Ping and Grandma's Trip to the Museum: StoryCorps

    StoryCorps is rooted in the oral histories of ordinary people. They create a place for every-day people to come and record a conversation. From a listener's perspective, there is something very powerful from hearing only voices. Our society is focused so much on images in advertisements and technology that I have a completely different experience when I am solely listening to a conversation without staring at the people who are creating it.

    When I first heard about StoryCorps, I was driving in the car on my way to school on a foggy, Friday morning. A brief clip came on between a husband and wife, thoughtfully recalling the many years they had spent together. It was strange to be listening to what seemed like a private conversation on National Public Radio, but I recognized without seeing their faces, that they were sharing a special piece of their lives. When I found out that the CJM is one of three sites in the country that holds a StoryCorps recording booth I was extremely excited and decided to bring my Grandma in for a chat.

   If just asking her to participate made me nervous, you can imagine how nervous I was when we picked her up from her apartment with all of her stories in hand and neatly typed out. I knew that my Grandma was worried about spontaneity and that she might forget something, but I wanted an organic conversation to take shape in our time together.

   When we arrived, we settled into the cozy booth. The soundproof walls and warm light made me feel much more comfortable as we began our sound checks. Before I knew it, our facilitator Sophia was giving us the thumbs up and we began.

    " Grandma, tell me about your childhood in China, what did your house look like? How did your mother spend her days?"

   As she began to talk I realized that this was one of the first times I had ever been alone with my Grandmother. I listened to her map our her childhood in Shanghai and what it was like to grow up in a multi-racial family in the early 20th century. It surprised me how much I had never known about my Grandma and her family. Over the course of 40 minutes I listened mostly to her favorite and most memorable parts about China. The smallest details about her home and even the recipe for her "1-2-3-4 cake" were enchanting. My questions were often clumsy compared to her eloquence, but in the comfort and privacy of our space in the booth, it didn't matter. The time went by in a flash, and by the end of our conversation I felt that I had been exposed to only a small piece of a full chest of stories.

   StoryCorps taught me many things. It allowed me to converse with someone I love in a way that I can physically keep and listen to forever. It also showed me the power of listening. I learned that there is a certain skill and art to telling stories and asking for stories, even the ones that you may know by heart. StoryCorps made the space and time for me to listen and appreciate an extraordinary person in my life and it is an experience everyone should try.Over these holidays, think about the value of listening and how refreshing it might be to sit down and converse with someone that you love.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    Eliza Jiaping Kingsley-Ma
    Teen Art Connect Intern.