About StoryCorps:
StoryCorps is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, over 50,000 everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps.
Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our weekly broadcasts on NPR's Morning Edition and on their 'Listen' pages.
The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing.
Their goal is to make that experience accessible to all, and find new ways to inspire people to record and preserve the stories of someone important to them. Just as powerful is the experience of listening. Whenever people listen to these stories, they hear the courage, humor, trials and triumphs of an incredible range of voices.
"By listening closely to one another, we can help illuminate the true character of this nation reminding us all just how precious each day can be and how truly great it is to be alive."--Dave Isay, Founder, StoryCorps
About the book:
Everyone has a story to tell, especially when it comes to their mothers. What we often forget however is how vital it is to hear those stories. As you read through Dave Isay's new book, MOM: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps, you come to realize how necessary the act of listening is. Listening gives counsel, it enlightens us to our history, it breaches differences, and heals old wounds.
In Mom, Isay, founder of the StoryCorps project, celebrates one of the most elemental and intimate bonds of the human experience: that of mother and child. Mom includes an array of voices: Young and old, black and white, native speakers and immigrants, everyday people whose memories showcase the diversity of experience that make up motherhood. Featuring StoryCorps' most revelatory stories on the subject, Mom looks across a diversity of experience to present an entirely original portrait of motherhood.
Through conversations between parents and children, husbands and wives, siblings and friends, the life of the American mother unfolds.
In stories that take us from the woods of New Hampshire to downtown Detroit and beyond, we meet mothers and children from all walks of life: An immigrant mother instilling in her children the importance of education; adult children caring for an elderly parent, a woman remembering the sound of her mother's laugh and mothers and children of all ages learning to grow into new roles over time.
Visiting families in moments of profound joy and sadness, courage and despair, struggle and triumph, we learn new truths about that most primal and sacred of bonds-the relationship between mother and child.
With this vital contribution to the American storybook, StoryCorps has created a celebration of mothers that honors the wealth of our national experience and the life lessons that are passed down from mothers to their children.
Full of the wisdom, devotion, and enduring love of remarkable mothers across the country, Mom reminds us of the meaning of family and the expansiveness of the human heart.
>> Buy this book on Amazon: Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps
For an even more special gift to give mom this year, StoryCorps is offering a free, downloadable gift card at storycorps.org/book, which can help people record a "Do-It-Yourself" interview with a mother who has influenced them, using recording equipment that is readily accessible in most homes (laptops, tape recorders, or even pen and paper).
StoryCorps' brand new iPhone app (developed by Bottle Rocket) will also be available April 1, 2010, and includes "Do-It-Yourself" features such as a great question list and tips for recording and sharing a conversation with someone special in time for Mother's Day.
For more information, visit www.storycorps.org/iphone
About Dave Isay:
Dave Isay is the founder of StoryCorps and the recipient of numerous broadcasting honors, including five Peabody Awards and a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.
He is the author/editor of four books that grew out of his public radio documentary work, including the first StoryCorps book, Listening Is an Act of Love, a New York Times bestseller.
Since 2003, StoryCorps has been one of the most ambitious oral history projects ever undertaken. Founded by Dave Isay, StoryCorps has collected the life stories of more than 50,000 Americans in all 50 states, and preserved these interviews for future generations at the Library of Congress.
Millions of radio listeners look forward to hearing these stories each Friday morning on NPR. In recording booths across the country, StoryCorps continues to capture for posterity the stories that define us and bind us together as Americans.
For more information, go to storycorps.org
Please join Dave for a Book signing
Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Monday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Phone: (831) 460-3232
Website: www.bookshopsantacruz.com
