Kiran Presenting at Lights for Liberty Vigil, July 12, 2019. Founders Park, Johnson City, Tennessee.
Your personal story has power. It can be a tool to advocate for causes you care deeply about, to connect with others, and to inspire change. Remember, everyone around you has stories of their own. For your story to resonate, it needs to connect with other people’s stories. It needs to be felt in the heart.
We can never underestimate the power of using our own stories when we know that a peaceful world comes from a state of empathy, a state of belonging, and shared notions of joy, happiness, and suffering, all of which are fundamentally part of our human condition. A peaceful world can come from deconstructing the stories that are destructive, enabling us to transform them into constructive stories, even if at the moment of their telling it’s hard to see that potential.
I am the proud son of refugees. I am also part of the immigrant community that has the great fortune to make England, Ireland, Spain, Scotland, North Carolina, and now East Tennessee my home. But just as we can craft for ourselves a sense of home, identity, and belonging in the ways we know how, we can also use our stories to reach our full artistic and creative potential to cross boundaries of ethnicity, race, and social class. We can listen to courageous voices troubled by social apartheid, and we can use our stories to put the dream, desire, and struggle of what it means to be human into words. We can use our stories to help us build the collective, diverse, and plural society that we all wish for.
Another part of the work of activism is searching out or even recognizing other locations of boldness and possible change when you see them. In the world of community and peacebuilding, we talk about “finding the bright spots.” A bright spot is an action, an event, an idea, or even a person who is working with meaning and truth—something that can help a community find a solution to a problem. Bringing story to these bright spots of change can help amplify collective impact. We find bright spots by “digging where you stand,” looking around our communities with fresh eyes for opportunities for fellowship so we can open doors and even break down walls.
I unexpectedly noticed a bright spot in action in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2016. I happened to be in town for storytelling work when Alton Sterling was tragically shot and killed by police. The shooting occurred just about a mile from where I was staying, but I didn’t hear about it until the next morning when I was watching a big TV screen mounted on the hotel café wall, broadcasting one of those twenty-four-hour news channels. There was a lot of determined action around town, and newscasters were framing it as a riot. But I was right there in downtown Baton Rouge, and I could look around and see with my own eyes that there was no evidence of rioting. People gathered, but it was to pay their respects and not as an act of unrest. What I was seeing was a vigil, not a riot.
Later the same afternoon, I saw a young Black woman with a sign that read “We are all Alton Sterling.” I stopped to talk to her. Her name was Tam Williams, and she was a twenty-four-year-old documentary filmmaker who had grown up in the area. Our conversation gave me a lot to think about. I got her permission to take a photo, which I was able to post on social media that evening, to amplify her efforts at story and truth. Tam Williams was a bright spot in her community. Once you start looking and listening for bright spots, you’ll see where you can nurture them in your community, too.
So, to really serve our communities, fearlessly interact with people and meet people where they are. Make space to cultivate story, and then listen generously. When you dig where you stand, looking for these bright spots, you’ll start to see how you can help amplify them and help someone harness their own story. I always tried to keep this principle in mind as I develop and refine my own community-building programs. I do outreach work with youth, for instance. And what I'm teaching them isn’t how to perform someone else’s story. It's about trying to nurture what is already there, so they can tell their own stories in ways that made sense to them, that speak to their truths rather than someone else’s. In your region, whose story can be amplified?
Stories are living things, shaping our understanding and driving us and others to act. They shape our communities and our sense of connection. You might think of storytelling and peacebuilding as ambitious—wide and nebulous movements—but they can scale as big or small as you need them to. We can all be a part of, contribute to, and benefit from storytelling. And you can start on the micro scale and dig where you stand. You don’t have to work to end all wars, everywhere. You can just do a little every day, where you are now, to use story, create connection, make your community a better place to live, and go from there.
Steps to Craft Your Story of Change
1. Identify an Issue
Think of a contemporary issue that matters to you. It could be social inequality, environmental justice, or another pressing cause. Reflect on why this issue bothers you—what is the personal conflict or values-based tension it raises for you?
2. Connect with Your Roots
Recall a moment from your childhood or upbringing that taught you a meaningful lesson or instilled a core value. Write about this memory in detail, capturing the emotions, sights, sense of place and sounds. This will help ground your story in something tangible and relatable.
3. Weave Your Story
Use the memory as a foundation for your story. Describe how the values from that early moment connect to the present issue you care about. Illustrate the conflict between your values and the current situation.
