Now in the age of COVID-19, we’re working to develop the same sense of connection and intimacy attendees experience during in-person gatherings and translate it to virtual gatherings. We know the feeling of sitting in a circle with our elders and listening to their stories cannot be directly replicated, but we believe that staying connected through storytelling is more important now than ever. While our community is under unprecedented isolation, especially our elders who are more at risk for COVID-19 complications, we want to keep people connected to their history, the stories, and each other.
We will create ways for people to connect across differences and outside of their current social circles, creating a deeper connected and diverse community. This provides a unique opportunity to record and share more voices as people are stuck at home and have a heightened desire to be heard.
You can support this work as a sustaining or one time donor on our GiveMN page here.
This project will unfold in four phases over several years, as funding, energy, and other resources are available.
Phase 1: Over the next few months we plan to edit and release recordings of previous gatherings and hold listening parties that allow folks to interact with each other.
Phase 2: We will create virtual gatherings similar to our in-person gatherings, including our fundraiser and subsequently edit and share them.
Phase 3: We will identify and develop content on the historical context of themes of future gatherings to share in advance of storytelling events.
Phase 4: We will create a system for collecting and sharing short oral histories of attendees related to the theme after each gathering.
Founder Rebecca Lawrence working from home to edit audio archives.