Recordings of stories told by the people of the Newfound Region have begun to air on NHPR, and are accessible on nhpr.org. NHPR and the historic Minot-Sleeper Library partnered with StoryCorps earlier this year to capture personal stories of local residents in an effort to preserve the history of the region and celebrate the diversity of its communities. The project now culminates with a collection of recorded conversations, accessible to the public. NHPR will broadcast a special segment that features a selection of the recordings. The segments will be aired on NHPR’s Morning Edition Wednesdays in December at 7:45 and 9:45, and can be accessed at www.nhpr.org/storycorps-nh.
The project invited community members of all ages as well as from diverse backgrounds to share their life experiences and stories.
The first segment shared by NHPR was a conversation between Debbie Doe and Andrew Harmon, who first met nearly 30 years ago when she was a teacher, and he was an elementary school student.
StoryCorps, a nonprofit dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs, provided training, professional recording equipment, and ongoing programmatic support to the Minot-Sleeper Library team, who then recorded conversations between area residents for the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. NHPR took and edited a selection of the recordings, and is now sharing them weekly.
StoryCorps gives everyday Americans the chance to record interviews with loved ones about their lives. In these 40-minute conversations, participants, with the assistance of a facilitator, talk about whatever is most important to them. The recordings create a unique, first-person historical record for future generations.