|
Contents:
The Listening Post
International
Digital Storytelling Conference
May
16 - International Day for Sharing Life Stories
CDS
Receives NMC Excellence Award
Silence
Speaks
US
Regional Office Highlights
Canadian
Regional Office Highlights
European
Regional Highlights
Storymapping
VISTA
Report
Calendar
of Upcoming Workshops
|
The
Listening Post
by
Joe Lambert, April 2009
Dear Friends,
The flowers have bloomed in Berkeley, and the feeling of spring
is in the air. This long, dark winter brought change aplenty. We
are living unofficially in a time of reduced expectations, with
a sense that whatever the future holds, it will not be more, but
less, of many things.
The Irish say, "Enough is a Feast." That attitude offers
a good way forward, as a societal mantra. While humans as a species
might hope and strive for lordly lifestyles, for a move from slumdog
to millionaire, the fact is that we can no longer afford to do so.
We would do better to collectively focus on ways to help those lacking
even the barest of necessities (an ever growing number), instead
of clinging to the delusion that our striving and success will “trickle
down.”
At the Center for Digital Storytelling, we have spent the winter
re-organizing our own future. We have set ourselves the task of
creating a series of Project Initiatives that build on the history
and strengths of our work in specific fields. Our intention with
this effort is to make the Center a more strategic organization
-- one with a clear focus on how digital storytelling can best serve
the larger project of social change.
We are also happy to announce several significant updates to our
website, which now features more in-depth case
studies as well as a direct focus on our ever-expanding customized
project work.
This re-vamping happens as our organization, like the rest of world,
attempts to buckle down for the ride of the next few years. While
we obviously cannot know how bumpy the road ahead might lead, what
we do know is that that there will continue to be important work
to do, in sharing and listening to stories.
We look forward to hearing yours.
-Joe Lambert
top
International
Digital Storytelling Conference, Óbidos, Portugal, June 26-27
The Center is partnering with the newly formed MULTISTORIAS.PT
to present the Third International Digital Storytelling Conference,
which will be held this June in the beautiful seaside town of Óbidos,
Portugal. www.obidos.pt.
Organized as a follow-up to the 2003 conference in Cardiff, Wales
and the 2006 conference in Melbourne, Australia, the Portugal event
will feature a group of renowned speakers from the field of digital
storytelling, including Lisa Heledd Jones, former facilitator with
BBC’s Capture
Wales project, Eddie Westbroek, the former director of Sweden’s
Room for Storytelling project,
Joe Lambert of the Center for Digital Storytelling, Simon Stromberg
of the Shahrazad
Project, and Kelly McWilliams (invited) with Queensland University
of Technology, co-editor with John Hartley of Story
Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World(Australia). Networks
and organizations such as the Museum of the Person International
Network, the Digi-Tales European Network, and the Dublin Institute
of Technology will also be involved. The conference will explore
theoretical and practical aspects of digital storytelling in the
context of community work and will facilitate dialogue on methodological
innovations using broadcast, mobile technology, and Web 2.0 applications.
For information or to register, visit www.storycenter.org/obidos.html.
May
16, 2009 - International Day for Sharing Life Stories
The Center for Digital Storytelling has joined
with the Museum of the Person International Network to organize
the second International Day for Sharing Life Stories, a worldwide
celebration scheduled for May 16. After a successful inaugural year,
the two organizations are working together to gain broad recognition
of May 16 as an annual day for sharing, listening to, and gathering
the stories of people's lives.
Guided by the theme of Journeys Toward Justice, this year’s
International Day will promote partnerships and collaborations between
human rights/immigration rights activists and life story organizations.
Participating groups and members of the public are being encouraged
to share 1,000 stories (as text, image, audio, and video) related
to human rights and immigrant rights, as part of an online campaign.
The International Day website
will link to stories at storiesforchange.net,
the Hub at witness.org, storycenter.org,
silencespeaks.org, and
museudapessoa.net. Organizations
and groups currently hosting stories that touch upon the Day’s
theme are urged to join the campaign.
