Poet, artist, and educator Joe Davis' Remind Me Again: Poems and Practices for Remembering Who We Are, is a collection of 41 poems that speak to our mind, body, and spirit, to our community, and to our purpose. Each poem includes a “Try This Practice” to help readers connect the themes to their everyday lives.
Rev. Dr. Jia Starr Brown's Remind Me Again Facilitator Guide includes 41 weeks of content to help you have meaningful discussions about Joe’s poetry as well as help guide you to connect to your own community. This content is endlessly flexible and can be used as a 10-minute addition to a lesson or 41 weeks of hour-long sessions.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” — Isaiah 5:20
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'What is it about our history that frightens the powerful? Why is naming harm so often mistaken for causing division? How do we become stewards of the kind of truth that liberates, rather than the kind of lies that dominate?
Let us refuse the bait of false binaries. Let us refuse to pit “unity” against justice, “order” against honesty, “sanity” against truth. Our task is not to win an argument within MAGA’s logic—it is to tell a fuller story outside of it.
We do this by telling our histories without shame. By making space for discomfort. By learning from ancestors who carried truth even when it was dangerous. By trusting that God is never on the side of silencing the oppressed, but always on the side of those crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way.”
Reflection Questions
When have you been tempted to shrink your story to make others comfortable?
What histories or truths have shaped you that the dominant culture would rather forget?'
Everyone has a story to tell, a tale of hurt and hope, an account of successes and disappointments. But not everyone has “permission to narrate” that story. The phrase comes from the formidable, erudite Palestinian academic, Edward Said; he noticed that contemporary Israel has permission to narrate its life, whereas Palestinians are denied that right to tell their life, experience, and version of historical reality. From that shrewd notice of Said, the phrase is a welcome one for many other social inequities as well wherein the powerful tell the story. What follows is a reflection on such permission (or not) in our story-telling that always awaits self-announcement.
Summer is a great time to incorporate storytelling into gatherings, whether they happen in church or around a campfire. The Faith Storytelling toolkit offers ideas to get you started.
Doing Good Together encourages families to explore Our [Nation's] Storied History with children to empower all kids with stories that inspire civic engagement and a hunger for justice; includes picture books and books for teens and adults.
Is inviting Christians to reconsider the frameworks of punitive justice and reconstruct biblical tenets of restorative sjustice
Hope that love of neighbor leads to advocacy for those that society overlooks.
Believes when we shift harmful narratives, it allows us to cultivate communities where all people can flourish.
Neighbor's Table is a training designed to create a transformative experience through liminal learning space.
They want to engage the societal issue of mass incarceration and those whom it effects, biblically & theologically; while also learning the social, psychological and historical implications of this brokenness. We believe that an action oriented engagement will start with emulating the one whom we follow, Jesus, and trusting Him for a day when the criminal justice system looks & feels more like God's Kingdom on earth.
Check out the SoulPancake website: full of beautiful stories to inspire, encourage, and deepen conversations.
Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence offers a list of Storytelling Websites for honing the craft.
The Kairos Blanket Exercise is available with in-person or virtual facilitation, leading people through locally adapted scripts to appreciate the significant historical and generational toll colonization has had on Indigenous communities.
GoodDocs offers high quality streaming video documentaries and speakers covering a range of topics through diverse lenses.
1- to 3-year subscriptions are available for congregations.
See our Great Idea for one way to incorporate documentaries/speakers into congregational life and outreach.
HEALING MINNESOTA STORIES: SACRED SITES TOURS
As part of Healing Minnesota Stories' effort to create dialogue, understanding, and healing between Native and non-Native peoples, Minnesota Council of Churches offers Sacred Site Tours of the Twin Cities area. The tour includes information on Dakota history, culture, and sacred sites, as well as the oppression and genocide they faced, and ultimately their exile.
As the topics are quite serious the tours are considered age appropriate for high-school age or older.
Find short-form films, inspiring stories, and tips for sharing and hearing stories together at StoryCorps from NPR.
OutoftheBox uses story and play for personal and community wellbeing. Their storytellers create brave relational space to breathe, trust, listen, feel, wonder, play and love. OutoftheBox stories are in use in a range of settings, including schools, care homes, workplaces, community groups, families, therapeutic settings, chaplaincy, spiritual accompaniment and faith communities.
Membership provides access to their 49 core Wisdom stories and ongoing support through their online community, as well as self-led and trainer-led learning and the opportunity to purchase their beautiful storytelling resources. Additional types of stories are being developed: History, Arts, Nature, STEM, Religions and Faith. Become a Member here.
Build The Kindom (sic) of God while finding The Sacred in The Ordinary in pages of profound, beautiful picture books.
The Hearth offers in-person and online Certificate in Community Storytelling trainings for those interested in learning and applying the transformational power of stories in personal and professional settings. These specialized certification programs will assist community and organizational leaders in learning a variety of skills, techniques, and processes for producing community storytelling programs and using story as a practice to heal, strengthen, and enrich relationships.
“In a time of increased polarization, it is storytelling that can connect us.”
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