Memoir Project Still Inspiring Years After Inception

By Eliza Hallabeck

Driving to work one Friday morning in her second year of teaching at Newtown High School, English teacher Abigail Marks was inspired while listening to a National Public Radio (NPR) StoryCorps program.

Her students were reading Zenzele: A Letter For My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire, which is written from the perspective of a mother writing a series of letters to her daughter about her own life, her friend’s life, and her daughter’s life, at the time. Between reading Zenzele and listening to StoryCorps, Ms Marks was inspired.

“[The mother] is trying to impart this knowledge to her daughter, who is leaving Zimbabwe to go to college at Harvard in America. She tries to really instill in her some of the values and appreciation for her culture, so that she won’t forget it,” said Ms Marks.

She started having her students complete interviews with a person of their choice, write memoirs about that person, and record them, in true StoryCorps format.

Now, many student memoirs later, on Wednesday, November 10, Ms Marks looked back on the project with three students who recently completed their own StoryCorps memoirs.

For sophomores Meaghan Harkins, Sarah Potter, and Mergim Bajraliu the project was a journey similar to Zenzele as each discovered new stories about their own family history.

 “I thought the StoryCorps project was a nice way for people to think about the value of the individuals in their lives,” Ms Marks said. “Stories don’t have to be groundbreaking. They don’t have to be stories about things that are sensationalized. They can be stories about everyday people’s lives, and they can really have an impact on us.”

This year, Ms Marks had 72 students write memoirs. Each year a number of the students interview grandparents or uncles who were involved in war, she said, and some students have interviewed grandparents who fought in World War II.

“I think usually they find the stories they get out of them are less about the war, and more about what made that person who they are,” said Ms Marks.

Most students, she said, interview their parents with a focus on how life was for them as a teenager.

“They look to it as an opportunity to find out what their parents were like as teenagers,” she said. “A lot of the times they can connect more to their parents because of that conversation.”

Something that made her feel great about the project this year happened when students from Danbury were visiting for the Conversations About Race course. That day, Ms Marks’s students were scheduled to read their memoirs out loud, and the Danbury students, Ms Marks said, really responded to the memoirs.

“Just the power of words to bring us together,” she said, “I thought was really nice. So I’ve been happy with the fact that after all these years, it’s still relevant. StoryCorps is still relevant. Still every Friday morning they put clips on NPR. They play them on Morning Edition. I think that project has grown, and I think it gives the students a sense of value to what they do, to know that this is something that is happening all across the country.”

For student Meaghan Harkins, the StoryCorps and Zenzele project gave her an opportunity to understand her grandmother, Denise Fernidad, who lives in Florida. To complete her interview, Meaghan called her grandmother by phone.

“I found out a lot about what life was like back then for my grandma and how she lived her life as a younger child,” said Meaghan.

Using the interview, Meaghan wrote her memoir by focusing on what a summer day would have been like for her grandmother.

“The main character in Zenzele told her stories to her child, so my grandma was able to tell her stories to me,” said Meaghan.

Sarah Potter was able to catch her mountaineering author aunt Carol White for an interview. Sarah said she struggled with the project at first, but as she continued to speak with her aunt it became easier.

“As we were talking we were kind of bonding more than we ever have before,” said Sarah.

 “[The project]) was cool, because I got to look at someone else’s life and connect it with mine,” said Sarah. “And moments and events that happened in both of our lives led of differently.”

The project for Mergim Bajraliu was a process of reflection with his father, Fadil Bajraliu, on their family history, and his father’s life growing up in Yugoslavia.

“It really taught me about who I am, my identity, my culture, and the people who worked hard to get me to become who I am,” said Mergim.

Like the characters in Zenzele that slowly realize their culture, Mergim said, he too discovered his culture.

“It really brought our family ideas together,” said Mergim, “and it was something I enjoyed doing.”

An audio recording of the students reading excerpts from their memoirs is available on this week’s Newtown Bee’s podcast, available at www.newtownbee.com or on iTunes by searching for “Buzzcast.”

Excerpt From Meaghan Harkins’s Memoir On Her Grandmother

“It seems like every little thing we do in life is not significant. From the pickup basketball game we play with our friends to the sentence we begin to write only to leave unfinished. It does not change the world as a whole. What we don’t realize is that every motion we make in life adds another step in our ladder. The ladder keeps building like a vicious cycle. The steps show the change within us, whether it is good or bad it turns into a story, a life story, a story that keeps building, even when you are no longer climbing the ladder. It becomes a story that you can tell to your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, friends, family, and strangers that are soon to become a part of your ladder.”

Excerpt From Sarah Potter’s Memoir On Her Aunt

“When she was 48 Carol began seriously mountaineering. Mountaineering is basically the act of climbing mountains. She fell in love with it, and so did Dave. They joined various mountaineering associations and soon enough were placed in record books for their climbing activities. Carol began writing a book on it, which led to more books. Soon there were autograph sessions, seminars, conventions, everything. She had turned what she had so deeply come to love into her career, which is what I hope to do one day. Inspiration seems to radiate off of her, and I soak it in for as long as I can when I am with her.

“…We don’t talk for long, Carol and I. Soon enough we both have to go back to our own lives; she as an author and a mountaineer and I am a student. It seems as though now that she has been getting more climbs and seminars and as I keep diving into more after school activities and school work, the emails and phone calls keep getting shorter and shorter. It seems as though we are always running out of time, and we have to wait again until we have a free moment to speak. Still I am comforted with the fact that I will see her soon. Until then we will just have to do the best we can with emails and phone calls. We’ll just have to wait until we can play games together again, and have long talks about philosophy and colleges. Because, that’s what we do.”

Excerpt From Mergim Bajraliu’s Memoir On His Father

“Can you imagine being raised under a communist regime? Would you be able to withstand its horrors? The isolation? The danger? The vicious soldiers ready to hunt you down? The truth is, nobody can understand the circumstances my dad faced from the day he was born to the day he came to America 25 years later. He comes to explain this truly astonishing and inspiring story with us, starting from his childhood. Growing up in Yugoslavia was no easy task. There was little money, many mouths to feed, and lurking danger everywhere you stepped. Serbian soldiers, our enemies, controlled our province, which was Cosova where the population was 90 percent Albanian. The goal of the Serbians was to send the Albanian population downhill until there was no more. My dad was part of this population and experienced these atrocities first hand. It has taken many years for me to simply realize my father’s experience, but never will I be able to truly understand the true disadvantage of growing up in a society such as the one my father experienced. Such experiences must occur firsthand to truly comprehend their atrocities. The best I can do is read, write, and listen to what he says. Paint my picture. It is a matter of whether or not my picture will replicate his, and it will never.”