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On Wednesday, February 7, CPB joined StoryCorps in kicking off the Griot Initiative. Spanning one year, the Griot Initiative will travel to eight cities around the country to record the memories and stories of African-Americans. This continues the tradition of the West African "griot", or storyteller, who maintained community traditions and memory through storytelling, music, and dance. The goal is to collect at least 1,750 stories by February 2008, to remind and inspire current and future generations.

The Griot Project's brand new Airstream trailer is soundproofed and outfitted with recording equipment. Staffers, known as facilitators, will assist individuals interested in interviewing friends and relatives in the mobile "GriotBooth". Participants will receive a CD of their 40-minute interview, while a copy will be sent to the American Folklife Center's StoryCorps Archive at the Library of Congress.

Joining CPB President and CEO Pat Harrison on February 7 were StoryCorps founder David Isay, Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, and the Deputy Director of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Kinshasa Holman Conwill. LeAlan Smith, who as a boy recorded his grandmother's and neighbors' stories around his Chicago housing project as part of David Isay's award-winning "Ghetto Life 101", is the Griot Project's Spokesperson. Participants were treated to a tour of the GriotBooth offered by StoryCorps' staff and project volunteers.

Guests of honor included Sam Harmon and Taylor and Bessie Rogers. Mr. Harmon's story -- of how he'd been turned away from a movie theater as a young man in uniform visiting segregated Washington D.C. -- is a heartbreaking StoryCorps interview. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech, and in their recording speak movingly of how the theme "I've Been to the Mountaintop" inspired the crowd and eerily foreshadowed the civil rights hero's death.

For more information on the Griot Project's stops and how to make reservations, call (800) 850-4406, send an e-mail to mreeves@storycorps.net, or regularly visit the StoryCorps Griot Initiative Web site. Local volunteers are needed, as are community partners!

Photos: Chuck Roberts