Wondering how Mapping Main Street came to be?  Turns out it’s one part lots of hard work, plus one great opportunity, add several friends and colleagues to guide you, plus creative problem solving and you get something much larger than you could ever hope for, something 10,466 streets large.

Learn much more by checking out this short essay by Mapping Main Street’s Kara Oehler she wrote for the Association for Independence in Radio (AIR).

You can learn even more about the public radio system and other exciting creative media projects in this article from Current-the newspaper about public TV and radio in the US.

We just officially launched this website! Check out the announcement email below. And pass along this link to friends.

Dear friends,

As some of you may have heard, we’ve been hard at work collecting stories and images of streets named Main across the country. Our project, Mapping Main Street, is an experiment in collaborative documentary media, and we hope that you’ll participate and collaborate with us!

It all began last fall when “Main Street” became the political buzzword of the moment. We felt that when politicians and the media mentioned Main Street, they implied a singular place and culture. Against this reductive rhetoric, we pummeled Google with almost a million queries, and found that there are actually 10,466 streets named Main in the United States.

The goal of Mapping Main Street is to document every one of these streets. We started exploring Main Streets this summer, and it’s been an interesting adventure so farófrom the discovery of autographed photos of Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis in a dilapidated house in West Virginia to conversations with a transvestite prostitute in Chattanooga and menudo breakfasts on the Mexican border.

We’d love to have you collaborate in this mass documentary project by visiting one of the 10,466 Main Streets yourself and taking a photo or recording a story or video.

The only requirement for participation is that all photos, videos and interviews must be recorded on a street named Main. Take a look at the beta version of our website at http://mappingmainstreet.org. You can explore content already online and use the site to find some Main Streets in your neck of the woods. You can also receive updates by becoming a fan on facebook.

In August, two stories will air on NPR’s Weekend Edition. We’ll also feature four newly commissioned songs by Calvin Johnson, High Places, Ian Svenonius and Jason Cady. Each song will use field recordings collected on Main Streets across the country.

We’re looking forward to hearing about the Main Streets you explore. If you have any questions, just send us an email at info@mappingmainstreet.org.

See you on the road,

Kara Oehler, Ann Heppermann, James Burns & Jesse Shapins