StoryCorp, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, is seeking those involved in the raid on the Atlanta Eagle to share their stories.
WABE 90.1 FM reporter Jim Burress posted to Facebook a message asking people interested in sharing their stories of the raid and the fallout to have them preserved in the Library of Congress. WABE is the local NPR affiliate.
"It doesn’t have to be just about what happened that night — it can be about how the night changed you, what the legal victory means to you, what role the raid will play in Atlanta’s LGBT history, etc.," Burress writes in a post on the Eagle Atlanta Raid Facebook page. If interested, send an email to jburress@wabe.org or call 678-686-0374.
Last year, nearly 100 people crammed into Radial Café, many sitting on the floor, for WABE’s “Out & Out Loud” event featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people sharing their stories as part of the NPR affiliate’s StoryCorps program.
“The StoryCorps event was a smashing success — the idea of people gathering in a room to just listen to stories of other community members — that’s not really something you can do at [Atlanta Pride in October] and be effective,” said James Sheffield, executive director of Atlanta Pride.
This year’s free event is set for Wednesday, June 22. Food will be available from Radial Café and people will have the chance to sit in a more spacious setting at the recently expanded Phillip Rush Center.
Phillip Rush Center hosts LGBT oral history project tonight
The “Out & OutLoud: Stories of Atlanta's LGBTQ Community” event at Radial Café Wednesday night, part of Atlanta Pride Stonewall Week and WABE 90.1 FM’s StoryCorps project, began with a sweet “coming out” story.
The event’s host, John Lemley, who also hosts WABE’s City Café weekdays from noon to 1 p.m., shared with the crowd that he had an exchange of emails prior to the event with Dave Hayward, a local gay historian. Hayward asked Lemley if he was going to come out as gay at the StoryCorps LGBTQ event. Well, Lemley said, if people didn’t already know he is gay, he asked, “Are we headless?”
The crowd responded with laughter and applause.
But it was the stories of local LGBTQ residents who recorded their stories with the Atlanta StoryCorps project that were the true highlights of the evening.