A national group hoping to “build connections and encourage compassion through the power of conversation” is in Sioux Falls now — and they want your help.
In front of the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls is a metal Airstream trailer. In red on the outside, it says StoryCorps. On the inside, however, much more is going on.
“Well, I think the specialness of this is that it’s permanently recorded into archives forever," said Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, who recently had a conversation in the StoryCorps Mobile Booth with former Sioux Falls City Attorney Stacy Kooistra
“I think that’s what makes it kind of special is like some of the stuff we talked about today, I don’t know if anybody else knows the stories of some of the stuff we shared but for us," TenHaken said. "So, to have that kind of permanently in the archives is kind of neat to know that it’s going to live forever.”
In the booth, the two talked about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and navigating it as city leaders.
Kooistra said the StoryCorps booth gives us an opportunity to share important stories like theirs.
“We don’t talk about these things a lot, and the paths we walk there. But I do think it’s a great program," Kooistra said. "I mean what a great idea to capture these things and 100 years from now, right? They’re still there. So, I think it’s a great idea and a great program.”
He’s referencing their conversation being archived. That’s because all StoryCorps conversations are kept in the US Library of Congress and stay there forever.
StoryCorps is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving and sharing the stories of people from all backgrounds and beliefs. They record 40-minute conversations between two people, and then store them in the Congressional library.
Organizers say since 2003, nearly 700,000 people’s conversations have been captured and archived. They say the stories they have gathered and continue to capture are the largest single collection of human voices.
Now, they’re asking South Dakotans to come and share their stories.
Latojia Dawkins is the Associate Director of the StoryCorps mobile tour. She said Storycorps is about connecting people to each other.
“Being able to come inside the booth and say, ‘Hey, you know, do you remember this story? This touched me, this is how, you know, you’ve impacted my life.’ It’s a wonderful opportunity," Dawkins said. "We hear some of the funniest stories, we hear some really sad ones. But there’s so much, so many stories that come in that talk about resilience. That’s what makes me excited about my job: the resilience portion that we’re able to hear on a day-in-and-day-out basis.”
Dawkins said sharing your story is important, because it captures important times in history.
“We want people to know the history. What happened here in Sioux Falls during COVID, talk about maybe a little bit of the loss, but there was so much resiliency that was here," Dawkins said. "And we want to be able to shed a light on the resiliency that’s here in the city.”
She said hearing what two people can talk about in a 40-minute session can be really powerful.
“There’s so much that’s going on in our country right now, and we want to show people that they’re more alike than different. But even those differences are absolutely amazing," Dawkins said. And how can we connect together and be a true community. So that’s what we see inside of the booth.”
Nathan Hofer is the Director of Community Impact for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He called the work of StoryCorps a “oral history project” of storytelling.
"People can come in and share any story they want really. And that’s the cool thing about it: It’s not focused on one topic, one zone. That also makes it kind of difficult because it’s so wide ranging," Hofer said. "But people come in and they have stories that they might be having communication with a spouse or a parent or their kids or a friend.”
He shared why he thinks capturing the voices of everyday South Dakotans matters, and why you should share your story.
“As people, we’re built around stories. And StoryCorps has taken that to an extreme in some ways with this mobile tour where they bring these airstreams all around the country, year-round. They’ve got them going all the time. And when they’re doing this they are trying to capture the stories of people that matter even if they aren’t the news stories," Hofer said. "It’s like, ‘Why did my father do this when he was growing up? Why did my friend have this experience?’ So the importance of stories and the importance of how they shape our lives, that’s really the end goal of what’s going on here with StoryCorps.”
SDPB and StoryCorps invite you to share your story in the booth with anyone you want to have a conversation with. StoryCorps is in Sioux Falls through Aug. 8.
Some conversations may be broadcast by SDPB. To share your story, you can sign up online.
