May News: Immigrant women learn how to craft their stories with The Moth Community Program
This month, New Women New Yorkers welcomed a new cohort of our storytelling program in partnership with The Moth. Each year, the collaborative program trains a group of up to fifteen immigrant women in the ins and outs of storytelling: How to identify personal stories and build an interesting one, and how to share it in a captivating and confident way. The four workshops span across two weeks and conclude with a recorded final share to an audience of family and friends. Participants then have the opportunity to share their narratives with members of NWNY’s community, and beyond.
The group of participants gained steam and inspiration quickly, crafting their own stories and deciding on their themes. “I used to think that stories need to be really special, have some wisdom. So I was surprised to learn that it can be a simple and everyday story,” said Alina, from Belarus. “I have a lot of little stories showing different parts of me I can share and I’m wondering which might make a good story” said Tatiana, from Brazil.
Group discussion with Moth instructors
For the 2019 program, we had a special contributor: Tianrui, from last year’s cohort. She now helps to facilitate the program with a new batch of participants. “It feels really exciting and familiar to be in the program again. What’s more interesting is that this time I could see it from a different angle. When I was a participant, I was mostly drawn to the Moth facilitator’s questions and actively searching and responding in my mind while now I could see the seeds planted in everyone’s mind, sprouting, budding and in the end bearing a beautiful story,” says Tianrui, who shared a few stories from her life at several stages in New York City, including the legendary Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater.
NWNY volunteers and participants will have the chance to hear the inspiring stories of our new graduates in an exclusive showcase on May 29, at our May Community Mixer. Then, another showcase open to the general public, Stories That Move Us, will take place at Usagi in Dumbo on June 12, in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month.
According to Tianrui, this year’s showcase is not to be missed: “It is surprising to see how fast the participants adapt the storytelling skills and transform their life experiences into well-crafted stories through short workshops”.
RSVP here to see the one-and-only public showcase of this inspiring crop of storytellers.
