College Speaking on Diversity and Inclusion

I had the chance to perform in front of college students on the themes of Diversity and Inclusion. I love their responses! I used stories as THE BEST WAY to discuss difficult topics. In the breakout sessions, we worked on communicating across lines of difference. That’s what the one student is referring to – she wants to post the communication guidelines on her wall. All of us get in situations where we just don’t know what to say especially when the conversation is about race, gender and other hot topics. Young people are looking for this guidance but they don’t want to be preached at! Sharing our stories is the most respectful and productive way to value others and feel appreciated yourself.

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Why Use a Story Coach?

Yes! Even the best storytellers rely on coaches to help edit their new stories before they perform them in public. Syd came over to my house this week to work on a new story that he is going to perform at the Celtic Knot in Evanston, IL at 8 pm on March 20, 2011. It was an honor to work with him and he was a huge help to me as I am working on a new story as well. Storytelling: don’t try this art form alone! Get yourself a story coach!

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Growing Up Japanese American

Storyteller, Anne Shimojima, describes feeling invisible growing up Japanese American. Why should any child, or adult, get the message they don’t count or even exist? Let’s all work to make our events, our media, our lives as inclusive as possible.

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Break through compassion fatigue!

Your cause is important! But let’s face it, people have compassion fatigue. With the information overload we all experience, you’ve got to be creative in how you let people know about your organization’s good work. A story well told can be the answer to gaining the attention your organization deserves!

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Performing Group Diversity Stories

From time to time, I like to share questions that are emailed to me such as this one:

Q: A few of us at our college would like to perform stories around cultural differences similar to what you do in Tribes& Bridges and More Alike Than Not: Stories of Three Americans – Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. How do we get started?

A: If you are going to perform stories around race and issues of justice, be prepared for deep emotions to arise, yours and others. If you are going to work with others, besides all the difficult, nitty-gritty, normal collaboration issues of schedules and responsibilities, you will be faced with unique challenges precisely because we have been trained to keep quiet about issues of social significance.

First, talking about these issues often breaks many family rules. In order to survive, many families didn’t talk about what they’d been through. For example, after the Holocaust, the internment camps, the Boarding Schools, the Jim Crow mistreatments and lynchings, many parents enforced an unspoken, yet deeply felt, “No talk” agreement.

Speaking the unspeakable as well as even attempting multicultural colleagueship can feel like a betrayal to the people and communities from which we come. As you collaborate and discuss the care and nurturing of your audiences, you must do the same for each other.

Our hurts run deep. Tears will be shed; memories and, therefore, creation can be blocked; doubts will continually surface. We have to have a long and large love for our stories, our country and each other to keep going. Opening the wounds is never pleasant, but healing happens in the light of day.

However, open the wounds gently, gently, gently. Ground rules around support, communication styles and the like are essential. As in any relationship, talking out fears, limitations, preferences and visions beforehand can help make the uncovering process easier. Still, if you are hitting the true repressed veins of our individual and communal psyches, I would imagine your team will experience some of the things we did: fitful sleep, times of “I can’t do this,” and moments of incredible connection and freedom as we finally faced and spoke long-buried truths.

Good luck and let me know how I might support you!

This article may be reprinted when this full byline is used: Susan O’Halloran is a story artist, workshop presenter and keynote speaker whose work explores the complex (and, with Sue, entertaining) issues of social justice and valuing differences. She is an author of four books plus diversity curriculums, CDs and films. The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” Find out more about Susan and her online classes plus download a free audio interview at: www.susanohalloran.com.

Funding and the Arts

From time to time, I want to answer questions that come to me via email that I think might be of interest to more than just the sender. Here’s a question on funding that goes to arts funding but for anyone looking for sponsorship.

Q: How did you raise the money to shoot the videotape Tribes & Bridges at the Steppenwolf Theater and produce the Kaleidoscope Curriculums for inspireaclassroom.com?

Like many artists, the phrase, “businessperson,” can make me squirm.  But hiring tellers, shooting videotapes, printing curriculums, all of it, takes money.  I have been fortunate throughout the various Kaleidoscope projects to have Father Derek Simons and the Society of the Divine Word’s support plus support from my own regional storytelling organization, Northlands Storytelling Network.  However, I had to branch out further to turn dreams into reality.  The Tribes & Bridges videotape, for example, was made possible by a unique collaboration between religious (The Society of the Divine Word and the ACTA Foundation), arts (The Steppenwolf Theater, Illinois Storytelling Festival, Northwest Area Arts Council), business (The Kaleidoscope Group, Diversity Consultants) and corporate (The Northern Trust Bank) sponsors.

Fundraising is storytelling: What stories do you have to tell a corporation or an arts organization to motivate them to get involved with you?  You are a story:  What relationships have you or can you develop?  What will potential funders tell themselves about you?  “She’s trustworthy.”  “They’ll be around for awhile.”  “He’s accountable.”

Your potential funder is tuned to one station: WIFM – what’s in it for me?  Don’t tell a future funder or business partner your story alone i.e. why your project is so worthwhile.  Speak to their needs.  Do they want publicity, a name in the community or a long lasting product at the end such as a book or video?  For our multicultural shows on justice, we had to ask: what are our funders’ ideas of how things can or should change in our society?  We needed to write a clear business proposal that spoke to their vision.  Yes, organizations care, but they need more than that to have your project rise above all the others that come across their desks.

Fundraising, scheduling, feeding the PR machine, answering e-mails, bookkeeping and distributing tapes are all responsibilities I’d gladly do away with, but the nuts and bolts of business hold the artistic structure together.  The art of commerce is a story that makes creative projects happen.