American Stories is a bold, ambitious, big-hearted project that seeks to reaffirm our shared American identity in this polarized moment.
This national, non-partisan, nonprofit initiative will welcome all Americans to tell their stories—starting with that simple, powerful question of how their families became American in their own words. The enduring archive will capture the diversity, beauty, and commonality of our American experiences, ensuring that our true, collective history is preserved for generations to come.
When our differences threaten to destroy what we’ve built together, our stories remind us why America really is exceptional. And they just might rekindle the optimism—and radical belief—that is our American inheritance.
American Stories will archive history as we lived it at a time when the truth of who we are and who we’ve been feels at risk. This inherently honest and encompassing initiative honors the reality that there is no single American narrative. All of our stories belong; each thread is equal, and necessary, for our rich national tapestry.
In this climate of polarization when our need for narrative change feels so urgent, this healing project welcomes a collective American vision. Ultimately, American Stories will foster the deep empathy, purposeful civic engagement, and enduring intergenerational bonds that are characteristic of the strongest societies, connecting our future to our past.
“From the Dreamers to those whose ancestors came on the Mayflower, indigenous peoples to descendants of enslaved people, Holocaust survivors to Afghan refugees—each and every American family has an origin story worth recounting.”
An expansive oral history collection anchored in intimate, intergenerational interviews, American Stories will be a first-of-its kind, searchable online archive that captures our shared American history at its most personal, inclusive, and candid.
While each of these conversations will create a family heirloom on its own, collectively, they will serve as a witness, resource, and inspiration for researchers, artists, historians, and communities for generations to come.
Stories Matter.
American Stories is a bold, ambitious project that requires financial support from generous donors like you. Make your gift today to ensure our collective history is preserved for generations of Americans to come.
Elizabeth Hira is a social justice attorney who works on large-scale democracy reforms. Yet, in a thriving career focused on today’s most pressing problems, she found herself struck by how remote policy felt from people. Closing that gap, she realized, was a matter of focusing on our shared desires for community, empathy, and belonging. Out of this insight, American Stories emerged.
In the course of her career, Elizabeth has partnered with such national advocacy groups as Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote and the Center for Reproductive Rights. She shaped American Stories during her time as an aide to then-Sen. Kamala Harris, an Elections Counsel in the U.S. House, and a Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center. And from her one-woman show Pursuing Guerrilla Equality, to working for Ken Burns on The National Parks, Elizabeth has made storytelling a defining pillar of her career, trusting in its power to shape our civic lives and collective future.
A graduate of Stanford and Georgetown Law, Elizabeth was born in the Caribbean and calls Brooklyn, NY, home.
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Help make this dream of American Stories a reality for generations of historians, researchers, and artists to come.