About

The project that I started in January began with interviews. I was interested in stories about how families came to the United States. I began with people I saw on a daily basis who have shown awareness in the dual nature of their cultural backgrounds—a professor whose grandfather fled Baghdad during the second World War, a roommate whose mother left her family in India to be with her husband in America, and a client who got her first taste of America at the age of seventeen and became determined to live here. One of these people was surprised that I would want to hear her family’s story. She didn’t think her life in Russia was very colorful; as an adolescent she had to wait in line for hours to buy rationed bread and potatoes with the food stamps used under the Communist regime. Another was eager to talk about riding camels in India as a child, and about her sadness when the vending of camel rides became illegal. Yet another spoke of his Iraqi-Jewish grandfather’s narrow escape from discovery by Storm Troopers on a train in Berlin; he told the story in such detail I felt as if he had been there himself.

Their anecdotes were heartfelt, funny, suspenseful, sad, and triumphant. Each person’s journey to America was a complex one, filled a sense of loss, but also with moments of relief and gratitude. I was touched by each of these interviews, and wanted to share them with others. The memoirs are not only personal accounts of family history, but also markers of momentous events in world history.

As I began to devise a method of distributing these stories, I realized that I wanted more than to just give them away: I wanted viewers to share their own memories in return. I recalled the coin tray on the cashier’s counter at my local drug store; it was accompanied by a small sign which said, “If you need a penny, take a penny. If you have a penny, leave a penny.” This small gesture has always struck me as thoughtful in its intention and charming in its simplicity. Hence, I was inspired to title this project, “take one/ leave one.” Like currency, stories are meant to be exchanged. My goal is to provide a means for the sharing of stories.