PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM:            Radio Bilingüe-Fresno/StoryCorps

Contacts:          Radio Bilingüe

                        Sandra Velásquez-Wright

                        (559) 455-5760/sandra@radiobilingue.org

                        StoryCorps     

                        Diana Velez-Griffen                                                     

                        (646) 723-7020 ext. 65 / dvgriffen@storycorps.org                 

STORYCORPS HISTORIAS COMES TO FRESNO, CALIFORNIA

RADIO BILINGUE’S KSJV 91.5 FM HOSTS STORYCORPS HISTORIAS DURING ITS THREE WEEK STAY IN FRESNO AS IT TOURS THE COUNTRY TO CREATE ONE OF THE LARGEST COLLECTIONS OF LATINO STORIES EVER RECORDED 

(Marcc 10) – Fresno – StoryCorps, a national initiative to document the unique stories of Americans, will arrive March 25 in Fresno to collect the stories of Latino residents as part of its Historias Initiative. Historias, which means ‘stories’ in Spanish, is an ongoing initiative to capture and celebrate the diversity of Latino culture.

The StoryCorps MobileBooth – an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio – will be parked at Arte Americas located at 1630 Van Ness Avenue in Fresno- from March 25 to April 17. Participation is free but reservations must be made through StoryCorps’ 24-hour reservation line, 1-800-850-4406, or at StoryCorps.org.  Historias plans to collect 120 interviews during its stay in Fresno.

StoryCorps was created by award-winning documentary producer and MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Dave Isay. This unprecedented project has traveled to every corner of America, instructing and inspiring individuals to record their stories in sound. StoryCorps is the largest professionally-collected archive of American voices ever gathered. Since its launch in October 2003, StoryCorps has collected interviews with more than 50,000 participants in all 50 states.

At the MobileBooth, interviews are conducted between two people who know and care about each other. A trained facilitator guides the participants through the interview process and handles the technical aspects of the recording. At the end of each 40-minute session, participants walk away with a free CD copy of their interview. With their permission, a second copy becomes part of an archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for future generations to hear.

During the first year of Historias, StoryCorps will visit cities across the nation, partnering with local radio stations, cultural institutions and community-based organizations to collect nearly 1,000 stories throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. In Fresno, StoryCorps is partnering with KSJV 91.5 FM, a Radio Bilingüe network station, which will air a selection of the local stories. Selected interviews will also air on Latino USA, an English-language news program broadcast in 31 states and NPR’s Morning Edition.

“StoryCorps reminds us of our shared humanity – by listening to our stories, we walk in the shoes of others and recognize how much we have in common,” says StoryCorps Founder and President Dave Isay. “We are proud to work with Radio Bilingüe to help create a growing portrait of our nation’s fastest-growing minority group by preserving the stories of Latinos throughout the country.”

“Radio Bilingüe has a tradition of documenting and having on-air, the voices of Latinos from all walks of life”, says Radio Bilingüe’s Director of Broadcasting, María Eraña. “Hosting Story Corps/Historias in Fresno is a perfect fit to assure that Latino stories from Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley at large are shared with a broader audience and preserved in the Library of Congress for future generations.”

In addition to Historias, StoryCorps currently has three other initiatives: StoryCorps Griot preserves the voices, experiences, and life stories of African Americans; StoryCorps’ Memory Loss Initiative reaches out to people affected by memory loss; StoryCorps’ 9/11 Initiative honors and remembers the stories of survivors, rescue workers, and others most personally affected by September 11.

StoryCorps Historias is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Community partners involved in this national initiative include the Latino Public Radio Consortium, Latino USA and the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project. StoryCorps also wishes to thank Bill Lynch Associates, LLC, for their assistance with StoryCorps Historias.

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About StoryCorps

StoryCorps is an independent non-profit whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. StoryCorps has one of the largest archives of American voices ever created. Each week, millions of Americans listen to StoryCorps’ award-winning broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Edition. Fifty of StoryCorps’ most emblematic stories have been collected in the New York Times bestseller, Listening Is an Act of Love (Penguin Press). A follow-up book, Mom: Remarkable Stories of American Mothers from the StoryCorps Project, scheduled for publication in Spring 2010, will feature inspiring stories by and about mothers.

StoryCorps currently operates a freestanding soundproof recording booth at Foley Square in New York’s Lower Manhattan and at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. StoryCorps’ major funders include: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation, and Joe and Carol Reich. For more information, or to listen to StoryCorps stories, visit www.storycorps.org.

About Radio Bilingüe

Founded in 1976 and taking the air in 1980, Radio Bilingüe owns six full-power FM stations in California, serves over 100 affiliate stations via satellite, and provides live webcast, podcast, and text news service through its Internet site. Radio Bilingüe provides audiences with news, information and cultural programming from its award-winning programs Noticiero Latino and Línea Abierta.