Narrative Labs
Narrative Labs
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Our Narrative Labs are spaces to practice storytelling as a living, embodied, and collective act.
Together, we gather to reflect, make meaning, build community, and engage with various storytelling concepts, texts, frameworks, and emergent narrative concepts, dilemmas, tensions, and possibilities.
These virtual gatherings are open to our community and intentionally not recorded.
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We design and facilaite this narrative labs rooted in our Storyteller Praxis model.
01 — Story-Listening: Ecosystemic sensing, analysis, and imagining. Pay attention to the micro and macro, to the meso and meta.
02 — Story-Crafting: Critical exploration of how narratives and stories are developed. Encoding/Decoding meaning and asset-based storytelling.
03 — Story-Sharing: A learning community to reflect, practice, and connect concepts to our own contexts.
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We curate these spaces with generosity and a deep belief in the power of gathering, reflection, and collective change-making.
Narrative Labs are not recorded, and while we share frameworks and ideas, these sessions are not lectures. They are participatory spaces for dialogue, meaning-making, and practice.
These spaces invite us to listen closely to ourselves, one another, and the stories shaping our world.
Sessions are typically 90 minutes, and we ask participants to arrive ready to reflect, engage in conversation, and critically decode.
Past Narrative Labs
DECODING: Asset-Based Storytelling
What might become possible through the imagining, harvesting, crafting, and sharing of stories rooted in cultural wealth and possibility?
In this lab, we discussed how and why centering asset-based approaches in our storytelling and narrative practice is essential to strengthening our capacity to address complex social challenges, advance social justice, and facilitate healing.
DECODING: Joy, Resistance & Asset-Based Storytelling
What lessons and stories surface when we hold space for joy, critique, and celebration?
In this lab, we invite participants to engage in a deeper reflection about the stories, tensions, and possibilities the Benito Bowl revealed. The session explores the tensions of how joy can function as a form of resistance while also making room for critical analysis, layered interpretations, and meaningful dialogue about representation, culture, power, and asset-based storytelling.
DECODING: AI & Ethical Storytelling
How do we make meaning of AI and ethical storytelling?
In this lab, we create space for intentional reflection on the tensions emerging between AI and what is often termed “ethical storytelling.” We explore tensions around themes of agency, discernment, time, and thought. Rather than offering “solutions” or focusing on how to use AI tools to generate “impact stories,” we invite participants to engage in deep reflection as a way to surface insights about their narrative practice.
Communities of Practice
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Educators & Youth Service Professionals
Are you an educator or youth service professional? Join our storytelling community for Educators & Youth Service Professionals. The group meets four times a year to exchange storytelling ideas, share best practices, network, and build community.
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Social Impact Storytellers
Are you a communicator and social impact storyteller? Join our storytelling community for Social Impact Storytellers. The group meets four times a year to exchange storytelling ideas, share best practices, network, and build community.