I believe in the power of voice. That it is in telling our stories, in giving voice to that which seems small and that which seems enormous and everything in between, that we begin to claim ourselves.
From a recent speech I gave at the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month
One of my favorite segments on NPR when I am driving in to Charlotte to teach on Friday mornings is when they play an interview from StoryCorps. I love the conversation that I get to witness between two people, two people who know each other in some way, coming together over a story, a moment, a memory. Stories: they are the fillament that connect us all. They have changed my lfie. They are my life. So, what is StoryCorps?
From the StoryCorps web-site:
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.
By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.
A friend just let me know that StoryCrops has now launched StoryCorps Historias.
From their email announcement:
On September 1 we launched StoryCorps Historias, a groundbreaking new initiative celebrating the lives, stories, and accomplishments of Latinos across the United States and Puerto Rico. Historias, which means “story” in Spanish, will capture and celebrate the diversity of Latinos and Latino culture. We’ve already recorded stories in New York and Puerto Rico, and we’re looking forward to recording many more! In the first year of Historias, we hope to welcome more than 2,000 new StoryCorps Alumni as part of this initiative by recording interviews through partnerships with local radio stations, cultural institutions, and community-based organizations.
Hey honey! Great post! Is that quote at the beginning yours? Could I use it to help write a post of my own? It’s fueling some ideas.
Yes, it’s mine and I’d love for you to use it. Eager to see where it takes you!
My family left our home on Willliam St in Corning when the horn went off warning us the dike had broken.
We went to Winfield Street School and left there when we saw the school was unable to take care of all who had come there for shelter. We drove thru water covered roads to get to Syracuse where we had family.
When we returned the following Monday, after the waters had receded, we discovered an amazing event.; my husband had made spaghetti sauce the night we left thinking that this was a false alarm and we could have a nice dinner when we returned.
Instead, I was amazed to find the pot of sauce had floated across the kitchen and had come to rest atop the regrigerator and not a drop of it was spilled. Our end tables were lifted to the ceiling and sat back down, leaving the doilies and the ashtrays untouched by the flood waters but a piano was complete destroyed.
We spent the rest of the summer cleaning the mud at night, going to work during the day and leaving every Firday night to go see our daughters and returning every Monday morning to start all over again.
We had to end up getting a HUD trailer put iin our backyard so that we could bring our daughters home for school that September.
The best thing I can remember that came out of all this tragedy was how neiighbors who were so busy with their own lives before the flood came together to help each other after
I was living in the town of Corning (Riverside) at the time of the flood just north of the old railroad bed (now the bike path) with my two small children. I knew something big was going to happen even though all reports were that the dikes would hold and protect the area. The evening before the flood, I filled all my pots, pans, pails, etc. with rain water. My yard was like walking on a sponge. I listened all night to the radio, but when it when off the air early in the morning, I fell asleep. My neighbors awakened me, I gathered up my children, a few things to eat and drove up on the road behind Calvin U Smith school. As we left our tract of homes, the water was coming up Charles Street. Fortunately, my home was protected by the RR bed, and I only had 13 inches of surface water in the basement. All of the homes on the other side of the RR bed were flooded to their roofs. In fact, 3 people perished in that area. When we decided it was safe to return home, I took in two families from Riverside Circle (13 in all) for the night. We ate from my freezer and drank the clean rain water I had collected. The water from the eves, flushed the toliet. One family stayed with me for six weeks until their trailer home arrived. Everyone was affected in some way by this major tragedy. There were many heroic rescues, and it is a miracle more people did not perish. I think of how the area looked from the top of the overpass near the old box factory about 11 AM when my children and I walked there to view the water. The huge paper barrels were dancing in the water just like toys in a dirty lake. While we stood there, a house on the Northside blew up, and it was evident McDonald’s was being flattened. I think of the gentleman who sat for hours on top of the hill transmitting any and all information he could get on his CB radio. For days, he was about the only source of information. It was 5 days before I could get a message to my parents in Lindley to let them know we were OK. I think of the scene at Calvin U Smith school when I finally went there to see if I could help. I went home and gathered up all of my blankets I wasn’t using and took them back to the school. I remember thinking I had never seen so many people and families walking around holding hands and dazed from the experience. All they had left was each other in most cases. I remember having to drive to Bradford, NY to put gas in my car, the dust and dirt when things dried up, and the presence of The National Guard. I have lived through an ice storm since moving to the Rochester, NY area which people here thought was a real tragedy. To me, it was an inconvenience; nothing like the flood of 1972 which involved the whole Southern Tier and ended up reshaping much of the area. Corning, Inc. played a huge role in providing help and optimism that we would all survive and come back strong. To those of us who experienced the 1972 flood, we will never forget it, and will always feel blessed that we survived and can look back on it with very mixed emotions.