Show and Tell | Story Corps, Dawn Maestas

For my show and tell, I knew I wanted to share something from Story Corps. I've been following Story Corps for awhile now since I first heard one of their stories broadcasted on NPR.  Their tagline is "every voice matters" and the subhead on their NPR page is "sharing and preserving the stories of our lives." Sometimes the stories highlighted are stunning, heart-shifting narratives. Other times I get bored. But for the most part I'm a huge fan of the organization's work both as a non-profit and as talented, thoughtful story-tellers.

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.

Dawn Maestas

The story I've chosen is one I heard recently over the radio. The article, "Tattoo Removal Artist Helps Clients With Emotional Scars" was written collaboratively, which aligns with the organization's mission. I think this accountability is what attracts me most to StoryCorps stories—not all of the pieces are social-justice-y, but their mission is clear and widely noted:
We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, strengthen and build the connections between people, teach the value of listening, and weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that every life matters.
This, to me, is both cheesy and essential. It makes it easier to see the 'why' in the profiles we just wrote, and why I like some of the pieces more than others. The StoryCorps works that don't fully incorporate that 'why' are the ones that bore me, but this piece about Dawn Maestas, a tattoo removal specialist and survivor of domestic abuse removes tattoos for women who have been forcibly tattooed or who's tattoos reference or remind them of their abusers. It's much shorter than many of the pieces we've read or even the one's StoryCorps normally produces, but I also thought that was a fun test, to see if this fits in the realm of 'narrative' pieces. 

Maurice Sendak, Inspiration and Storytelling

     Just testing out the blog, but also wanted to post this video.  When talking about our favorite profiles in class, I immediately thought of this interview between Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are—who The New York Times called the "most important children’s book artist of the 20th century,"—from several months before he died.  This video is just a brief clip of the interview—which you can find in it's entirety here,—but like the illustrator of the clip I too was driving around aimlessly when the Fresh Air story came on the radio and stuck with me more than any profile piece I can remember.  They were supposed to be discussing Sendak's new book, but Gross and Sendak quickly transitioned to talking about life, writing and all the leaving that comes with dying.  If you like to laugh while sobbing, this one's for you.