Global Table Talks are are storytelling sessions that connect people from different cultures and geographic locations. For example, in the first official session (June 15), we had five storytellers from the Gaza Strip, Myanmar, Serbia, the United States (Portland) and indigenous Haida land in southern Alaska telling their story using words, film, music, images, and audio. The Storytellers each have 10 minutes to tell us a personal narrative that gives us insight into their culture, history, nation, political environment, family traditions and/or lived experience. The Listeners were from countries including Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, Nagaland, Poland, Canada, Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United States. As a requirement of participation, the Listeners are asked to give as much energy and attention to the stories being told as the Storytellers have invested in crafting and telling them.
This current project-in-process will take three shapes:
The limited-seating Global Table Talk sessions on Zoom (with new storytellers from new countries each session).
An online library of the global stories. For example, you will be able to click on Baher’s short video and hear a personal story about the realities of growing up and raising children in the Gaza strip.
Potentially, a podcast (we are investigating possibilities now).
I will post the first stories here as soon as we have formal permission from each storyteller and the videos are edited. Stay tuned! The second official Global Table Talks session will be happening this September!