Mark Paris and Mary Jean Paris discussed life in America in their StoryCorps interview.
From Basque sheepherder tales, to ingenuous escapades of small-town business-owners, to the working lingo of gold mines, to adrenaline-pumping perils fighting wildfires, the Western Folklife Center knows there’s a wealth of lived experience around Elko. And beyond. We want to hear your story! Share the everyday stories of your loved ones (and maybe even your not-so-loved ones), through our collaborative project between the Western Folklife Center, StoryCorps.me, and… you!
You may know StoryCorps—the innovative, nationwide, oral history project—from their National Public Radio show or their trademark airstream trailer recording booths that travel the country giving people a chance to sit down together to record a conversation. Couples explain the turning points in their relationships. Enemies reconcile with new friends. Mentees recognize mentors. Elders invoke oral history on their own terms. Neighbors share remembrances about helping each other out. In short, people honor the wisdom of their friends and loved ones, and, sometimes, even strangers, by recording a self-guided conversation in small groups of two or three.
Did you ever wish you'd recorded your grandmother telling you how she'd perfected her meatball recipe by happenstance? Or your father explaining how he harvests edible cactus? Do you want to ask your child what it felt like to learn a major life lesson? Or hear how that stranger at the nursing home won that ballroom dancing medal? Think it would be easier from the comfort of your kitchen table or a hospital room? Well, now there's an app for that!
There are two ways to do this. Let us help or do-it-yourself:
Need some assistance with the process? Schedule an appointment and join us at the Western Folklife Center, under the glow of the neon branding irons, in our very own recording booth, Elko-style! Facilitators, volunteers and folklorists are on hand to help. But, ultimately, you choose the questions, you guide the conversation and you bring out the stories in each other.
Simply download the mobile app at StoryCorps.me, plan and record your interview. When finished, join us by affiliating your story with the Western Folklife Center initiative: at the end of the interview, when prompted, enter the keyword: westernfolklife. And listen to your neighbors' stories by following our account at https://storycorps.me/user/wfcstorycorps/.
The premise is simple: as StoryCorps founder Dave Isay says, "listening is an act of love." Ask someone else—a loved one or a stranger—what they know about life. Let them leave a trace of themselves. And listen to what they have to tell you. And to tell us. It's a legacy for humanity. But it's also an exercise in humanity. Let's listen to the stories of those who share the rural West with us.
