Telling My Story Long Program
In our full-length workshops, a Telling My Story facilitator guides a community through a deep process of community listening, dialogue, and the creation of a visual or theatrical arts project over the course of 4-8 weeks.
Before the program starts, participants will write and send a draft of a testimonial that draws a connection between the participant’s personal experience and the general themes of the program. This material will accompany each participant during the journey with the program and will be an important reference to where they are at any given time and to where they want to be.
During the program, participants will reflect upon and talk about their life experiences and will be challenged to make constructive personal and social critiques. Each session will involve writing and reading aloud. Participants will have reading materials, videos to watch, and podcasts to listen to that will enrich the ongoing reflections. In this way, theory and practice of social change will walk together. By continually reflecting on our actions and acting on our reflections, we create what we call “critical presence,” a positive attitude and active role in facing the challenges of living in the midst of indifference and social apathy.
By the end of the program each participant will have completed their testimonial to share at the final performance; and together, participants will also write a manifesto to express their group voice.
Additionally, each participant will meet individually with the facilitator to connect beyond the group’s meetings. It is a time to get to know each other in a more personal way and to share thoughts and ideas.
The program’s activities foster a life experience that provides participants with tools to lead constructive and inclusive lives. TMS creates spaces for individuals to self-empower, finding voice in community with others, and disrupting the social norms and hierarchies that guide most of our lived experiences. By disrupting social barriers, TMS works to facilitate the creation of resilient and humane communities with a holistic view of humanity. Each TMS program culminates in an original production based on what the participants shared and discovered through the workshop. Given the imbalance of who gets to speak and be heard in our society, the performance is explicitly a platform for the voices of those living behind social walls whose stories are often silenced.
Target Goals for this Program:
- To break down stereotypes about invisible community-members,
- To practice social awareness,
- To build together a platform for speaking and listening to develop communication, dialogue and understanding,
- To practice listening by withholding judgment,
- To discover our own judgments and assumptions and recognize how these affect the way we relate on a daily basis,
- To recognize and combat personal ignorance and learn how to relate to one another with an inclusive and understanding attitude,
- To try to neutralize a social and intellectual platform (it can never be neutralized),
- To build and/or strengthen the community.
To see what past participants have to say about the program, click here.
Telling My Story Tool-Based Intensive Workshop
During a tool-based intensive program, participants will have 4 sessions with a facilitator, each 3 hours long. During these sessions, the facilitator will introduce and share the primary tools of TMS. In the tool-based intensive, we focus on the process required to create a space that fosters community awareness, self-empowerment, and trust-based relationships. The goal of the program is to open new possibilities for program participants to come together and strengthen their community.
Target Goals for this Program:
- To break down stereotypes about invisible community-members,
- To practice social awareness,
- To build together a platform for speaking and listening to develop communication, dialogue and understanding,
- To practice listening by withholding judgment,
- To discover our own judgments and assumptions and recognize how these affect the way we relate on a daily basis,
- To recognize and combat personal ignorance and learn how to relate to one another with an inclusive and understanding attitude,
- To try to neutralize a social and intellectual platform (it can never be neutralized),
- To build and/or strengthen the community.
- This program puts a strong emphasis on sharing the tools of Telling My Story so that participants can use them in their own lives and communities.
Telling My Story Abroad
Since 2009, Pati has annually facilitated workshops using the TMS method in several facilities in Chile and most recently in Nepal, at times accompanied by a student volunteer. While Pati facilitated creative workshops with female inmates, accompanying students developed other artistic workshops to further the goals of the TMS program. To read more about the self-portraiture workshop designed and implemented by Dartmouth College graduate Nell Pierce in a facility in Talca, Chile, click here.
It’s Criminal: The Documentary
It’s Criminal, an original documentary directed and produced by Signe Taylor in collaboration with TMS, follows the Summer 2010 Telling Stories for Social Change class at Dartmouth College. The film explores the emotional and intellectual struggle of students and inmates alike with class differences, poverty, incarceration, addiction and social abandonment. To view the trailer and see when It’s Criminal will be showing near you, visit the documentary homepage.