4. Create a Call to Action
Conclude your story with a call for action. Explain why this issue matters not only to you but to others, inviting them to feel connected and to take action. This is where your values can inspire others to care and to make a difference.
Remember, relevance isn’t something we can impose. It needs to be felt in the heart for it to be meaningful and impactful for others. People need to see and imagine the change for themselves, on their own terms. They too must feel a values-based connection to it.
Some years ago, I led a storytelling for a public Lights for Liberty vigil to raise awareness of the children and families in detention camps on the US-Mexico border. I was aware however, as I wrote and crafted this talk, that the people likely to attend were not the only people I was speaking too. I mostly aimed for this story to reach those tuning in via news cameras, or whom may read the news about the vigil. I intentionally shared the full transcript the next day, via social media, as a way to reach people regardless of political affiliation, whom I believed were also troubled by what was taking place on the US-Mexico border. I believed the issue was also in conflict with their values, too. This where I wanted to focus this storytelling.
The stories I shared that day, wasn’t about persuasion, they were personal stories about connecting values.
After the event a friend invited me to join her breakfast. She’s a conservative Christian. I’m a progressive Sikh. After we prayed together, she felt safe enough to ask me for my opinion. She too was troubled by what was going on the border. She felt comfortable to share and had the courage to ask questions. To this day, I hold that friendship close to my heart.
Read the full transcript of the Lights for Liberty Vigil
Additional Storytelling: A Gift of Hope talks/writings:
In this 2016 TEDx talk, Storytelling: A Peaceful Power TEDxNashville, I suggest that to achieve peace in our world, we can be the story that we want to see in the world, and we can help others too, just by listening. We are, each of us, storytellers. To tell our stories is more than just a human right. It is a gift we can give the world.
This blog Creating Positive Change- A Modest Primer, includes a few ideas based on stories from my own life, about how I think we can go about this work. I believe, part of the work of any type of activism is simply recapturing and nurturing that sense of belief that came so naturally to you as a child. This is work that all of us can do every day, and I think that the stories we share with one another are the structure on which we can build a better future.
The Humanity of Stories with Kiran Singh Sirah. A Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Kitchen Table Project. Blog by Eileen Jones. 2023. Smithsonian Folklife Festival. “A personal narrative is a personal testimony. Therefore, it holds emotional truth.”
We can never underestimate the power of using our own stories when we know that a peaceful world comes from a state of empathy, a state of belonging, and shared notions of joy, happiness, and suffering, all of which are fundamentally part of our human condition. A peaceful world can come from deconstructing the stories that are destructive, enabling us to transform them into constructive stories, even if at the moment of their telling it’s hard to see that potential.
I am the proud son of refugees. I am also part of the immigrant community that has the great fortune to make England, Ireland, Spain, Scotland, North Carolina, and now East Tennessee my home. But just as we can craft for ourselves a sense of home, identity, and belonging in the ways we know how, we can also use our stories to reach our full artistic and creative potential to cross boundaries of ethnicity, race, and social class. We can listen to courageous voices troubled by social apartheid, and we can use our stories to put the dream, desire, and struggle of what it means to be human into words. We can use our stories to help us build the collective, diverse, and plural society that we all wish for.
Another part of the work of activism is searching out or even recognizing other locations of boldness and possible change when you see them. In the world of community and peacebuilding, we talk about “finding the bright spots.” A bright spot is an action, an event, an idea, or even a person who is working with meaning and truth—something that can help a community find a solution to a problem. Bringing story to these bright spots of change can help amplify collective impact. We find bright spots by “digging where you stand,” looking around our communities with fresh eyes for opportunities for fellowship so we can open doors and even break down walls.
I unexpectedly noticed a bright spot in action in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2016. I happened to be in town for storytelling work when Alton Sterling was tragically shot and killed by police. The shooting occurred just about a mile from where I was staying, but I didn’t hear about it until the next morning when I was watching a big TV screen mounted on the hotel café wall, broadcasting one of those twenty-four-hour news channels. There was a lot of determined action around town, and newscasters were framing it as a riot. But I was right there in downtown Baton Rouge, and I could look around and see with my own eyes that there was no evidence of rioting. People gathered, but it was to pay their respects and not as an act of unrest. What I was seeing was a vigil, not a riot.