As with the 2008 International Day event, the Center for Digital
Storytelling and the Museum of the Person International Network
are inviting people interested or currently involved in story work
to gather in community halls, classrooms, public parks, theaters,
auditoriums, and other venues to share their life stories.
May 16 was chosen as the International Day in part to honor the
birthday of author Studs Terkel, who passed away October 31, 2008
at age 96. Terkel’s work as a radio personality, oral history
interviewer, writer, and activist has inspired thousands and thousands
of life story practitioners in the fields of oral history, journalism,
creative writing, and new media. The annual International Day campaign
will encourage reflection on Terkel’s vision by linking to
numerous efforts to celebrate his life and legacy.
For more information about how to get involved,
email internacional@museudapessoa.net.
Center
for Digital Storytelling to Receive Center of Excellence Award at
New Media Consortium Meeting, Summer 2009
New Media Consortium (NMC) CEO Larry
Johnson recently informed the Center that it will be recognized
with a “Center of Excellence Award” at this year’s
NMC Summer Conference
in Monterey, California The NMC is comprised of nearly 300 learning-focused
organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media
and new technologies. The Center has partnered with NMC and with
countless NMC member campuses to introduce digital storytelling
methods and practice into higher education environments. For examples
of work in higher education, visit the Center’s new case
studies online.
top
Silence
Speaks News
After spending four months in late 2008 working closely with the
Sonke Gender Justice Network’s projects in rural South Africa
(see an overview of the Sonke
Digital Stories project), the Center’s Silence
Speaks initiative has been busy this winter with national and
international outreach and information sharing. In February, the
initiative was presented at Aftermath:
Journalism, Storytelling, and the Impact of Violence and Tragedy
(Boston). In March, with sponsorship from ADRA International, Silence
Speaks was featured at the United Nations Commission on the Status
of Women’s NGO Parallel Events conference (New York), and
in April, the initiative was presented at the Engaging
Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality global symposium (Brazil).
Stories created over the past ten years through Silence Speaks can
be found on the new
compilation DVD, available for purchase now.
top
U.S.
Regional Office Highlights
Northern California/Pacific
Northwest Report
This winter, the Center’s home office in Berkeley hosted two
workshops with long-term partner the Y.O.U.T.H.
Training Project (Youth Offering Unique, Tangible Help to Social
Workers), a youth development initiative sponsored by the Bay Area
Academy of San Francisco State University. A session in February
brought together young people affiliated with Y.O.U.T.H. and its
spin-off advocacy group “Youth in Mind,” to share stories
about struggle and success in navigating the foster care and other
public systems to seek appropriate mental health treatment and support.
A session in March enabled current and former foster youth from
San Francisco County to develop stories about life in care and beyond.
For more information about this project, visit our case
studies online.
The Center is continuing its ongoing collaboration
with the Children’s System of Care program of the Community
Behavioral Health Services in San Francisco, an effort that continues
to expand to include workshops, community screenings, and the development
of story-based curricula. CDS also hosted workshops with the FACES
for the Future program of Children's Hospital, Oakland, and
with the California
Film Institute's My Place program.
Southern California Region
(Pasadena, CA)
The Center’s Pasadena office led two workshops in January,
focused on community work and healthcare, respectively. With the
support of the Flintridge Foundation, a “Northwest Stories”
workshop took place at Neighbors Empowering Youth, to celebrate
the stories of non-profit organizations working in the Northwest
Pasadena Community. (A screening of these stories will be held on
Friday, April 17, at La Pinteresca Library in Pasadena; for more
information, contact Gayle
Nicholls-Ali.) With the support of the California Endowment
and in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s
Keck School of Medicine, an “Impact Project” workshop
facilitated the development of stories about a variety of public
health issues.
