Telling Stories to Change the World is a powerful collection of essays about community-based and interest-based projects where storytelling is used as a strategy for speaking out for justice. Contributors from locations across the globe—including Uganda, Darfur, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Orleans, and Chicago—describe grassroots projects in which communities use narrative as a way of exploring what a more just society might look like and what civic engagement means. These compelling accounts of resistance, hope, and vision showcase the power of the storytelling form to generate critique and collective action. Together, these projects demonstrate the contemporary power of stories to stimulate engagement, active citizenship, the pride of identity, and the humility of human connectedness.
Author(s): Solinger Fox Ir
Edition: 1
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 280
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 7
Contents......Page 8
Series Editor’s Introduction......Page 12
Introduction......Page 14
I: “The Language of the People Was Born”: Stories in the Service of Healing, Tradition, Cultural Vitality, History......Page 26
1: Zuni River—Shiwinan K’yawinanne: Cultural Con.uence......Page 28
2: The Memory Book Project in Kampala, Uganda: “We’re Not Going to Die Today or Tomorrow”......Page 36
3: Telling the Truth: How Breaking Silence Brought Redemption to One Mississippi Town......Page 44
4: “Our Ancestors Danced Like This: ” Maya Youth Respond to Genocide through the Ancestral Arts......Page 52
5: An Unlikely Alliance: Germans and Jews Collaborate to Teach the Lessons of the Holocaust......Page 68
6: Storytelling in SisterSong and the Voices of Feminism Project......Page 78
II: “This Needs Urgent Attention”: Stories in the Service of Protecting, Defending, Building Audience and Allies......Page 86
7: “Our Stories, Told By Us”: The Neighborhood Story Project in New Orleans......Page 88
8: A Story of a Suicide and Social Change in Contemporary China......Page 104
9: Depo Diaries and the Power of Stories......Page 114
10: Immigrant Stories in the Hudson Valley......Page 122
11: Our Stories, Their Decisions Voter Education Project......Page 132
12: Drawing Attention to Darfur......Page 140
13: Insan Natak: Phoenix or Dodo in Lahore......Page 152
14: Everyone Needs to Know: Five Stories about AIDS and Art in India......Page 160
III: “Weaving Freedom into New Tongues”: Stories in the Service of Challenging and Transforming Beliefs......Page 172
15: The We That Sets Us Free: Imagining a World without Prisons......Page 174
16: Hearing the Great Ancestors and “Women Living Under Muslim Laws”......Page 186
17: Creating a Forum: LGBTQ Youth and The Home Project in Chicago......Page 196
18: From Storytelling to Community Development......Page 206
19: Sins Invalid: Disability, Dancing, and Claiming Beauty......Page 214
IV: The Power and the Limits of Stories......Page 226
20: Anne Braden, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Rigoberta Menchu: Using Personal Narrative to Build Activist Movements......Page 230
21: Tra.cking Trauma: Intellectual Property Rights and the Political Economy of Traumatic Storytelling in South Africa......Page 240
22: Imagining Cuba: Storytelling and the Politics of Exile......Page 252
23: Stories in Law......Page 262
