Tag Archive for "Kiran Singh Sirah"

Burke storytellers pour out feelings through words

Article by Stephanie Hunt

[caption id="attachment_25587" align="alignright" width="275"] Traquan Winns[/caption]
Who here thinks they’re a storyteller?”

Besides a squelched giggle or two, the 30 Burke High School juniors gathered for a storytelling workshop a few weeks ago stayed silent. No hands were raised; no eyes lit up.

That’s how veteran slam poet Kiran Singh Sirah, president of the International Story Telling Center in Jonesboro, Tenn., opened a three-hour session he led for the students. It’s an educational outreach component of the annual Charleston Tells festival that will be held next weekend.

“So who do you think storytelling is for?” Sirah followed up.

“Little kids,” students chimed together. “You know, like children’s storytime at the library,” another said.

But by the end of the workshop, these same students realized they each had stories worthy of telling, and gathered in a circle for an impromptu story slam, showcasing newly discovered techniques to make their personal experiences come alive.

Burke AP scholar Kevin Frayer, typically shy and prone to hiding his shining brown eyes beneath a Clemson hat, was tapped to emcee their cafe-style “slam,” just as he will emcee the storytelling performance nine of these Burke students will deliver during the festival on Saturday, March 12.

Sirah drew from his multicultural background — the child of Ugandan refugees growing up as a person of color in South England — and shared his own poems about what it’s like to be an outsider. The kids could relate.

“He was interesting, he took his time and opened up and let us inside his own experience about where he came from. I especially liked his poem about a chip on his shoulder,” said workshop participant Sydney Huger. “At first, I thought ‘I can’t do this,’ but he helped me bring back memories I didn’t know I had.”

“The way he put his words together helped us really imagine what he was talking about,” added Frayer, who admits at first he was nervous about sharing his own poem, and them emceeing the slam. “I liked his play on words. There was a lot of action, it wasn’t boring.”

An advisory member to UNESCO and a Rotary Peace Fellow who has addressed the United Nations Headquarters on the power of storytelling, Sirah’s passion and expertise is using stories to bridge divides, address injustice and build community.

Sirah has international experience using storytelling as a tool for peacemaking and conflict resolution, and “this year, especially in the wake of the Mother Emmanuel AME shootings, we wanted our annual storytelling festival to offer that to the community,” explained Cynthia Bledsoe, acting executive director of the Charleston County Public Libraries and director of the annual Charleston Tells storytelling festival sponsored by the library.

To honor her CCPL colleague, Cynthia Hurd, one of the victims in the shootings, Bledsoe secured grant funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission and Humanities Council SC to bring Sirah to Charleston for the first time and to Burke, where he worked with students to create stories or poems on the concept of “home.”

“Home is the one thing we all know, but what home means is different for everyone. It could be a physical place, or a memory, a smell, people. ... By providing a safe framework to explore all aspects of ‘home,’ we helped them bring their stories to the surface,” explained Sirah. “I believe every story is worthy. When sharing a story, one is making a mark and asking others to listen. It can be a healing process, a way to find connections and build community,” he added.

For soft-spoken Chanquaisha Drayton, it did just that. “The workshop helped me say exactly what I feel,” Drayton said. “It showed me I could just be me and let my thoughts flow onto the paper.”

And she’s excited, if a little timid, about taking the stage to share her story with the larger community at Charleston Tells. “People might understand our point of view and where we’re coming from better,” Drayton added. “I think people just see the news and think we’re all hoodlums and don’t want to go nowhere, but things may not seem how they are. I hope our stories can help people see a different perception of us.”

Image above: Elias Wendt and Sadayah Brown

Mar 8th, 2016

Charleston County Public Library hosts Kiran Singh Sirah for “Telling Stories That Matter”

International speaker offers ideas to help residents address issues of social justice, race relations To explore the role of storytelling as a tool for conflict prevention, community development and social change, the Charleston County Public Library will host Kiran Singh Sirah for “Telling Stories that Matter: Cultivating Community through Story,” a public presentation at the Main Library, 68 Calhoun St., Charleston, S.C., at 6 p.m. on Feb. 5. Through examples of social justice, race relations and community cooperation, Sirah will explain how personal relations developed through storytelling can help residents better discuss and work through these difficult conversations. Sirah's visit to Charleston also will include a three-hour workshop with juniors and seniors at Burke High School during the afternoon of Feb. 5. The workshop will give students the opportunity to work under Sirah's direction to craft and tell their own stories that can be shared March 12 at the Charleston Tells Storytelling Festival. Whether to entertain, educate, heal, or resolve conflict, stories are the most fundamental way that people connect. The power of storytelling is unquestionable, and recognizing stories as creative expression helps to better understand the anxieties, dreams and aspirations that link humanity with community building. This program is part of a CCPL series that explores race, identity and civic engagement in response to recent tragic events in the Charleston area, most notably the mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in June 2015, which tragically took the lives of nine Charleston residents, including long-time CCPL staff member, Cynthia Graham Hurd. This series is intended to promote healing, dialogue and collaboration in Charleston. Program partners include the College of Charleston, The Women’s Resource Center, and the City of Charleston Housing Authority. Sirah is president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tenn., a UNESCO advisory member, a Rotary Peace Fellow, storyteller and slam poet. A proven peace builder and advocate for the arts, Sirah has spoken about the power of story at the United Nations Headquarters, where he delivered the keynote address at Rotary International U.N. Day in 2012. As a Rotary Peace Fellow, he has worked with homeless populations, marginalized high school students, gang members and conflict-wracked communities from Northern Ireland, Colombia, Palestine and Israel. Through his international background and perspective, Sirah explains that sharing stories is “more than a human right, it’s an act of love that can change the world.” This presentation is funded by the International Storytelling Center, The Humanities Council^SC, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Charleston Friends of the Library, and Charleston Tells Storytelling Festival, a production of the Charleston County Public Library. For more information, contact the Charleston County Public Library, (843) 805-6930.

Feb 2nd, 2016