Life Story Links: May 3, 2022
“I am fooling only myself when I say that my mother exists now only in the photographs on my bulletin board or in the outline of my hand or in the armful of memories I still hold tight. She lives on beneath everything I do. Her presence influenced who I was and her absence influences who I am. Our lives are shaped as much by those who leave us as they are by those who stay. Loss is our legacy. Insight is our gift. Memory is our guide.”
—Hope Edelman
On this vintage postcard, horse-drawn carriages idle along Richmond Avenue at Bergen Point Ferry in Staten Island, New York. Image courtesy of the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Your stories, well told
TELL A CAPTIVATING STORY
“Leveling up our storytelling game can lead to more meaningful connections.” Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to tell a story, from an idea to delivery, from the editors of The Moth’s new book, How to Tell a Story:
DOUBLE THE STORIES
While I interview people for their stories regularly as part of my business, a big part of my mission is to inspire and empower families to conduct such interviews themselves. Last week I offered tips for interviewing a couple (your parents, say, or one set of grandparents) together.
TWO TALENTS TRADE INSIGHTS
“I’m not going to share [traumas from my life] for the sake of sharing.... I’m sharing what needs to be shared as part of this story. To do right by the story I’m creating, I’ve got to put in the right ingredients.” Marion Roach Smith interviews Mary Laura Philpott about how to write a memoir in essays. Listen in:
In their own words
“SWEET SPOT”
“I bummed rides home after practice. I bummed clothes, snacks, socks, money for the vending machine, and anything else I needed to survive.” This personal essay from Jennifer Shields transported me with time-specific details and a powerful remembrance of adolescence.
HER SERBIAN GRANDFATHER
“During the Nazi occupation, the Gestapo chose our hotel for their headquarters. I haven’t decided if it’s a sign of disrespect to that past, or a mark of triumph that we’re staying here now.” Julie Brill remembers a childhood interrupted by genocide.
THE DRIVE TO SUCCEED
“It has dawned on me lately that insecurity is one of the biggest killers of art,” Alice Walker wrote in October, 1977. Take a deep dive into her journals with this reflective and engaging piece in The New Yorker.
STILL LIFE
Award-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri talks about a few of her favorite things, including a book she bought when she was 12 years old and “a road map to how to write” from a university professor.
Beginning, ending
NEW ITALIAN SURNAME CONVENTIONS
“Italy had until now carried “a story of male biographies,’ [one Italian official] said. “The surname is part of one’s identity and personal history, a story that we can now pass on written in the feminine.’”
WHAT IS LEGACY?
“Surveys conducted show that when faced with end-of-life planning, Boomers (and older generations) are more concerned about the loss of their values and personal history than the loss of their wealth,” personal historian Clémence Scouten writes in this pub from the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council (scroll to page 11 for the article).
MEMORY FLASHBACKS OF DYING
A patient whose brain waves were being studied by doctors died suddenly during the recordings; the resulting scientific data may be consistent with our idea that our “life flashes before us” just before death.
Miscellaneous
TESTIMONIES ON THE BLOCKCHAIN
The first Holocaust museum in the metaverse aims to use NFTs to transform survivors’ tragic memories into artistic visual presentations.
COOKING UP THE PAST
A new film premiering June 1 as part of the Tenement Museum’s annual fundraising gala will focus on food traditions, family stories, and local history; virtual attendance is donation-optional. The film, which looks at the American immigrant experience through the lens of food, was inspired by Padma Lakshmi’s visit to the Lower East Side museum, as featured on this episode of Taste the Nation:
...and a few more links
Holocaust survivors ask Israel museum to return one-of-a-kind Haggadah.
The LIFE Picture Collection is launching a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of its legendary photography.
Apple Photos adds “sensitive locations” filter to Memories functionality.
Check out this free hour-long webinar from Creative Nonfiction managing editor, Hattie Fletcher, on writing long-form.
Short Takes
