“If You Have Breath in Your Body, You Have a Story.”

StoryCorps sets up shop at the New Orleans Museum of Art

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A place rich in culture, distinct in some way from the homogeneity of American society, where the weather will be manageable, where community partnerships are strong. And this year, a place that might be rich in stories of Black life, in all its complexities, triumph, and resilience. 

These were some of the qualifications that made New Orleans a great candidate for this year’s StoryCorps Mobile Tour. The oral history collecting organization has been recording conversations and interviews with individuals across America since 2003—preserving the stories in the Library of Congress and broadcasting many of them weekly on NPR. 

Until December 13, StoryCorps’ Airstream-turned-traveling recording studio, called the MobileBooth, will be set outside the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Members of the community are invited to sign up for recording sessions, guided by trained StoryCorps facilitators, in which they can tell and preserve personal stories of their lives here in the New Orleans region. 

“New Orleans is one of the most resilient cities I have ever seen. That’s part of why we really wanted to come here, so people can hear about this resiliency not only of the city as a whole, but from the individuals within it.” —Latoija Dawkins

“We want stories that are very reflective of the community,” said Latoija Dawkins, Associate Director of StoryCorps’ Mobile Tour. “Here in New Orleans, we already know the culture is rich in music, food, all this, so we know we’re going to get those types of wonderful stories.” But Dawkins and her team are also hopeful to gather stories for the organization’s new “Brightness in Black” initiative, which celebrates the spectrum of the Black experience across America, focusing on the brightness—triumphs, gratitude, aspirations, and resilience—that are embodied in Black life. 

“New Orleans is one of the most resilient cities I have ever seen,” said Dawkins. “That’s part of why we really wanted to come here, so people can hear about this resiliency not only of the city as a whole, but from the individuals within it.” 

Per tradition, StoryCorps facilitates its Mobile Tour in partnership with local public radio stations, who are, according to Dawkins, “the information hub, the heartbeat of the city.” 

The New Orleans stop is hosted by WWNO, coming right on the heels of a Baton Rouge stop hosted by WRKF. Paul Maassen, the general manager of both stations, is excited not only about the prospect of stories from both cities reaching a national audience on NPR, but also about the opportunity to collect these stories to share on a local level over the course of the next year. 

“I think first-person accounts and oral histories, especially coming from the person who experienced them, are very powerful, and engaging, too,” said Maassen. “StoryCorps is one of the most popular things you hear on NPR, and for us to be able to do a more involved localized version of that, to express our connection to the community, it’s what we’re all about.” 

One thread Maassen and the facilitators at StoryCorps are eager to explore in New Orleans is that of Hurricane Katrina and its upcoming twentieth anniversary next year. In capturing stories and recollections from the event, as well as reflections on how it has influenced individual lives over the last twenty years, they hope to create a powerful document to be shared next year as the world remembers the impact of the storm. 

But it also doesn’t have to be that deep, assures Maassen and Dawkins. They want everyone across the New Orleans community, with every kind of story, to come and make a record of it. “I believe if you have breath in your body, you have a story,” said Dawkins. “People are drawn to the power of testimony. Don’t ever second guess how you can connect to another person through your story, whatever it may be.” 

Register for forty minute recording sessions at storycorps.org/wwno.