WASHINGTON — Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, are joining a national oral-history project that urges people to take time the day after Thanksgiving for a National Day of Listening with their friends and loved ones.
The recorded conversation between mother and son about their lives will be broadcast today as part of the StoryCorps segment on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” Organizers said Ono and her son find similarities between their childhoods.
This is the third year for the National Day of Listening, a project that encourages people to record interviews with friends or family members about their lives. New participants this year also include U.S. Olympic athletes and staffers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian as part of Native American Heritage Day today.
KJ Jacks, 29, who has worked in special events since the museum opened in 2004, said it was a chance to talk about the diversity among American Indians, including her own experience growing up near Denver. She said it’s important for people to know American Indians are part of everyday life and that “we don’t all walk around wearing buckskin dresses.” “My father is full- blood Cherokee. I didn’t meet him until I was 16 years old. So my mom tried to get me interested in Indian culture when I was young, and I wasn’t having any of it — I was rebelling,” she said in her interview with a co-worker.
Jacks said she grew up with a single mother of Irish descent. After she started at the museum, she wanted to learn more about her Cherokee heritage and reconnect with her father.
