Dec 1 | Ward 7 Story Circle: Navigating Demographic Change @ Benning Library

What is your personal story of change in your neighborhood? How has the physical environment changed? How have the demographics changed? How do you maintain a sense of belonging to your community in the midst of all these changes? Share your stories of Navigating Demographic Change in our first Ward 7 Story Circle. 

Story circles are a method of gathering people in groups to tell and listen to true, personal stories. Story circles consist of a group of five to fifteen people and a facilitator. There are no observers; everyone participates in storytelling when their turn comes, including the facilitator. Stories are told on a particular theme, involve characters, and have a beginning, middle, and end. They can build on ideas that are triggered from other stories, but cross-talk is not allowed until all participants have had a chance to tell a story. Story circles conclude with time for the group to reflect collectively on what they have heard. In addition to personal storytelling, story circles can serve as a powerful tool for surfacing collective memory and experience, as well as surfacing concerns within communities.

D.C. Story Circle Project also aims to capture and collect the stories that are shared for use in oral history archives, for a District of Columbia community story publication, and potentially for an original play. We will seek participant consent to record the story circles for the purposes of transcription and ask participants to sign a consent form.

We ask that participants come on time, and maintain a committment to attend the event. Story circles succeed only when we have adequate numbers of participants to make the story-sharing experience memorable.

Please visit www.dcstorycircle.com to learn more about D.C. Story Circle Project!