It used to be a common sight near the Lexington Avenue passageway of Grand Central Terminal: a couple emerging from a back-lit booth, wiping away tears from reddened eyes, before collecting themselves and reluctantly rejoining the masses.
“In 50,000 interviews, nearly every time, people have cried in the interview,†said David Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, a nonprofit, oral history project that started 10 years ago this week inside a kiosk erected in a busy corridor at Grand Central.
StoryCorps’ recording process is simple and arrestingly raw: one person interviews another in a sparse and silent booth. The recording is preserved digitally, with a CD given to the participants and to the Library of Congress.
The booth eventually moved into a quieter corner of Grand Central to allow for some slightly more private decompression after recordings, before moving to Foley Square, near City Hall, a few years later. It is now a national project, but the StoryCorps archive still contains a rich collection of New York stories: of the 50,000 interviews in its trove, nearly 11,000 were recorded in New York.
There is the homeless woman who was so moved by her recording, calling it the most important thing she’d ever done in her life, that she tried to donate her food stamps to the staff members as her voluntary donation.
Louise Stephens, a StoryCorps super fan whom Mr. Isay estimates recorded over 100 interviews, would meet someone while riding the bus, and then bring them to the StoryCorps booth to interview them.
After Sarah Littman recorded an interview with her son, Josh, who has Asperger syndrome, and the interview was broadcast on National Public Radio, she received hundreds of letters of support. She put all the letters in a notebook, and whenever Josh had a rough day, they’d read the letters together.
And then there’s the collection of recordings about Sept. 11, packed with quivering voices telling of a lost loved one, their memory distilled into permanence through the recordings.
While the recording booth near City Hall is no longer continuously open to the public - it is available by appointment only - Mr. Isay said that StoryCorps would always have a presence in New York.
“That’s the thing about New York City,†he said. “You walk into these kind of miracles all the time.â€
As part of the nonprofit’s 10th anniversary celebration, Mr. Isay selected 10 of his favorite New York stories from the StoryCorp archives for City Room:
Danny and Annie Perasa remember their first date in an interview recorded in 2004.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/danny-and-annie-perasa/
A New York City bus operator, Ronald Ruiz, remembers one of his passengers on the City Island line in the Bronx.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/ronald-ruiz/
For 18 years, Nicholas Petron’s grandfather, Rocco Galasso, was the owner and superintendent of an apartment building where much of his family lived, until the day they were given notice that their building was being demolished to make way for new apartments. As Nick remembers, that’s when everything changed.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/nicholas-petron/
Priya Morganstern and Bhavani Jaroff interview their father, Ken Morganstern, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/ken-morganstern-priya-morganstern-and-bhavani-jaroff/
Ralph Tremonte and Donald Weiss, who spent their childhoods together in a psychiatric hospital, reunite after 40 years.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/ralph-tremonte-and-donald-weiss/
Elliot Reiken remembers how he and his identical twin brother, Danny, met and married another set of identical twins, Hunny, left, and Bunny Feller.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/hunny-reiken-and-her-husband-elliot/
John Vigiano Sr., a retired New York City firefighter, remembers his sons, John Jr., a firefighter, and Joe, a policeman, who both died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/john-vigiano-and-his-wife-jan/
Retired New York City sanitation worker Angelo Bruno speaks with his friend and former partner, Eddie Nieves, about working together on their daily route.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/angelo-bruno-and-his-friend-eddie-nieves/
Kay Wang was a strong-willed grandmother who was reluctantly taken to a StoryCorps booth by her son and granddaughter. Though Kay resisted, she still had stories to tell.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/scott-wall-and-isabel-sobozinsky-wall/
Twelve-year-old Joshua Littman, who has Asperger syndrome, interviews his mother, Sarah.
See more: http://storycorps.org/listen/sarah-and-joshua-littman/
