Behind the Story: Storytellers Project promotes community connections
Would you stand on stage and tell community members the tale of your first heartbreak? Sounds scary. What if you'd been coached and prepped on how to tell your story, and knew you'd be performing for a supportive audience? Sounds powerful.
That's what founder and Arizona-based journalist Megan Finnerty loves about the Storytellers Project, a nationwide series of live, curated events hosted by newsrooms across the country as part of the Paste BN Network.
"We take your personal lived experience and then we highlight that universal value that makes you care about it," said Finnerty. "And then we invite you to tell a bunch of strangers about it in real life."
Founded in 2011 by Finnerty while working at the Arizona Republic, the Storytellers Project began as a social experiment of sorts. Could a newspaper host a successful event that combined oral storytelling and journalism to reflect and serve its community?
The stats can speak for themselves. Today, the Storytellers Project has expanded its market to 23 cities and has opened its stage to more than 3,500 community members with 45,000 tickets sold in six years. The once monthly show hosted in Phoenix with an audience of 60 to 70 has grown to more than 100 events in 2018 with 75 to 400 people at each show.
But Finnerty wants people to know that the success of the series didn't happen overnight. To get the Storytellers Project to where it is today, Finnerty— with the support of her editors Randy Lovely (now Vice President of Community News for the Paste BN Network) and Nicole Carroll (now Editor-in-Chief of Paste BN) — worked to constantly better, refine and grow the event concept.
"No one asked me to be profitable in year two... We have incubated versions of this and have gotten feedback, kind of like how software companies do," Finnerty said. "You push something out, you get feedback, you push it out again."
The Storytellers process looks like this: First, newsrooms select themes that are broadly appealing -- like food, family, love or parenthood. Then, a storytelling coach in the newsroom works with a community member who applied to speak at the event to develop their true, first-person story. Then, they share it.
"What we've learned, which I think is really important for people to understand, is that the community will tell the story that the stories the community needs to hear," Finnerty said.
The Storytellers Project is also helping newsrooms expand the definition of what it means to be communicators in their cities.
"Our journalists are welcome to tell stories on all of our stages. Our reporters are also the emcees for the night," Finnerty said. "Certainly, the newsroom is expected to be a part of it."
So what's next for the Storytellers Project? Finnerty is optimistic in continued its growth. And as Americans find themselves in increasingly diverse social spaces, Finnerty believes one of the best ways humans can connect is through what she calls "idiosyncratic lived experiences."
"These are real people telling stories that we coach, but we don't control. The mandate of the project is to fundamentally serve and reflect our community and to explicitly create empathy in that community," Finnerty said.
To watch past Storytelling events, participate, or to find an event near you, check out the Storytellers Project website here.
Is there a Storytellers Project city near you? Check it out:
Cincinnati, Ohio
Coachella Valley, California
Des Moines, Iowa
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Myers, Florida
Greenville, South Carolina
Indianapolis, Indiana
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lansing, Michigan
Louisville, Kentucky
Jackson, Mississippi
Naples, Florida
Nashville, Tennessee
Phoenix, Arizona
Reno, Nevada
Rochester, New York
Tallahassee, Florida
Tucson, Arizona
Ventura, California
York, Pennsylvania
Salem, Oregon