StoryCorps San Joaquin

And now to StoryCorps San Joaquin, a series based on our collaboration with the personal history project, StoryCorps. In this edited conversation from February's 2020 mobile tour in the Valley, 23-year-old Emalee Farley interviews 75-year-old El Daña about her life as a male impersonator entertaining in Fresno and beyond. 

And now to StoryCorps San Joaquin, a series documenting the stories of Valley residents, based on our collaboration with the personal history project. In this conversation, Gabe Mora interviews his life partner, Don Simmons, a Fresno State professor and historic preservation enthusiast. They talk about building their life together in Fresno. For Don, he didn’t expect to grow to love this city, especially after a life-changing tragedy on 9/11.

And now to StoryCorps San Joaquin, a series based on our collaboration with the personal history project, StoryCorps. In this edited conversation from February's 2020 mobile tour in Fresno, 64-year-old daughter Nadine Takeuchi asks her 88-year-old mother Harumi Sasaki about her experience as a Japanese-American teenager living through the Hiroshima bombing.  

In this StoryCorps San Joaquin segment, 53-year-old Joan Yamate Taketa talks with her lifelong friend Celeste Johnston, 54, about what she has learned of her paternal family history. The two also talk about their decades-long close friendship. Joan calls Celeste the “repository of a lot of her memories” and shares a story about her father. When Joan’s father was a young boy in the United States, he travelled with his mother to Japan to retrieve his older sister, who had been going to school near Hiroshima. And then Pearl Harbor was bombed. Joan tells Celeste the rest of the story.

And now it’s time for StoryCorps San Joaquin, edited conversations from the mobile 2020 tour in Fresno and Bakersfield documenting the stories of Valley residents. Today Jeff Bowman tells StoryCorps facilitator Ava Ahmadbeigi about childhood summers spent with his pioneering grandmother, Billy Murphy. At age 46, she became the first woman to operate a fire lookout tower in California, 8,000 feet up in the San Bernardino National Forest. That was shortly after WWII and she did it for the next 23 years. 

And now to StoryCorps San Joaquin, a series based on our collaboration with the personal history project Storycorps. In this edited conversation from February's 2020 mobile tour in Bakersfield, 15-year-old Emily Gorospe interviews her mother Valerie Gorospe about her grandmother, Teresa De Anda.

Now to StoryCorps San Joaquin. This series is part of our collaboration with the personal history project. We’ll be airing segments over the next year based on recorded conversations from February’s 2020 mobile tour in Fresno and Bakersfield. In today’s feature: Giving voice to the community.

And now it’s time for another StoryCorps San Joaquin. As part of our collaboration with the personal history project, we’ll be airing segments over the next year based on recorded conversations from February’s 2020 mobile tour in Fresno and Bakersfield. Today you’ll hear from two sisters, Diane Flowers and Marilyn Harris. They share stories about their beloved father, a man dedicated to peace and practicing what you preach.

And now it’s time for another episode of StoryCorps San Joaquin. As part of Valley Public Radio’s collaboration with the personal history project, we’re airing segments based on recorded conversations from February’s 2020 mobile tour in Fresno and Bakersfield. Today, we’re going to hear from mother and daughter, Maria and Jasmine Leiva as they trace their family roots in El Salvador.

And now it's time for another segment of StoryCorps San Joaquin. As part of Valley Public Radio’s collaboration with the personal history project, we’re airing segments based on recorded conversations from February’s 2020 mobile tour in Fresno and Bakersfield. Today, as part of the Yonsei Memory Project, you’ll hear from lifelong friends, 94-year-old Gary Tsudama and 87-year-old Yutaka Yamamoto.

In February and March, the StoryCorps mobile 2020 tour was in Fresno and Bakersfield documenting the stories of San Joaquin Valley residents. As part of Valley Public Radio’s collaboration with the personal history project, we’ll be producing segments over the next year based on some of these recorded conversations. Today you’ll hear from two religious leaders in Fresno: Rabbi Rick Winer of Temple Beth Israel and Reza Nekumanesh, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Center.

Valley Public Radio has partnered with the personal history project StoryCorps and its 2020 mobile tour. Since February 12, StoryCorps has been in Fresno and Bakersfield documenting the stories of residents in the San Joaquin Valley. As part of our collaboration, we’ll be airing segments over the next year based on some of these recorded conversations.