Story Share Project
Collecting and sharing stories about jazz from people around Chicago
JAzz Stories podcast 2020
Tell us your story!
Though we cannot connect in person right now, we can still connect with stories. Please send us your jazz stories! Some prompts are:
What is your earliest/favorite/strongest memory of jazz? Where were you? Who were you with? Who did you hear? What were some of your feelings with that moment?
Who influenced your interest in jazz? What was your relationship to that person? What does jazz mean to you? Describe an experience of listening to jazz with someone else.
What do you hope for the future of jazz music in Chicago?
But don’t feel limited to these! We want to hear any story you want to share.
You can send us your story in writing or as an audio file (nothing fancy necessary—you can just record it on your phone!) to olivia@hydeparkjazzfestival.org. Please let us know in that email whether we have your permission to share your story on this page or social media (note: submission does not guarantee posting). Thank you!
Story Share History
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Be*spoke launched the Story Share project in 2013 as a way to invite Festival attendees to share informal stories about their personal experience and relationship with jazz. With the support of the Joyce Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust, the Story Share expanded to include partnerships with the Rebuild Foundation, Story Corps, and the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
The partnership with the Rebuild Foundation included collecting stories in the Dorchester neighborhood on the South Side, which lead to the commissioning of two Chicago composers, Tomeka Reid and Mikel Patrick Avery, to write new music in response to what neighbors shared. These commissions were performed in the 2016 Festival. Videos of these commissions can be found here.
Below you will find a small selection of these field recordings of memory. More than anything, what the Story Share has come to represent is the power of telling and listening to stories. We hope you enjoy what you hear on this site, and that you will share your story with us too.
Want to explore our full archives of South Side jazz stories? Interested in sharing a story? Contact us below!
The Story Share Project has been supported by
Story Share partners have included
