When Elizabeth Vaynshteyn came to the United States, she didn’t speak any English, but she knew how important it was to learn. She began taking courses at the College of New Rochelle School of New Resources. And in 2006 she graduated with a greater understanding of English and the culture of the United States. However, she still had one more lesson to learn.

As Elizabeth remembers: “I had a course [called] urban community. My teacher greeted the class, “Good morning, fox.” (At least that’s what Elizabeth thought she was hearing.) Something about the teacher’s language confused Elizabeth so she went to the dictionary to look up the word ‘fox.’ This further confused Elizabeth. “I opened the dictionary” Elizabeth says, “and I saw that ‘fox’ was an animal. I didn’t believe that a teacher I respected would call us that.” Finally, Elizabeth asked another student why the professor greeted the students in this way, “Good morning, fox.” As Elizabeth remembers, “She took a piece of paper and wrote two words.” The word ‘fox’ was the first word and the word ‘folks’ was the second. “See?” the student said, “The word is ‘folks’ with an ‘L’.” Elizabeth’s teacher was saying, “Good morning, folks.” After the confusion was cleared, Elizabeth was able to enjoy her class once more.

Elizabeth’s story is one of several recorded at Bronx Council Towers located in Co-op City with the help of the Met Council. Also, a very big thank you to SAR high school students who did a great job of interviewing all the storytellers.

Todos sabemos y no es ningún misterio que en la mayoría de los paises Latinoamericanos se vive desde hace varios años una realidad bastante difícil debido a la crisis económica que a su vez trae con ella una gran inestabilidad social, cultural, política entre otras. Lo anterior me remite a escribir sobre Gerardo Rivera de 42 años y su hija Norah Raquel Rivera de 18 años, quienes visitaron Storycorps en Noviembre del 2009, para recordarnos un poco sobre este país: Perú.

La entrevista comenzó con una pregunta simple pero a la vez un poco difícil de contestar. Su hija Norah preguntó: “Papa hablame de tu pasado y del por que tu decidiste colocarme Raquel como mi segundo nombre.” Gerardo respondió: “Hijita, yo nací en Perú en una época bastante difícil, donde la revolución y la lucha por los valores y por los derechos de los Peruanos era una constante. Los peruanos nos quejábamos por que el sistema político nos estaba acabando económica, cultural y socialmente, no teníamos empleo, no había igualdad de ninguna manera. Recuerdo una marcha bastante fuerte donde todos salimos a las calles y yo desafortunadamente al igual que tu madre resultamos arrestados por la policía.”

“A tu madre la llevaron a la cárcel y a mi no se cómo, me defendió una señora que a su vez participaba de la marcha pero como un milagro logro salvarme de aquella situación. Su nombre era Raquel.” Gerardo sigue con la conversación “en aquel momento de revolución es cuando yo tomo la decisión de venirme a los Estados Unidos, y es como llegué acá a la edad de los 18 años a trabajar y a tratar de sobrevivir.”

“Después de un tiempo de casado con tu madre, nuestra relación no funcionó entonces yo tomé la decisión de cuidarte, de criarte, tuve momentos en los que me tocaba llevarte a trabajar conmigo y cambiarte los pañales y así lo hice durante mucho tiempo, con sacrificios pero de la mejor manera posible y previendo para tí un futuro lejos de las carencias que yo tuve.” De los ojitos de Norah solo salían lágrimas de agradecimiento y admiración por su padre.

Con esta entrevista quisiera resaltar que un buen ser humano tiene la decisión en sus manos de construir y de aprender de las dificultades, y a su vez de prever un futuro mejor, sin importar de donde venga, dado que, lo fructífero de las situaciones difíciles es que moldea nuestras vidas y nos permiten surgir ante cualquier obstáculo.

At 7:30a.m. on a crisp, fall Atlanta morning, the Atlanta StoryCorps team left the StoryBooth and traveled some 40 miles north on I-75 to Woodstock (no, not New York) Georgia. Although the trip was somewhat shorter than anticipated, 40 miles in any direction from Atlanta plops one squarely in the sticks!  In this case, we were in the north Georgia mountains. The air was drier, much cooler (actually, cold) and the sunlight seemed brighter. As we left the main road and followed the smaller one that would take us to the dining hall of the Cherokee Outdoor Family YMCA, it was clear that this was not going to be a typical recording day.

Our participants today were in the Atlanta area attending the Speak OUT Camp sponsored by COLAGE. COLAGE is “the only national, youth-driven network of people with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer parents.” Today’s recording booth was a converted sleeping cabin–rustic, worn, dimly lit and cold. My very first participants, Miranda, 22, and Cara, 19, had only met the night before at the airport. They talked about their gay dads. Both women have fathers whom had been married to women but later admitted to themselves that they were gay or bisexual; thus decided to end their traditional marriages.

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It’s hard to forget the story of Nick Berg. Nick was an American businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion. He was abducted in 2004 by individuals claiming to be Islamic militants. Shortly after his capture, a video was released on the Internet showing Nick’s beheading at the hands of his captors. Nick’s father, Michael Berg, visited the MobileBooth in Norfolk, Virginia to share memories of his son.

“He was happiest a couple of thousand feet off the ground” says Michael Berg.

“He started his business, which he called Prometheus Methods Tower Service Incorporated, because Prometheus was the god who brought fire.” says Michael. Nick was in the business of building and repairing radio towers. He traveled widely, and often offered his services to poor communities in developing countries like Uganda and Kenya, Michael remembered.

“He developed this little company from that to one that employed five people.” said Michael. “He was entrepreneurial, but he was not interested in money except as a means of furthering his charity. I’ve always said that the child was father of the man. I often looked to Nick because he just had it so all together and I just, I really wanted to be more like him.”

