Your Voice, Kept Forever: How StoryCorps Will Preserve Countless Conversations

By Jordyn Davis | The Birmingham Times

This summer, Birmingham will have the opportunity to tell impactful, raw stories through StoryCorps, a nationwide non-profit that aims to record, preserve and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. The recorded stories will be permanently stored in the Library of Congress. During the Mobile Tour, the StoryCorps Sprinter van — donated by Mercedes-Benz — will be rolling across the Southeast. The tour is set to anchor in Birmingham from June 28 to July 12.

Shay Oden, founder of Rooted Impact Consulting LLC, will serve as the Birmingham anchor partner for this year’s tour.

“Birmingham has so much to say, but it’s also been stifled throughout history, or our story has been changed to fit other people’s narratives, or to not hurt feelings,” Oden said. “This was so important, especially with me being a Birmingham transplant through two parents who were born and raised here, to showcase that we’re an amalgamation. We’re just as rich in culture as Ellis Island was when those immigrants crossed.”

A Time-Capsule of Voices

StoryCorps has been around for over two decades and was first introduced by the award-winning documentarian Dave Isay in 2003. Isay’s inspiration stemmed from the simple idea of celebrating the “uncelebrated” — regular people with stories to tell. For Latojia Dawkins, the director of interview collection for StoryCorps, the program offers everyday people a sense of community.

“We’re not just focusing on political divides,” Dawkins said. “This is to show we’re more alike than different and really spur important conversations and have us truly be a community. That’s the overall goal.”

As the director of interview collection, Dawkins launched a search for Birmingham partners who would both raise awareness and unite the community. This year’s partners include Rooted Impact LLC, Coca-Cola United, the City of Birmingham, Hibbett, the Birmingham Barons and KMD Creative.

When Oden was given the opportunity to use her consulting business to continue representing her city, she couldn’t pass it up.

“With the foundation, I serve single moms, children of color with disabilities and families going through the hardest season they’ve ever been through,” Oden said. “Because again, those are my communities. I live in that community every day. We have to start advocating for our own. That’s why this opportunity is so big to me.”

Birmingham content creator LaDarrius “LHUT” Hutchinson will team up with StoryCorps and Oden to host LHUT Day on July 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sloss Furnaces. The celebration, which will be open to the public, will feature games, food vendors, and the StoryCorps mobile. This year, Hutchinson was selected as an ambassador, and his city-wide event will serve as a method to collect Birmingham stories.

“Birmingham is a lot more than what people knew us for in the past,” Hutchinson said in an interview with the Birmingham Times. “I think my story would just be similar to that, with letting people know we have progressed so much. We are not the past. I know we have the Civil Rights Museum and all of our history, which is so important to Birmingham, but it’s also equally important for people to understand we have made a lot of progress.”

Participants can choose between a traditional StoryCorps conversation or can take part in one of three main initiatives: Brightness in Black, One Small Step and Military Voices. Brightness in Black aims to highlight the stories of Black Americans; One Small Step brings together two strangers with opposing political views and tries to bridge the gap; and the Military Voices Initiative honors all service members.

No matter what story you want to tell, Hutchinson urges both his fans and the city of Birmingham to come share their story with the world.

“I want people to be excited about this,” he said. “I want people to get out and find this bus that’s sponsored by Mercedes-Benz and go in there and tell their stories. I want them to tell friends and help people preserve the history of Birmingham. There are so many movers, shakers and trailblazers. I think we need everyone to rally together.”

To learn more and participate in the StoryCorps Southeast Sprinter Mobile Tour, visit storycorps.org/mobile-tour.  If you can’t make it onsite, visit the official StoryCorps website to record from home.