We Have to Have Honest Dialogue

Coming Soon: Ferguson Beyond Today Project

Visit at http://ferguson.unitedstory.org

Seattle Hosts PechaKucha Night about Ferguson

Pecha Kucha is a world-wide event platform that uses a simple presentation format (20 slideshow images, each for 20 seconds) to allow members of communities to share stories and interests. The images advance automatically, and speakers talk along to the images.

Seattle recently hosted its 58th Pecha Kucha night with Ferguson as the theme for each of its presenters' talks. 

What To Do:

1. View the video.

2. Post thoughts in the comments below about it.  3. Share it along to friends. 

4. Replicate. Get your town/city to host a PK night (or other event) that responds to the incidents. 

Seattle | The Gathering

#IAMVALUABLE

Post from United Story organizer, Ezelle, today to 81 of his friends:

Facebook Friends, I am sure you all are well aware of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Many of us, especially those of us who are men of color, have our own experiences with being profiled by the authorities which, thankfully, did not result in such a tragic and fatal end. Yet each of these experiences significantly impact the ways in which we understand the value of our own lives. Today, Attorney General Eric Holder himself shared his own story of negative interactions with the ppolice (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ag-eric-holder-ferguson-recalls-angry-police-encounters/story?id=25060969 ). Let’s follow the AG’s example and let our voices be heard. I am working with the United Story initiative’s #IAmValuable campaign ( https://www.facebook.com/unitedstory ) to collect the stories of everyone’s , especially men of color, interaction with the police, and how those interactions impact and inform the perception of the value one’s own life. Will you heed this call, take a quick moment out of your day, and share your story on Facebook? Let everyone know that police racial profiling is not reduced to individual anomaly, rather, it is a widespread phenomenon that impacts the very psyche of American citizens. Our hope is that these stories will generate awareness and thus create positive changes so that no one else will be destined to suffer the same fate. Here’s what you can do: 1) Write your story. Express how the situation made you feel. 2) Add the following blurb which will link your story to other stories as well as the United Story campaign: ************* United Story has watched recent news stories that call into question the perceived worth and value of a life. They've invited us to help create "new media" by sharing our own stories of worth, including when others have not seemed to value us because of our race, class, or other identity. While the majority of police are positive forces in our communities, some of their actions to not always represent this. The American Civil Liberties Union identifies Racial Profiling as “a great danger to the fundamental principles of our Constitution [and] disproportionately targets people of color for investigation and enforcement, alienating communities from law enforcement, hindering community policing efforts, and causing law enforcement to lose credibility and trust among the people they are sworn to protect and serve.” ( https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling ) Here is my answer to the United Story Question: Tell us a story - When/how did you learn what your life is worth? #IAmValuable #UnitedStory *************************** 3) Share it on Facebook! Post it on your wall! 4) Let others know. Forward this to your friends. Get them involved! LET’S MAKE THIS VIRAL. That’s all you have to do. This repository of stories will call attention to racial profiling as well as create solidarity among the community of people who have these stories to share. United Story doesn't stop at awareness. Once they have collected these stories they will move beyond awareness to promoting certain action steps to be taken based upon the stories YOU provide, so STAY TUNED. Will you let your voice be heard?

Press Release: "The Gathering Exhibit" Rainier Beach celebrates strengths and explores challenges through art

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: July 7, 2014 Contact: Barb Biondo, Seattle Neighborhood Group 206-322-6134

“The Gathering Exhibit” Rainier Beach celebrates strengths and explores challenges through art

SEATTLE – From July 1 – September 5, 2014 the public is invited to “The Gathering Exhibit,” on display at City Hall. The “Gathering” exhibit is the result of an interactive event, Breaking the Pane, designed to creatively explore the stories of the Rainier Beach community and identify collective and individual steps to address the negative perceptions of the community and reduce youth violence.

For one week in April, Breaking the Pane engaged the Rainier Beach community in storytelling to explore themes of community identity and perceptions. At five outdoor workshops, community members were asked to simply illustrate the words/feelings/or images that came to mind when they thought of the exact Rainier Beach location that they were standing in. These clear window-like “panes” on one side illustrate how community members experience the five different intersections of Rainier Beach while the other side depicts statistics of violence. The aim of this installation of assembled panes is not only to give voice to the variety of perspectives regarding the Rainier Beach neighborhood, but also to be the centerpiece that turns these stories into action. The culminating event called, “The Gathering,” took place on May 31, when over 150 local residents experienced the project through art, video, a photography exhibit and live storytelling, and then challenged themselves (and the wider community) to let the stories inspire action.

The Gathering Exhibit also features a series of photos and text series from Rainier Beach residents by Zac Davis entitled, “The Rainier Beach Project,” created in conjunction with Breaking the Pane.

“The Gathering” event and Breaking the Pane are the result of a unique partnership between United Story, an organization that uses a story-telling platform to foster community-owned action, and Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth, an innovative, community-led initiative to address youth violence through non-arrest approaches. # # # __________________________________________________________

About Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth is a community and place-based violence prevention initiative to identify and holistically address the underlying causes of youth victimization and crime in the Rainier Beach neighborhood through non-arrest interventions funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance – Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant. Grounded in the research of George Mason University’s (GMU) Center for Evidence-Based Crime Prevention Policy, it builds on the vision developed through the Rainier Beach community during the Neighborhood Plan Update (2012) to reduce crime that affects youth by taking a “hotspots” approach. The Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative is the lead agency. Project Coordination is provided by Seattle Neighborhood Group. Other initiative partners include: The City of Seattle, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Police Department, Rainier Beach Moving Forward, Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club and the George Mason University Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.