Rocky Mountain/Midwest Region (Denver, CO)
In February, through a continuing collaboration with Rocky Mountain
PBS and the Colorado Health Foundation, the Center’s Denver
office ran the second in a series of workshops centered on capturing
people’s stories about their encounters with the health care
system. This project, funded by the Colorado Health Foundation,
is part of a campaign to promote the documentary “Critical
Condition,” originally broadcast on PBS in 2008. For more
information and to view stories, visit our case
studies online. The Center’s efforts in Denver were recently
featured in an article in the Denver
Post.
East Coast Region (Washington, DC)
On December 18, International Migrants Day, the Center’s East
Coast Region office helped coordinate a screening of Somali
Bantu Refugees Speak: Digital Stories of War and Resettlement
for a packed audience at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD.
The following month, the Center partnered with the Global Fund for
Children to lead a workshop with the Youth Parliament Foundation
in New Delhi, India, a youth led organization that provides young
people with the resources and guidance to execute innovative projects
they are passionate about. Young people explored their work in addressing
gender and sexuality, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and rights,
life skills education, and healthcare and music performances for
street and slum children; the stories will be featured on the Global
Fund’s web site in the coming months.
top
Canadian
Regional Office Highlights
Toronto Region
The Center’s Toronto office has been working hard this winter
on efforts to use digital storytelling as a way of educating school
staff, students, and local community members about the experiences
of immigrant and refugee children and youth. In January and February,
a group of ten settlement workers (who are based in local schools
to provide support to newcomer children and youth and their families)
from North York Community House took part in a facilitator training
program. These workers then co-facilitated a March workshop at Kipling
Collegiate Institute for twelve youth from Afghanistan, Somalia,
Ghana, Pakistan, and Vietnam. One participant, Almassa, said this
about the session:
"I write the stories that my mom told me. When she told me
the stories I was in Pakistan. When I write the stories, I still
feel like I am there. Thinking about back home makes me less lonely.
I want to be a writer so no one else feels lonely."
Western Canada Region
The Center’s work in Alberta continues to focus primarily
on health-related applications of digital storytelling. In January,
the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Edmonton Division sponsored
a workshop to explore the utility of digital storytelling as a method
for evaluating community-based health programs. In February, the
Center continued its successful collaboration with the University
of Calgary, Alberta Health Services, and Health Outcomes, Calgary
Division, through a workshop with healthcare practitioners, patients,
and administrators focused on patient safety, and a workshop at
the Alberta Children’s Hospital to launch “Well on Your
Way,” a program addressing issues for children and youth transitioning
into the adult care system. Stories from both workshops will be
screened publicly in Calgary at the end of April.
In the holistic Inuit vision of health, individual
and community well-being are tied to the land and sea. Global climate
change is having a dramatic impact on human health in the far reaches
of the North, including many physical threats (water, UV exposure,
etc), as well as various forms of social and mental health stress
due to changing lifestyles. With an awareness these issues, Health
Canada has funded the Center’s collaboration with the Rigolet
Inuit Community in Nunatsiavut, Northern Labrador, the University
of Guelph's School of Environmental Design & Rural Development,
and the Public Health Agency of Canada. This effort will conduct
workshops and storymapping excursions and share the resulting digital
stories and storymaps in community meetings and on a community-based
website to be launched in March 2010.
top
European
Regional Highlights
After the opening last November, the Digital
Storytelling Lab at the Copenhagen Business School has been
continuing work with colleagues from around Denmark and Scandanavia,
focused on at-risk youth in Copenhagen. In Portugal, the Center’s
partners at MULTISTORIAS.pt
is developing projects with youth with disabilities. The work in
Prague continues with efforts to host a summer workshop with University
of New York in Prague. The Center will join with the Forum
on Migration and Communications (FOMACS) at Dublin Institute
of Technology to hold a special week-long training in May on working
with refugee communities.
top
CTC
VISTA Report
The Center's ongoing collaboration with our two
CTC VISTA members continued
with several projects including assisting with youth workshops in
local communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing atelevision
show at Berkeley Community Media, working on local events and international
coordination for the International Day, collecting new digital stories
for CDS' website as well as producing a radio segment for KPFA radio
highlighting Silence Speak's work in South Africa for sexual assault
awareness month.
top
Storymapping
The Center has begun work on a national storymapping initiative,
UR Hear, that integrates urban research, storymapping, community-based
service learning, and asset-based approaches to community development.
