LAOUTLOUD Storytelling Workshop Description: listening within a local context
LAOUTLOUD produces local storytelling workshops in coordination with the StoryCenter Berkley, CA
Workshop participants are invited to delve deeply into their own life experiences around targeted issues within the context of a group production environment. In a one-day workshop, facilitators take participants through the steps they need to complete a Snapshot digital story of approximately two to three minutes in length. Participants will 1) come with a story idea and a few photos to illustrate their story; 2) view and discuss successful stories to gain an understanding of techniques; 3) participate in a Story Circle to develop story ideas; and 4) write and record a first-person narrative script. StoryCenter will post-produce the
LAOUTLOUD Storytelling Workshop Goals: making connections, spotlighting local stories for systemic change in women’s lives.
Through the Snapshot digital story workshop process, participants will examine their own experiences across race, class, gender, abilities, and generations. The process represents storytelling at its best, with the purpose of creating alliances that can mobilize communities, shape policy, and design more equitable systems for women and girls. Additionally, the workshops will:
- Empower local communities by illuminating the intersecting issues faced by women and men with varying perspectives.
- Provide a retreat-like space where activists can share experiences, have intergenerational conversation, rethink, clarify values and refuel.
- Help participating organizations raise awareness around targeted issues. Stories can be used for teaching, advocacy, development, research, and communications, and in social media campaigns.
- Document the experiences of activities across the state with priority given to a number of older women whose stories will be lost if not recorded soon.
- Humanize statistics and contextualizing the analysis of experts by bringing to life the experiences of those who are directly impacted by issues and problems; and,
- Use stories to bring the concerns of community members to policy makers to effect changes.
Workshop Attendees: ANYONE age 18-100, of any background or heritage.
LAOUTLOUD workshops include: members of established women's organizations, especially women of color; women 18-30; veteran feminists; social justice, human rights and women’s rights activists, both women and men; and women and men who are engaging for the first-time. We seek diverse, inter-generational groups in each workshop. Participants will listen deeply, tell their own stories, and inspire others.
The StoryCenter Edge: experience in community storytelling
LAOUTLOUD works with facilitators from the StoryCenter in Berkley, CA. The StoryCenter is a non-profit training, project development, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their own lives. StoryCenter’s ongoing efforts draw upon the organization’s 25-year history of helping communities explore the relationship between personal narratives and media, but also on a diverse interdisciplinary body of theory and practice in public health, community development, cultural and environmental studies, and human rights advocacy.
LAOUTLOUD, along with the StoryCenter, pays special attention to the ethics of bringing first-person narratives into public viewing environments. The guiding vision is to listen deeply, facilitate reflection and transformation, and encourage involvement in collective action. For a greater understanding of the StoryCenter’s work and ethics, please go to their website at http://www.storycenter.org/storycenter-blog/awwp.
