About the Exhibition
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, is the first museum in the country to host a StoryCorps StoryBooth. Founded and directed by award-winning radio documentary producer and MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay, StoryCorps is the largest oral history project of its kind. Since 2003, StoryCorps has brought together thousands of people from across generational, professional, socio-economic, and cultural divides to share their life stories, history, and hopes. Aired each Friday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, StoryCorps' award-winning broadcasts touch millions by illuminating our common humanity through personal experiences that reflect contemporary American culture.
Bay Area residents and visitors will be able to interview important people in their lives in the StoryBooth recording studio, located in the Museum's Sala Webb Education Center until November 7, 2010. After their recording session, participants receive a copy of their story, and with their permission, an additional copy is added to the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress for future generations to hear.
Selected stories from the San Francisco StoryCorps StoryBooth may be aired on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and local public radio stations, KQED 88.5 FM and KALW 91.7 FM. Museum visitors will also be able to listen to local stories at a dedicated listening station located in the Sala Webb Education Center at the Museum.
Record Your Story
Recording sessions are by appointment only and can be made at the StoryCorps website or by calling StoryCorps at 800.850.4406.
Make a reservation during March and April, beginning February 1 at 10 AM. Appointment times go quickly, so we encourage you to make the reservation as early as possible.
Audio
The following stories were recorded in the Storybooth at the CJM and aired nationally on NPR:
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In kindergarten, Ida Cortez’s (r) teachers and parents began At age six, Ida was diagnosed with dyslexia; at 10, she sat |
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George DeVincenzi was 24 years old and just out of the service when he became a Corrections Officer at the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary. Here, George, who spent most of the 1950s on the island, remembers his first day at work. |
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Gayle Geary (r) grew up in Montreal during the 1950s. Her father worked in advertising, and her mother was a housewife. Here, Gayle tells her husband, Michael Lavigne (l), the moment she began to realize that there was a lot about her family that she didn’t know. |
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Ironworkers Kerry Davis (l) and Ken Hopper (r) have been working together for 25 years on the Golden Gate Bridge.
But, they do a lot more than just make repairs. Sometimes |
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24 years ago, at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the Getting tested for the disease was controversial; at that Here, he tells his friend Erin Kuka (l) about learning the results of his HIV test. |
Supporters
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. The San Francisco presentation of StoryCorps is generously supported by the Gruber Family Foundation, BayTree Fund, Kenneth and Anna Zankel, and the Members of the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Media Sponsors: KQED and KALW
Lead Inaugural Year Exhibition Support:
Major Funding for StoryCorps is provided by:
State Farm, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Annenberg Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation, The Kaplan Foundation, Open Society Institute, and Joe and Carol Reich.
StoryCorps is a project of Sound Portraits Productions in partnership with:
National Public Radio, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution.