We continue work with the Dawn Project in developing storymapping
in the context of urban planning in several cities. The New Orleans
Storymapping project, iWitness
Stories, continues to grow with projects planned for several
additional neighborhoods in conjunction with faculty and staff of
New York University's ITP program.
top
Open
Workshops
Center: Berkeley, California
Location: The Center for Digital Storytelling
1803 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA
Instructors: CDS Staff
Unless noted, Berkeley workshops are Basic 3-day workshops held
Thursday - Saturday, 9am - 5pm.
Visit
www.storycenter.org/schedule.html
2009 dates:
May 7-9 (Standard Workshop)
June 15-17 (Workshop for Educators, Monday-Wednesday)
June 18-20 (Standard Workshop)
June 22-27 (Facilitator Intensive Training, 9am
Monday-Noon Saturday)
June 24-26 (Standard Workshop as part of Facilitator
Intensive Training, Wednesday-Friday)
August 13-15 (Standard Workshop)
August 19-21 (Workshop for Educators, Wednesday-Friday)
To register or for future workshop dates email:
workshop@storycenter.org
Please email andrea@storycenter.org
for Berkeley Educator workshop details.
Continuing Education Credits available through Dominican University
of California (2 CEUs) and University of Colorado.
Denver, Colorado
Location: Lighthouse Writers Workshop
2123 Downing Street, Denver, CO 80205
Instructors: Daniel Weinshenker
Workshops in Denver are Basic workshops held Thursday - Saturday,
from 9am - 5pm unless noted.
April 16-18 (Standard Workshop)
May 14-16 (Standard Workshop)
June 8-13, 2009 - Facilitator Intensive Training
Location: Lyons, CO (1hr from Denver, 20 min. from Boulder) at Stonebridge
Farm
June 10-12 (Standard Workshop, as part of Facilitator
Intensive Training, Wednesday-Friday)*
July 16-18 (Standard Workshop)
August 20-22 (Standard Workshop)
For workshop details or future dates in Denver, contact: daniel@storycenter.org
Continuing Education credits available through the University of
Colorado.
Washington, DC
Location: Latin American Youth Center, Art
& Media House
3035 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC
Instructors: Stefani Sese
Note: These workshops, while held at a youth center, are for adults.
Workshops in Washington DC take place on Wednesday-Friday, from
9am - 5pm unless noted.
May 28-30 (Standard Workshop,Thursday-Saturday)
September 10-12 (Standard Workshop,Thursday-Saturday)
For workshop idetails or future dates in DC, contact: stefani@storycenter.org
Continuing Education Credits available through Dominican University
of California (2 CEUs) and University of Colorado.
Toronto, Canada
Location: Centre for Community Learning &
Development (CCL&D)
269 Gerrard St. East, Toronto, 2nd Floor of Parliament Library
Instructor: Jennifer LaFontaine
April 25, 26; May 1, 2 (Standard Workshop, Saturdays
9am - 5pm, Sundays 1:30pm - 5pm)
Please email jenlafontaine@storycentre.org
for Toronto workshop details.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Location: Copenhagen Business
School
Instructor: CDS Staff in conjunction with Digital StoryLab
July 31-Aug-1=2, 2009
Friday - Sunday, 9am - 5pm.
Please email workshop@storycenter.org
for workshop details.
Lisbon, Portugal
Location: TBA
Instructor: Joe Lambert and CDS Staff
June 29-July 1, 2009
Monday - Wednesday, 9am - 5pm.
Please email workshop@storycenter.org
for workshop details.
Prague, Czech Republic
Location: TBA
Instructor: CDS Staff in conjunction with istories.cz
August 2-4, 2009
Monday - Sunday, 9am - 5pm.
Please email workshop@storycenter.org
for workshop details.
top
|
