Tell your organization’s STORY

I had the pleasure of teaching STORY POWER at the Community Media Workshop’s “Making Media Connections” Day. Whether you’re a business or non-profit, take the time to create your organization’s story.

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Go hear stories this summer!

There are Storytelling Festivals all over the United States this summer – go have a great time and remember how much you enjoy LIVE entertainment!

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Summer story festivals

Have you had your fix of storytelling yet this summer? Go to: www.storytelling.org for a schedule of events in Illinois. Go to: storytellingfestival.net for news on the National Storytelling Festival and residencies in Jonesborough, TN and go to www.festivals.com and put in the keyword “Storytelling” for more ideas.

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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.

Interviewing techniques

Q: How did you get the people in your Kaleidoscope Discussion Videos to talk so openly? We’ve tried to interview people – to hear others’ stories – but I found most people don’t think they have much to share.

A: First of all, thanks to all who sent messages about the recent post of the Discussion Videos Promo.

I pre-interviewed over seventy people before I videotaped forty-two people’s stories for the Kaleidoscope curriculums.  You’re right. Often, people don’t know they have stories.  Sadly, they don’t think that their lives and their experiences are important.  They need to be drawn out.  Before I asked the interviewees one question around diversity, we talked about our families, neighborhoods, schools and so on. When some rapport was established, I asked questions such as:

• Who is your inspiration?  Where do you find hope and encouragement?
• What has your culture given you?
• Have there been times you were judged by appearances or stereotypes?  How did that make you feel?
• Have there been times you judged by appearances or stereotypes and, then, found out you were wrong?

At all times, I strived for balance, portraying the truth that we have all been both the insider and outsider.  I’m often an insider on race and physical abilities in this country, for example, but, sometimes, an outsider on gender or class.  I also strove for balance between examples of discrimination and models of inclusivity, knowing that we learn just as well, and sometimes better, from what is working.  Plus, when presenting our country’s hidden history around race, for example, we must be careful not to paint any group as victim (only), but to always include the magnificent stories of resistance and success as well.

To preview the Kaleidoscope Discussion Videos go to:

http://inspireaclassroom.com/?page_id=20

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.

Setting the right tone for your message

All good outer work starts with inner work. We need to become good detectives on ourselves. Before telling a story around a social justice theme, interviewing people for your research, or inviting someone to speak to your class or organization, boldly delve into your own history of difference. Be willing to look at not only when you were on the receiving end of other people’s ignorance and hate, but the much harder task of when and how you’ve dished it out. We need to understand how we are like the things we want to change in order for our stories to achieve the tone that opens hearts. Get to know your defenses and your hiding places, your large reserve of prejudices and fears. When we cozy up to our shadow sides, we sound less righteous and people are less likely to close down when we speak. If we want to change hearts, it is wiser to speak of our journey, not what other people should say or do.

Plus, read everything you can about your subject. Learn from others in a Gettrespectful way, that is, don’t turn traditional outsiders into a project by asking a thousand questions. We need to take the responsibility to educate ourselves and be ready to share who we are. People who have been placed on the outside have enough burdens without feeling as though they are specimens under a microscope or spokesperson for their entire group We can look for ethnic film festivals or panel discussions where it’s set up for us to ask questions and the people involved are being paid for their time or, at least, voluntarily in education mode.

To tell our stories without sounding “preachy,” we need to use all the tools of the storytelling trade — suspense, humor, clear characters the audience can care about and so on. Listen to storytelling and political speeches that don’t work. Analyze when you started to shift in your seat because you felt as though you were being chastised. When does a description of a situation immobilize you with guilt and overwhelm you with its complexity and when do you feel compelled to pick up the phone, write a check or go to the meeting?

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