Later the same afternoon, I saw a young Black woman with a sign that read “We are all Alton Sterling.” I stopped to talk to her. Her name was Tam Williams, and she was a twenty-four-year-old documentary filmmaker who had grown up in the area. Our conversation gave me a lot to think about. I got her permission to take a photo, which I was able to post on social media that evening, to amplify her efforts at story and truth. Tam Williams was a bright spot in her community. Once you start looking and listening for bright spots, you’ll see where you can nurture them in your community, too.
So, to really serve our communities, fearlessly interact with people and meet people where they are. Make space to cultivate story, and then listen generously. When you dig where you stand, looking for these bright spots, you’ll start to see how you can help amplify them and help someone harness their own story. I always tried to keep this principle in mind as I develop and refine my own community-building programs. I do outreach work with youth, for instance. And what I'm teaching them isn’t how to perform someone else’s story. It's about trying to nurture what is already there, so they can tell their own stories in ways that made sense to them, that speak to their truths rather than someone else’s. In your region, whose story can be amplified?
Stories are living things, shaping our understanding and driving us and others to act. They shape our communities and our sense of connection. You might think of storytelling and peacebuilding as ambitious—wide and nebulous movements—but they can scale as big or small as you need them to. We can all be a part of, contribute to, and benefit from storytelling. And you can start on the micro scale and dig where you stand. You don’t have to work to end all wars, everywhere. You can just do a little every day, where you are now, to use story, create connection, make your community a better place to live, and go from there.
Steps to Craft Your Story of Change
1. Identify an Issue
Think of a contemporary issue that matters to you. It could be social inequality, environmental justice, or another pressing cause. Reflect on why this issue bothers you—what is the personal conflict or values-based tension it raises for you?
2. Connect with Your Roots
Recall a moment from your childhood or upbringing that taught you a meaningful lesson or instilled a core value. Write about this memory in detail, capturing the emotions, sights, sense of place and sounds. This will help ground your story in something tangible and relatable.
3. Weave Your Story
Use the memory as a foundation for your story. Describe how the values from that early moment connect to the present issue you care about. Illustrate the conflict between your values and the current situation.
4. Create a Call to Action
Conclude your story with a call for action. Explain why this issue matters not only to you but to others, inviting them to feel connected and to take action. This is where your values can inspire others to care and to make a difference.
Remember, relevance isn’t something we can impose. It needs to be felt in the heart for it to be meaningful and impactful for others. People need to see and imagine the change for themselves, on their own terms. They too must feel a values-based connection to it.
Some years ago, I led a storytelling for a public Lights for Liberty vigil to raise awareness of the children and families in detention camps on the US-Mexico border. I was aware however, as I wrote and crafted this talk, that the people likely to attend were not the only people I was speaking too. I mostly aimed for this story to reach those tuning in via news cameras, or whom may read the news about the vigil. I intentionally shared the full transcript the next day, via social media, as a way to reach people regardless of political affiliation, whom I believed were also troubled by what was taking place on the US-Mexico border. I believed the issue was also in conflict with their values, too. This where I wanted to focus this storytelling.
The stories I shared that day, wasn’t about persuasion, they were personal stories about connecting values.
After the event a friend invited me to join her breakfast. She’s a conservative Christian. I’m a progressive Sikh. After we prayed together, she felt safe enough to ask me for my opinion. She too was troubled by what was going on the border. She felt comfortable to share and had the courage to ask questions. To this day, I hold that friendship close to my heart.
Read the full transcript of the Lights for Liberty Vigil
Additional Storytelling: A Gift of Hope talks/writings:
In this 2016 TEDx talk, Storytelling: A Peaceful Power TEDxNashville, I suggest that to achieve peace in our world, we can be the story that we want to see in the world, and we can help others too, just by listening. We are, each of us, storytellers. To tell our stories is more than just a human right. It is a gift we can give the world.
This blog Creating Positive Change- A Modest Primer, includes a few ideas based on stories from my own life, about how I think we can go about this work. I believe, part of the work of any type of activism is simply recapturing and nurturing that sense of belief that came so naturally to you as a child. This is work that all of us can do every day, and I think that the stories we share with one another are the structure on which we can build a better future.
The Humanity of Stories with Kiran Singh Sirah. A Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Kitchen Table Project. Blog by Eileen Jones. 2023. Smithsonian Folklife Festival. “A personal narrative is a personal testimony. Therefore, it holds emotional truth.”