Athens, Ga. – This February, the First Person Project, an oral history series documenting the experiences of everyday Georgians, is looking for participants to talk about love, loss and relationships—all in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Modeled roughly on StoryCorps, a national initiative partnered with National Public Radio and the Library of Congress, the First Person Project of the University of Georgia Russell Library for Political Research and Studies is smaller in scale but similar in concept, providing tools to would-be oral history interviewers and interviewees, including tips on how to create questions and conduct interviews. The project was inspired by the belief that everyone is an eyewitness to history and that everyone, sometimes with a little encouragement, has a story to tell.
Six sets of partners will be accepted for this First Person Project session, scheduled for Feb. 8 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Partners can interview each other about topics including the first time they fell in love, how they met, their worst breakup or most awkward date.
Each audio recording session takes one hour to complete. Photographs will also be taken for each session. Participants are charged a fee of $10 per group for the session. The Russell Library will archive the interviews to add to its documentation of life in post-20th century Georgia and will provide participants with a free digital download of the recording and photographs.
Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis and can be made by calling 706/542-5788 or registering online at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/fpp/fpp_register.html.
For more information on this event and other upcoming First Person Project days, email russlib@uga.edu or call 706/542-5788.
Free event parking is available for off-campus visitors in the Hull Street Parking Deck. For more information on parking, see http://www.libs.uga.edu/scl/visit/parking.html.
To learn more about the Richard B. Russell Library, see http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.