Memory Loss Shouldn't Stop Stories
04/25/2007
CAC staff
The national StoryCorps project works with CAC to make sharing stories with friends or family accessible to people with memory loss.
If you listen to NPR on Friday mornings, it's best to have a few tissues handy. The brief stories that play as part of the StoryCorps weekly spot on Morning Edition are extraordinary tales from ordinary lives of every day Americans. Their emotional purity often packs a wallop, both in their humor and emotional poignancy.
In 2006, CAC Director Anne Basting began working with StoryCorps to make the StoryCorps experience accessible to people who might have difficulty recalling the some of the details of their stories. "Memory loss shouldn't stop anyone from sharing their thoughts and feelings with a friend," says Basting. Goals of the Memory Loss Initiative include adjusting the StoryCorps process to make it accessible to people with memory loss; promoting the experience to people with memory loss; recording at least 40 story sessions by people with memory loss; and evaluating the experience for both interviewer and interviewee.
Basting assembled a team of leaders in the field to advise the initiative, and together they developed interview guidelines for people with memory loss. Since the initiative began in June, 2006, StoryCorps has recorded more than 40 MLI stories in cities across the country, including New York, Milwaukee, and Chicago.
StoryCorps has also produced several of the MLI interviews for broadcast on Morning Edition. The national reach and emotional power of these stories go a long way toward helping ease the stigma of memory loss. In one interview, played for Valentine's Day, an Arkansas couple talk about both the challenges of her Alzheimer's and their deep love for each other.
If you have memory loss or know someone who does and would like to participate in StoryCorps, simply visit www.storycorps.net to make a reservation at a booth near you. The Milwaukee booth in the Central Library is open through October 31st, 2007.
StoryCorps asks for a 10$ donation for its hour-long interviews. Participants take home a broadcast quality cd of their interview, and, if they like, can sign a release to have it sent to the Library of Congress.
www.storycorps.net
