This site is dedicated to the potential of story and narrative in creating positive social change. Our essays -- by talented storytellers and story-listeners in many professions -- describe creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes around the world. Each essay is priced at only 20 cents -- the minimum amount that enables the authors to retain their traditional copyrights -- to make them affordable to all who share our passion for what story can do.
Visit Holly Stevens' personal Lulu site
here.
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Download: $0.20 African American and Native American storyteller Gregory Woods describes his work in passing on rites of passage experiences involving aboriginal stories to African American teens in a Washington, D.C., area school.
This essay is part of a series on the role of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation in communities and groups around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Joya Wesley, who has served as communications director for the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, reveals the role personal narratives assumed in a community effort at reconciliation and healing in the aftermath of a 1979 Klan-Nazi Shootout. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Richard O'Neill, a Romani Gypsy who lives in Manchester, England, UK, uses storytelling skills honed in his youth to build bridges of understanding among cultures in local communities.
This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Namibian storyteller, poet and former English professor Dorian Haarhoff discusses the role of personal narratives in healing troubled youth in Namibia. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 American storyteller Laura Simms recounts two weeks spent with Gypsy children in Romania, using invented storytelling to achieve the seemingly impossible. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Claremont School of Theology associate professor Frank Rogers reflects on the potential role of storytelling in the emerging theology of young people and invites communities of faith to incorporate more authentic storytelling into congregational life. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Sociologist Francesca Polletta examines the role of storytelling in an online discussion on the design of the new World Trade Center and discovers its advantages in democratic processes of deliberation. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Chris King, a professional storyteller, tells how anyone can launch a vibrant, bridge-building storytelling group in his or her own neighborhood.
This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Myths help us see that the dark passages in our own lives are part of the collective human experience. In today's issue of The Storyteller and the Listener Online, Joan Stockbridge describes her work with myth as a therapeutic storyteller. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 As a boy growing up in central Pennsylvania. Robin Moore found Christmas and family storytelling so intertwined that he couldn't separate them. Moore offers tips for enrichening holiday traditions with family storytelling in today's essay. This is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Yoga teacher and storyteller Sydney Solis writes about her early childhood exposure to the stories of many religions and how this immersion into religious ideas and expressions led her to organize the World Peace Interfaith Storytelling Gatherings. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Washington, D.C., performing artist Vera Oye Yaa-Anna tells the story of her stroke, transforming her work as a storyteller into a focus on narrative as a healing process. Email Yaa-Anna at Oyepalaver11@Verizon.Net. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 As an officiate at weddings, funerals and other ceremonies, celebrant Stacy Willhoit listens for the heroic journey in the stories her clients tell. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Book artist Kristin Saegaert created her first book to honor her mother's memory. But soon she began to create handmade books for others, seeing them as transformative storytelling, while discovering unexpected dividends for herself in the process. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Israeli American storyteller Noa Baum befriended a Palestinian American. From their conversations a storytelling gig emerged that has fostered new understandings between their peoples. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 A Minneapolis storytellers group developed a program of peace stories for the 2007 Minnesota Fringe Theater festival. Here's how they did it and what they experienced. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Combining storytelling with quilting, art instructor Janie York draws out the stories being lived out by the children in her charge. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Storyteller David Vanadia explores the healing properties of storytelling in a local sugar addiction group. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 As a child, she once stood by while a friend taunted another friend. Later, she bravely intervened in a similar situation. Today, storyteller Elisa Pearmain shares her stories and draws out the stories of others in her bullying prevention workshops. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Holly Stevens, editor and publisher of The Storyteller and the Listener Online, shares the story of her choice to embrace new year's themes instead of resolutions and how this has made all the difference. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Florida Atlantic University professor Caren Neile reports on the results of an after-school program for middle schoolers that teaches storytelling in peacemaking. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Christopher Ellinger and Chloe Green of the True Story Theater, a "Playback Theatre" troupe, relate how their form of improvisational theatre for social healing inspires dialogue and embraces community. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Australian storyteller Bettina Nissen describes the "Let's Read" project that promotes literacy through the recording of oral stories of aboriginal peoples. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Lana Leonard of Sedona, Ariz., USA, reflects on the role of personal, archetypal and wisdom stories in restorative justice circles. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Israeli storyteller Dvora Shurman writes about the role her personal stories played in her healing from painful childhood experiences as the daughter of a deaf mother in an era when deafness was less understood and more stigmatized. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 California storyteller Amy Hill shares her experience using digital storytelling to bring about healing through a Silence Speaks workshop in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.
This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Soldier's Heart staff member Maureen Daly tells how the sharing of stories within the supportive confines of a weekend long experiential retreat helped move a group of veterans of six wars along toward emotional and spiritual healing. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Maurice Broaddus, father of two biracial children, reflects on the stories that comprise his children's eclectic heritage and how such stories could lead toward reconciliation between the races. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 J. A. Joshi, a young storyteller of Indian origin, shares how the religious stories of her motherland helped her straddle two cultures as she grew up in the West. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Dr. Shani Orgad researched breast cancer patients' participation in online communities and found that their online experiences in sharing their stories helped in their recovery. This essay is part of a series on the role of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Are young adults still telling stories? After observing youth-dominated gatherings on social change, Andre Heuer knows they are. He says young people are developing a storytelling ethic focused not on telling per se, but on giving voice to ordinary people. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Boston psychologist Lani Peterson describes her work helping ex-offenders advocate both for themselves and for penal reform through the power of storytelling. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story and narrative in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Journalist Marina Cantacuzino set out with a photographer friend in 2003 to record the stories of people who have found their way to forgiveness in the wake of atrocity. In the process, she discovered the healing potential of storytelling. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 Carla Vogel, a professional storyteller, educator and community artist from Minnesota, describes how telling one's life stories through ethical wills more fully reveals one's legacy. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world.
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Download: $0.20 She had an original love story ready to go for her daughter's wedding. But when circumstances prevented the telling, disappointment eventually led to a love story of another kind for Royda Crose, a psychologist, gerontologist and hypnotherapist in Columbia, Mo. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 When Rik Palieri realized his troubled relationship with his father was a pattern passed on through many generations, he started to sing about his story, and the song he wrote helped put the family on the path to healing. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 Acclaimed Filipino cinematographer Marilou Diaz-Abaya explores how her movies use stories and personal narrative to mirror the human yearning for peace and reconciliation. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story in peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation processes in groups and communities around the world. For the other essays, visit
here.
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Download: $0.20 When cancer struck, Sharon Bray found healing through the written word. Today, she leads expressive writing groups for men and women with life threatening illness, helping them heal through the sharing of their stories. This essay is part of a series on creative applications of story for peacemaking, healing, bridge building and reconciliation in groups and communities around the world.
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