Storytelling and Oral History

Iran/America balances two aims — (1) to collect and preserve the history of the Iranian Revolutionary period and the mass migration of Iranians to America as told by individuals who experienced it; and (2) to share the authentic Iran American experience for the purposes of education, community-building, and dialogue.

In terms of the latter, the project is at its heart a storytelling endeavor. Storytelling has increasingly become central to communities at various scales, to education, and to communication across the boundaries of class, race, religion, and political views. Through tools such as podcasts, web series, and live events, storytelling projects enable Americans from different backgrounds to reflect upon and reimagine American society.

Here are some emerging and established storytelling projects:

Storytelling projects

Stanford Storytelling Project

“The Stanford Storytelling Project is an arts program at Stanford University that explores how we live in and through stories and, even more importantly, how to deepen our lives through our own storytelling. Our mission is to promote the transformative nature of traditional and modern oral storytelling, from Lakota tales to Radiolab, and empower students to create and perform their own stories.”

Porchlight; a storytelling series

“For the past eleven years, Porchlight has been San Francisco’s premier storytelling series. Each month, co-founders Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte invite six people to tell ten-minute true stories without using notes or memorization. Past storytellers include some of the area’s most entertaining school bus drivers, mushroom hunters, politicians, socialites, sex workers, musicians, authors, systems analysts, and social workers.”

Serial podcast

“Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story—a true story—over the course of a season. Each season, we follow a plot and characters wherever they take us.”

Storycorps

“StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, to strengthen and build the connections between people, to teach the value of listening, and to weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that everyone’s story matters. At the same time, we are creating an invaluable archive for future generations.” 

News and web conversations regarding storytelling

“2013; the Year in Interactive Storytelling,” New York Times, December 30, 2013
Nick Veronin, “The Podcast Invasion,” Metroactive, July 30, 2015