Boston, Milwaukee, Nashville, Orlando, Philadelphia and San Antonio as well. StoryCorps also has a permanent studio in New York City.

You may also record yourself at home through StoryCorps’ StoryKit program. To inspire the storytelling process, you can pick up the just released “Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life” (The Penguin Press).

StoryCorps founder Dave Isay selected some of the most remarkable stories collected and arranged them thematically to create a moving portrait of American Life. The book and accompanying CD are in bookstores now, and are a featured selection at Starbucks as well.

Tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps since 2003. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share. Additionally, with participant approval, the recording is archived for future generations at the Library of Congress. Through StoryCorps recordings a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans is developing.
About StoryCorps

StoryCorps is a Peabody award-winning project of Sound Portraits Productions, the nationally acclaimed New York City nonprofit founded by Dave Isay. For two decades, Sound Portraits has celebrated the lives and struggles of unheralded Americans in award-winning public radio documentaries, as well as in books, CDs, museum exhibitions, and Web sites. StoryCorps opened its first StoryBooth, a freestanding soundproof recording studio, in New York City's Grand Central Terminal in October 2003 and two mobile StoryBooths have been traveling the country since 2005. StoryCorps has recorded 10,000 interview sessions to date. Individuals can listen to excerpts from past StoryCorps interviews at www.storycorps.net.

About KCRW

KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College, is Southern California's leading National Public Radio affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming. The station boasts one of the nation's largest arrays of locally produced, nationally distributed talk program content.

About Bayside District Corporation

The Bayside District Corporation is a public-private management company for Downtown Santa Monica. Drawing locals and world travelers alike, Downtown Santa Monica is a popular Southern California coastal destination, anchored by the world-famous Third Street Promenade, home to a twice-weekly farmers’ market and hundreds of dining, shopping and entertainment choices just minutes from beaches and the Pacific Ocean.

(Posting date 30 November 2007)

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