About United Story United Story is an initiative that uses a story-telling platform to facilitate creating democracy and creative community organizing. Through collecting narratives surrounding a social concern, inspiring art from these narratives, and gathering the community together to hear, see, and interact with these stories, United Story fosters community-owned action in the form of 21-day challenges. Rather than creating yet another new "project" or colonizing communities, United Story facilitates the organization of stories and the catalyzing story-based solutions.

About Seattle Neighborhood Group The mission of Seattle Neighborhood Group is to prevent crime and build community through partnerships with residents, businesses, law enforcement and other organizations. SNG seeks to connect people to their communities and provide expertise, communication and information promoting safety.

Press: The Nine Network's "Stay Tuned" Captures United Story Interaction Event at PXSTL

Recapping: United Story Interaction at PXSTL

United Story (U/S) is an initiative by the team at Catalysts by Design that uses story-based events, workshops, and projects to address social topics that interest communities. As a 2014 commitment to action with the Clinton Global Initiative University, United Story: Interaction served as a one of four themed storytelling nights and challenges that they team set for 2014. It was the second United Story gathering in the city of St. Louis. 

US: Interaction aimed to champion the initiative’s motto of “stories sparking action,” and it chose the following collaborations and activities to help actualize this goal: 

Staged Storytelling. United Story partnered with the team of Second Tuesdays, a local storytelling event series that allows community members to share personal narratives on the theme chosen for each event. For US: Interaction, the Second Tuesdays team used “Chance Encounters” as the theme, and 10 storytellers participated in the midst of three 30-minute segments through the event.   

U/S Icebreaker Ballpit.  Inspired by the Take a Seat project by Soulpake, the United Story partnered with local artist, Marcis Curtis, to build a ball pit that prompted conversations and interaction between participants via 7 icebreaker questions that were written on balls within the pit. Prompts will be provided by the Transformative Action Institute and yielded 8 groups of participants throughout the event. 

Line Dry.  With the purpose of providing creative writing during the event, Mallory Nezam of St. Louis Improv Anywhere, collaborated in the event to facilitate, “Line Dry,” a hanging writing project that filled a portion of the PXSTL structure with one-sentence stories. Each one-liner captured the climax of people’s personal life experiences. 

Humans of St. Louis (HOSTL). During the event, the Humans of St. Louis project collected photos and stories from various participants. One photo (featured below) was included on the project’s Facebook page, generating 150+ “Likes” for the single image. This benefited the United Story in the days following the Interaction event as viewers’ reached out to borrow the ball pit, inquired about future collaborations, and engaged with us on other social media platforms.

Contemporary Art Museum Art Bus. The role of the Art Bus helped facilitate visual storytelling activities during the event with its MakerShare project. 17 participants from the event were prompted by the CAM team to make a work of art that shared their favorite moment from their lives. Participants then took photos with the object they made in a show-and-tell manner. 

21-Day personal challenges. During the event, participants were invited to pursue 21 days of challenges that helped them interact more creatively and genuinely with people in their daily lives. These challenges were crowdsourced from the participants and will extend 21 days after the event. Results from the challenges will be collected, tracked, and disseminated via United Story’s online network.

During the United Story: Interaction event at PXSTL, there were many successes:

Attendance: For the event, we expected an audience of 60 people, and we excelled this goal with 73 calculated unique attendees and approximately 50 guests who were there from the first segment of the event to the last.

Collaboration & Support: We benefited greatly from the opportunity to collaborate and co-sponsor the event with Pulitzer and other organizations. Not only did this decrease the amount of coordination that the United Story team endured, but it also allowed participants to have multiple outlets for sharing their story--from writing, to speaking, to making, to conversing. Other reflections include that:

The Contemporary Art Museum was extremely supportive in allowing the ArtBus to be used in artmaking as well as hauling supplies. CAM allowed partnering artists to use the New Art in the Neighborhood (NAN) classroom as a pre-event creative preparation space.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service became a second source of support as the sponsor for the ball pit. 

31 of attendees (approximately 43.46%) committed to the United Story 21 Day Interaction Challenge. Because of this sustained engagement, we will be enabled to keep this unique platform going as well as enhance it for future city-base United Story engagements.

Overall, the feedback for the United Story:</strong> Interaction was positive. Anecdotally, attendees enjoyed the stories and activities and expressed the success of the event’s creative concept. 

Media Coverage:</strong> The Nine Network created an awesome overview video that captured the spirit of the event. The video was shown during its Stay Tuned episode on community art, and it is currently located for viewing on Youtube. 

Photo by Lindy Drew, Courtesy of Humans of St. Louis.

Today's #unitedstorychallenge is for the soccer lovers: Watch the #worldcup in a new place with strangers! Then tweet @united_story to share how it went!

One of today's @united_story creators hosted another fun art event at #pxstl today. Another great opportunity to interact and exchange stories with other community members.

Today's #unitedstory challenge was pretty easy to accomplish if you live in #STL. Why? Well, @camstl #openstudiosstl gives you a chance to visit artists from all across the city and explore new parts of town.