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Dear friends,

As many of you know, back in May we packed into a 96 Suburu station wagon and began a 15,000 mile journey across the United States. Along the way, we stopped at hundreds of streets named Main Street - collecting stories and taking photos. The goal of this collaborative documentary media project is to document all of the more than 10,466 streets named Main in the United States.
 
NPR Weekend Edition Series

As part of the project, we're producing a series on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. Our first story was about Chattanooga, TN, where part of Main Street is a prostitution strip. Our section story explored San Luis, AZ, where Main Street is a border crossing. This Saturday, tune in to Weekend Edition, where we'll raft under Main Street in Lewistown, MT. (Check out NPR.org to see when you can hear the show on your local member station.) 		chattanooga sanluis
 
Mapping Main Street Songs

We've also commissioned four musicians to create original songs based on actual Main Streets. Listen to songs by:
highplaces chain jason hivedwellers
 
A Collaborative Documentary Media Project

Mapping Main Street is an experiment in the new genre of collaborative documentary media. Anyone can contribute to this project. The only requirement is that all photos and videos must be taken on a street named Main. You can explore this interactive documentary on our website www.mappingmainstreet.org. Already, hundreds of people have contributed photos and videos from more than 400 Main Streets in all 50 states. The site is organized around geographical and thematic routes. We think some of the most interesting are:
abandoned hydrants fields murals neon people animals abstract philadelphia saltlake fortworth richmond california missouri montana kentucky
 
Upcoming

This is just the first phase of the project. Now, we're currently working with WNYC's Radio Rookies Short Wave on a workshop to produce radio stories and take photos on Main Street in Flushing, Queens. And this winter, we'll be journeying along the Main Streets of the Puget Sound region to produce stories and interactive features for KUOW's Program Venture Fund, along with special experimental pieces for PRX's Remix Radio Sirius stream.

From the road,

Kara, Ann, Jesse & James
 
Mapping Main Street is produced through the generous funding of MQ2, an initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio, Inc. with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The project is also supported with funds from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. The website was designed by the Mapping Main Street team and Local Projects.