StoryCorps Gathers Local Tales

The StoryCorps Airstream trailer was parked on ENMU’scampus for a month this past spring, inviting localstudents and residents to sign up to have a 40-minute,one-on-one interview with another person, disussinganything they want, in any language they want.

Morgan Feigal-Stickles, site manager for the StoryCorpsmobile tour, explained that the organization works withcommunities to “gather stories of people who aren’tnormally in the history books, because we recognize thateverybody has a story, and every story is important.”

Alumna Shonnie Standefer (MED 83, BS 79) and Katherine Smith recorded their conversation with StoryCorps in April.

After the audio interviews were completed, the involvedparties received a copy and could choose to archive theconversation in the American Folk Life Center at theLibrary of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Since 2003, StoryCorps has given a quarter of a millionAmericans the chance to record interviews about theirlives, to pass wisdom from one generation to the next,and to leave a legacy for the future. It is the largest singlecollection of human voices ever gathered.