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Upon his return from a Kwanzaa festival in December of 1994,  Malchijah Charles suddenly fell ill. He began suffering from seizures, slipped into a coma, and never recovered.

After losing her son to meningitis in 1995, Sharon “Ife” Charles was devastated and felt lost. “I felt as though my world had come to an end because the one thing I was sure I had done right in my life was having my son. Because of the kind of spirit that he had. When Malchijah died, the human part of me left.  I focused everything on what it was to be a mom and dismissed what it was to be a woman, an individual, and so I lost me.”

In the aftermath of Malchijah’s death, Sharon Charles turned to the Yoruba faith and adopted the Orisa name “Ife”, which means love. This became a source of strength for her. “Ife became a name that stuck with me because each time I said it I was forced to say love.”

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Roger Caban has been a resident in Spanish Harlem for over 65 years and came to the StoryBooth in Foley Square to paint a very vivid picture of growing up in “El Barrio.” “When I was a kid, Spanish Harlem was West Side Story. From 3rd Avenue west to 5th Avenue was all Puerto Rican. From 3rd Avenue to the river east was Italian. It was a real Mason Dixon line. You couldn’t walk to the pool by yourself, you had to have a gang.” Later Roger sheepishly qualified, “I had a very short history with a gang. I was in a gang called the Latin Gents. We had jackets and everything. I lasted about a week. I got beaten up, they took my jacket, and that was the end of my criminal career.”

Always the entrepreneur, Roger would buy shopping bags for two cents a piece and sell them on weekends for a nickel. “I would come home with my pockets bulging with coins. Five or six dollars was like a fortune to me as a kid.” His family owned the first television in their apartment building. “I grew up on television. All the kids would come up and I would charge them a penny to watch The Howdy Doody Show.”

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On Wednesday 19 of August 2009, we had a great experience visiting the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a non-profit organization that brings together girls and women from diverse communities encouraging them to explore self-expression through music. It is hosted at the Urban Assembly School for Music and Art in downtown Brooklyn, New York.

It is very common to see people walking the streets with their i-Pod while waiting for the bus or train, listening to their favorites music. Sometimes people are making some movements with their hands, head, or foot when a sound is really powerful or when they really feel the music. For me, it was like that at Willie Mae Rock Camp, and  I did not have to use an i-Pod, just my camera and recording equipment. I was ready for the show. The recordings started at 9:00 am and by that time, I had already listened a lot of sounds: girls with their guitars or drums, playing and singing and composing music. Everyone was preparing for the big event: a performance at a professional rock venue!

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Two weeks ago, the MobileBooth East headed south for the winter. Outrunning a weeklong Nor’easter on the Virginia coast, Mobile East pulled into Jacksonville, Florida to be greeted by snow cones, outdoor chess games, and 80-degree weather.

Geographically speaking, Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S., boasting miles of open beaches and waterways. We kicked off opening day in the heart of downtown. Jacksonville’s Hemming Plaza—originally a village green—was the first park in the city, and is now the oldest.

Frances Kinne inaugurated the booth with the first conversation of the day, but Frances has been the first of many things. She was the first woman to become president of a Florida University when she took the position at Jacksonville University. She later became chancellor, and then chancellor emeritus. Frances shared stories of living in China, Japan, and occupied Germany while married to her husband Colonel Kinne, during World War II.

Alton Yates joined his daughter Toni Yates in the StoryBooth soon after. At the age of nineteen, Mr. Yates left his hometown of Jacksonville to serve in the Air Force. While stationed in New Mexico, he joined a research division studying the effects of g-forces on the human body. He did this by becoming the division’s “human guinea pig,” literally placing himself inside rocket sleds for testing. Mr. Yates remembered coming home from the relative egalitarianism of the military to return to a Jim-Crow era Jacksonville. He still has a scar on his head from an injury he incurred at a Civil Rights demonstration. The demonstration took place in front of a Woolworth’s department store that still stands downtown, not far from where MobileBooth East sits today.

Lisa Ray lost her father Lenoir when she was 6 years old. She doesn’t have many clear memories of her father, but one memory of when she lost her first baby tooth stands out.

After helping Lisa remove her first tooth, Lenoir sat Lisa down and explained that the Tooth Fairy would be on her way to collect the tooth as Lisa slept, and that she would leave a quarter in its place. Lisa showed the tooth to her older sister Vicki before dutifully placing the tooth under her pillow, climbing into bed, and drifting off to sleep. The next morning Lisa woke up, reached under the her pillow and found that her tooth was still there. Lisa ran to her parents and held out her hand with the tooth in it.

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On Monday, November 23, five Brownies from Troop 565 of Newnan, Georgia visited StoryCorps Atlanta to prepare for the National Day of Listening. Ava, Chloe, Angelina, Carly and Annalie started their visit with a tour of the WABE and PBA studios where they met a number of Atlanta celebrities: Alicia Steele, Steve Goss, Rose Scott, John Weatherford, Lois Reitzes, and John Lemley. The scouts got to listen in as Lois mentioned their troop’s visit on air. The scouts had a chance to visit the Atlanta StoryBooth where they talked into the mics and learned how the facilitators adjust the sound. “I loved learning how to use the microphones!” says Annalie Harris.

After seeing the studios, the girls learned about StoryCorps and the National Day of Listening. They listened to StoryCorps clips and talked about the importance of listening as an act of love. The girls decided who in their in their family they’d like to interview for the National Day of Listening, the day after Thanksgiving. By interviewing a family member, the girls will earn the Her Story patch. “We really learned to listen to each other,” says Angelina Capponi.

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