StoryCorps, a renowned nonprofit organization celebrating the stories of everyday Americans, will record interviews in Detroit from June 29 to July 28, 2017 as part of its cross-country MobileBooth tour. Having collected more than 65,000 interviews from Americans in all 50 states, StoryCorps has gathered one of the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded.

StoryCorps has partnered with WDET 101.9, Detroit's public radio station, a community service of Wayne State University, to collect interviews with residents in the Detroit area. WDET will air a selection of local interviews recorded in the StoryCorps MobileBooth and create special programs around the project. StoryCorps may also share excerpts of these stories through the project’s popular weekly NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. With participant permission, all StoryCorps interviews will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

StoryCorps’ MobileBooth—an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio—will be parked at the Detroit Institute of Arts on the lawn near Farnsworth Street. Reservations can now be made by calling StoryCorps’ 24-hour, toll-free reservation line at 1-800-850-4406 or visiting storycorps.org. Additional reservation slots will open on June 30.

WDET will host an opening day press event on June 29 at 10:30 a.m. to introduce StoryCorps to the community and to allow press to interview StoryCorps staff and the first two sets of participants.

General Press Guidelines

• Cameras will be allowed in the MobileBooth before interviews begin. Photographs and video can be shot from outside the window during interviews.
• Press can listen to interviews with wireless headphones from outside the booth (when available).
• Press can interview participants before and after their StoryCorps interviews.  

The StoryCorps visit is sponsored by the Detroit Historical Museum.