Story provides a way for people to get to know one another on an even playing field, learn new perspectives, build trust, and grow relationships.
Sharing stories is a powerful entry point for fostering community change. Story Circles offer a proven effective practice for accessing the power of stories in community gatherings.
Story Circles are essentially a small group of people sitting in a circle telling their stories, led by a Story Circle facilitator. This tool was developed by theatre artist and civil rights activist John O’Neal in 1964 as a tool to build trust between volunteers and communities in Mississippi to support the voter registration work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. John shared the method with Roadside Theater, an Appalachian theater ensemble, and together they advanced the design and use of the tool in their creative and organizing practices.
In advancing Arts Connect Neighbors, the goal of the Story Works for Roanoke Initiative is to activate story circles as a community engagement tool to help foster a sense of belonging in our community. To move toward this goal, this initiative aims to:
– Strengthen connections among Roanoke community artists through story circles.
– Train community artists in story circle facilitation and support them in exploring ways they can build it into their practice in support of community goals.
– Underpin public art projects with strong community relationships
– Support neighbors in building trust, relationships, and a curiosity about one another.
– Invite neighbors’ imaginations into planning for their community.
Are you curious about story circles and think this might be something you want to experience and maybe even share in your neighborhood?
Spring 2025 Events
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 7 PM
Follow up call for artists and neighbors who have participated in Story Circle Training
Did you participate in a story circle training in November or December? Join us for a follow-up call to explore potential circle purposes and prompts that you are considering. Bring your idea, and we’ll help you design your circle.
January/February 2025, date TBD
Arts and Culture Planning Event for Public
A public event that uses story circles as a way to engage neighbors in the planning process for the Roanoke Arts and Culture plan. Community artists who attended the gathering on Nov 9 and/or Dec 7 will have the opportunity to help lead story circles, if they are interested.
2025, dates TBD
Artist Led Story Circles
Artist Residents and community artists interested in leading story circles can find support through Katie Trozzo and Bob Leonard to help them lead this process in their communities and creative processes.
Resources
– For more information about the Story Works for Roanoke, see the recorded zoom meeting
– John O’Neal’s presentation of story circles, watch this short video
– The Daily Yonder Illustrated Overview of Story Circles by Nhatt Nichols, August 8, 2024
– “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces” by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens, courtesy of Stylus Publishing (Now Routledge), from The Art of Effective Facilitation, edited by Lisa M. Landremen, 2013.
Story Circle Facilitation Documents
Roadside Theater’s Story Circle Methodology Handout
Stories have long been a core part of how we human beings know who we are and how we fare in the world. In fact, there are some who recognize that our capacities to tell stories is a defining characteristic of our species. Stories are part of family fabric and social interchange. Putting storytelling to use for specific purposes has always undergirded social enterprise. When John O’Neal, a young theatre-maker from Indiana who had joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, found himself working with people he didn’t know and who didn’t know him, in Mississippi in the 1964 effort to register voters, he thought that maybe telling each other stories of what had brought them together might help build trust. It did, and John began formulating a way of conducting story circles for knowledge sharing and trust building that has grown into a strong, proven-effective methodology. Over the years, John centered his Story Circle process as an essential part of his own company, Junebug Productions, and he has shared his thoughtful approach with many folks working for social justice around the country. He developed a long-term artistic relationship with Roadside Theater, a part of Appalshop Media Center in Whitesburg, KY. The two companies built many plays together, across the difficult boundaries of race and cultural differences, and they brought the Story Circle Methodology into a nicely sharable, learnable process.
Story Circle Step-by-Step Guide Template
This template for a one-page Step-by-Step guide can be filled in with key details for your context and used to help you guide the story circle process. This guide was developed by developed by Bob Leonard and Katie Trozzo and modified materials from Roadside Theater. We invite you to copy and paste the text into a new document and update with key details to help you lead your story circle!
Archived
Story Circle Trainings & Events
November 9, 2:00-5:00 pm
Story Circle Gathering for 2024-2025 Roanoke Artist Residents
Held at Star City School of Ballet
Resident Artists gathered to learn how to lead a Story Circle and explore ways to apply this tool to their practice.
ARTS & COMMUNITY
A STORY CIRCLE GATHERING
Saturday, December 7, 2024
1:00-4:30 pm
Hill Street Baptist Church
Story Circle Gathering Open to Neighbors, Artists, and Partners
On Saturday, December 7, Katie Trozzo and Bob Leonard hosted about 40 people in a gathering in which we explored Story Circles and engaged in questions around around community and belonging and around individuals and community impact. Watch for more resources coming soon from the event.
