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Iconic StoryCorps Airstream To Collect Kansas City Stories At Nelson-Atkins

Amanda Meltzer
/
StoryCorps
The StoryCorps MobileBooth is coming to Kansas City this summer.

Every Friday during Morning Edition on KCUR 89.3, listeners get to hear intimate conversations between everyday people through StoryCorps — and soon Kansas Citians will get a chance to tell their own stories when the StoryCorps MobileBooth Airstream comes into town this summer.

At KCUR's RadioActive Friday, StoryCorps founder Dave Isay formally announced the MobileBooth tour stop.

"StoryCorps turns documentary stories on their heads," Isay said. "The idea is to give as many people as possible time to talk."

KCUR's Storytelling Editor Sylvia Maria Gross says StoryCorps allows a unique platform for participants to have important conversations in an open way. 

"We often don’t take the time to have the most important conversations with the people who are most important to us," Gross says. "Having Storycorps’ recording booth and skilled facilitators in town is an incredible opportunity for people in Kansas City to share their stories with each other and, most importantly, with the world."

StoryCorps started as an oral history booth in Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 2003, and weekly broadcasts started on NPR in 2005. StoryCorps also launched its MobileBooth tour that year, recording thousands of conversations in dozens of cities throughout the United States. Each conversation is then preserved at the Library of Congress. 

The MobileBooth will be at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from Aug. 2 to Sept. 2. Conversations are by appointment only, and signups will be available to the public starting July 19

But that isn't the end of the collaboration. KCUR and StoryCorps are cooking up a listening event later in the summer, and we'll be working with StoryCorps' recording app to find more stories outside of the MobileBooth.

Keep your ears and eyes on KCUR's airwaves, website and social media feeds for more.

Cody Newill is an audience development specialist for KCUR 89.3. Follow him on Twitter @CodyNewill

Cody Newill is part of KCUR's audience development team. Follow him on Twitter @CodyNewill or email him at cody@kcur.org.
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