If you have someone to talk with go to Grand Central Terminal. Tucked away in a corner of the Biltmore Room near tracks 41 and 42, a young company called StoryCorps have a slick-looking recording booth open to the public (by appointment). StoryCorps facilitates oral history documentation, that is, they want people to record their individual stories, their shared experiences. Each week NPR selects a portion of one recorded interview for broadcast; all others are archived at The Library of Congress. There are two recording booths in New York City, one in Milwaukee, and two mobile booths which travel throughout the country.
I interviewed my friend Ronaldo Brunet on Sunday, the 30th, for an assignment for a class called Oral History As Documentary at The New School. I’ve probably spoken with him a hundred times during the last four or five years, but having his voice preserved has been on my mind for a while, as an extension of the images I’ve made of him.
Ronaldo would often tell me details of when he first arrived in New York in 1960, where he found his first job, and where he hung out downtown with other artists in the sixties. I wondered how many people remembered or even knew these things, details that might be overlooked by a newer generation of people who see him only as the South American guy with the hat who comes around with his photographs.
For my 40-minute interview I prepared four general areas to probe and gently steer the narrative in a specific progression: where he came from, settling in a new environment, talking about his creative outlets, and hearing his take on the downtown art scene.
Listen to a four-minute excerpt:
Daniel Littlewood, a facilitator at StoryCorps, speaks with Ronaldo Brunet.
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