Our Words, Our Truths: Community Storytelling

Dr. Ada Cheng will be presenting her talk “Our Words, Our Truths: Storytelling for Collective Identity and Community Engagement” as part of her Illinois Road Scholar talk on March 23.

This eclectic presentation will map out her own journey as an Asian American and immigrant storyteller and delineate how her personal stories reflect and mirror urgent social concerns of our time. It also includes her experiences as a storytelling producer, who engages in community-based storytelling. This workshop aims at providing community builders the foundational skill set to build intimate communities through storytelling.

The workshop includes the following components:

I. Why is storytelling important to our understanding of personal and collective experiences?

II. How can we use personal stories to critically reflect urgent social issues of our time, such as racism, xenophobia, gender-based violence, etc.?

III. What does community-based storytelling mean? How do we use personal storytelling for collective identity formation and community engagement?

IV. How can we strategically use storytelling to address the issue of equity, beyond diversity and inclusion?

This event is being produced by DeKalb County History Center and Ellwood House Museum  in partnership with Illinois Humanities. The Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau invites Illinois authors, artists, and educators to share their expertise and enthusiasm with people throughout the state, enabling
local nonprofit organizations to present free-admission cultural programs to their communities.

Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA)], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed by speakers, program participants, or audiences do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH, Illinois Humanities, IACA, our partnering organizations, or our funders.