 Image: Collage of images from the toolkit. Credits: Mike Snyder, Jim Dunn, Jake Naughton 2025 is complicated. The world is complicated. I always feel like people roll their eyes a little when I say things like, “stories, to build a better world.” And I get it! It’s a lofty idea… sounds impossible. A little daunting, even. But I think it’s important to remember that cultivating stories for hope and change isn’t just a feeling—it’s a practice. It’s a project we can chip away at, a little every day.
As the late storyteller Syd Lieberman once said, “Storytelling isn’t about technique. It’s about being fully human.” And as NEA Heritage Fellow Mama Linda Goss often says, “Storytelling is medicine for the spirit and healing for the soul.” Storytelling is a true collaboration, a call-and-response tradition rather than a hierarchy. It’s our superpower, and each time we use it, we grow stronger. And behind every story is a desire to love and be loved. If our elected leaders fail to understand this, then we must lead ourselves. On that note, I am honored to share a labor of love with you all: Telling Stories that Matter: Cultivating Our Stories to Meet This Moment—a storytelling toolkit. Whether you are an educator, peacebuilder, community organizer, student, or an everyday human working to protect democracy and human rights, this toolkit is designed to offer creative methods to explore compassionate storytelling. Use it in conversations with neighbors, friends, and family, or to support the people and causes you love. My goal has been to make this toolkit less theoretical and more practical—something practitioners can readily use. It incorporates activities like photography, spoken word, and oral history as tools for healing and community-building. I’m also pairing it with my blog, Storytelling: A Gift of Hope. By understanding the art of storytelling, we can center the stories that have existed on the margins for far too long—while ensuring we also make space for the ones that have yet to be told. Storytelling: A Gift of Hope, is a curated initiative that explores the art of storytelling and its tremendous power to transform how we see ourselves and each other—not just despite our differences, but because of them. Offerings include story blogs, tools, reflections, podcasts, and ideas, with occasional guest posts from community members, and more. "Cultivating Stories to Meet This Moment." workshop. Recently, I led a 90-minute virtual workshop called "Cultivating Stories to Meet This Moment." It was a live event. The session explores the power of stories as a tool for building relationships, cultivating peace with equality & justice, and working through difficult conversations. One of my non-profit partners is now making the unedited/raw footage (includes an accompanying handout) available for purchase for $25 for personal use only. Order Kiran's Past Workshop. Comments are closed.
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