Personal Stories and Collective Uses

Personal Stories and Collective Uses - Cassidy #4

I was intrigued by the idea of demonstrating how personal stories can be applicable to collective uses. In some ways it feels so obvious to me; of course your individual experiences relate to that of others and sharing your stories will resonate with others. But I think we don't see always how sharing those stories can create a larger or long term change in a community. Reading Cohen-Cruz's chapter on storytelling made me begin to question what formats of storytelling achieve the goal of having collective uses. Is sharing stories with friends at dinner or talking in an interview a performance that achieves that goal? Does it have to be super public? Does it have to reach audiences with differing views to be successful?

Ultimately, I don't have any answer to any of these questions but I know two examples of storytelling that I recently interacted with that I think succeeded in taking a personal story and telling it to affect collective action and/or change. The first we are all likely familiar with, RISE. RISE is one of my favorite events every year where Bowdoin women (or people who do not identify as a man) submit stories to be shared anonymously and publicly. Of my 3 years on campus, I have seen 3 different responses to it. Notably, my sophomore year, I heard a lot of people talking about sexual assault and other issues raised during the performance for weeks afterwards. Overall changes came about in the way people thought about diverse experiences on the campus.

The second example is one that I just saw at a museum. It was a poster exhibit about diversity in science - specifically in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity - in which 23 scientists were interviewed and tell their stories on posters and a virtual platform. I found it to be quite moving and given the demographics of the museum (a science museum for kids) can see it as being a push to show representation within science and ultimately open the eyes of students who haven't seen themselves represented historically in science. But this is where the question comes in for me about how beneficial is the exhibit and storytelling for people who do not resonate or have like experiences as the scientists interviewed?

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Performance for Social Change

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