Storytelling as community building
By Gillie Collins,’15 (English, International Relations)
The summer after my freshman year, I found myself crushed into a taxi with five other people, heading to my first day of work in Congotown, Liberia. That morning, it rained in torrents, and the roadside markets were eerily empty: the plantains packed up, the vendors hiding under umbrellas. Approaching the Hope Community Center, I worried that no one would turn up for the workshop.
I was wrong. By 10 AM, fifteen girls with damp clothes had trickled into the classroom. As a group, we decided on a name for our collective, and I wrote it on the chalkboard: “Story Society.”
As a Haas Fellow, I spent the summer facilitating the “Story Society,” a writing and reading program for Liberian girls ages 14-19. Using novels to spark group discussions, individual presentations, and creative writing exercises, we kept daily journals and wrote poetry as a group.
At the close of the program, the girls performed their original stories for their friends and family. Again, the clouds burst, the sky emptied itself — but the Hope Community Center filled to capacity. The girls clapped loudly for each other.
