Story Circles for Community Connection

This community listening and sharing event provides a space to build empathy and connection by coming together to tell our stories and learn from one another. Staff from Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life will facilitate the event using the powerful story circles methodology created by artist John O’Neal from the Free Southern Theater. Using a prompt and a few simple guidelines, story circles allow us to listen to each other’s stories in small groups and discuss our common and different experiences and lives.

Prompt: Tell us about a time when you felt supported and held by others during a difficult time in your life. Or tell us about a time when you did not feel supported when you needed it, and how that experience changed how you support yourself or others.

By sharing stories of when we felt supported in community, we can build a greater understanding of what we can do to help each other, and how we can create practices to support each other during difficult times.

This event is open to everyone. Bring yourself, a friend, and a story to share! You do not need to prepare a story in advance but do come prepared to fully listen and be moved by the narratives of your neighbors. IA will provide instructions and share resources on Story Circles so anyone can learn to use this tool and practice in their own lives and communities.

About Imagining America: Based at the University of California, Davis, the Imagining America national consortium brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.

About International House, Davis: I-House is an international culture center dedicated to nurturing the exchange of arts, culture and ideas to build a culturally vibrant, globally connected and inclusive community. People from all over the world come together in our beloved gathering space to celebrate our common humanity, share cultural practices and traditions, engage with our differences, cultivate joy, combat isolation, and foster civic dialogue. At I-House, we believe that culture, community, and fellowship are the lifeblood of a healthy and vibrant city, region, and society.