Storytelling and Identity - Fall 2023

we are made of stories

Author: Kaylee Wyrick Page 1 of 4

Prep Note 4/19

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On April 19, 2024

In Kaylee, prep note

“Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Davis is a book that I’ve heard a lot about online but I never took the time to read it (or at least the first three chapters) until now. It’s a great book that offers an insight into the current US prison system and how it does much more harm than it does good. The current prison system is for profit, which has allowed countless injustices to happen all in the hopes of making more money. The current prison system has no benefits, other than making said money for a selective group of people. The prison system works at the expense of humans, and often whole communities. The fact that the number of prisons in California doubled within a decade is extremely disheartening, and worse when you learn that men to fill these prisons are exponentially rising. Prisons obviously have not become a deterrent for crime because so many people are still being sent to prisons. A quote from the book that I found important was that “Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings”. This quote highlights the way that prisons simply take people in but do little (often nothing) to help fix the systemic problems that caused people to resort to crime in the first place. I was also shocked to read how prisons truly started after the civil war and due to Jim Crow laws, but this makes sense due to the number of POC imprisoned vs. their white counterparts. All in all, this book was a great read and I hope that I will have time to continue it.

 

Last Day at the Detention Center

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On March 29, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Kaylee

Our group’s last day at the detention center was bittersweet, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity. When we went to the center, I was nervous and a little sad that it was ending. When we arrived, we got to bring our snacks as per usual, and the kids that we met with seemed very excited to be given chips. We put the chairs in a large circle like we usually do, but this time there were only boys who agreed to meet with us. I noticed that the girl I met with the previous two weeks was no longer at the center, and I remember how she told me that she was likely getting sent to an in-patient mental health center. Weirdly, I felt a little sad that I didn’t get to see her or say goodbye. It made me think of the way that Coogan must have felt when the men he talked to came and went.

The boy I paired with this week was younger, he was about 14. His story broke my heart. He explained how he had been at the center since he was 10 when he was charged with selling guns. He told me that he would be at the center until (at the very earliest) his 16th birthday. It really stuck with me. He also got emotional telling me that he hadn’t seen his baby sister since he was arrested. After we left the center, I became a little teary-eyed while telling my classmates about it.

 

Again, I want to stress how much I’ve loved this experience and I’m happy that I stuck with the class.

3rd Day at the Detention Center (Feb 20, 2024)

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On February 21, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Kaylee

This week’s visit was great, and it made me very happy to see some kids return and come again. When we first got to the site I noticed that the staff was completely different from those who have been there the past two weeks. The difference between the energy the kids have with certain staff versus the staff there this week is like night and day. The kids seemed more reserved and less relaxed. When we got into the gym area with our group, we started by talking about the different books and movies that we liked. I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks that many of the boys enjoy gangster movies such as Menace to Society because it teaches people the consequences of being involved in that lifestyle. I also noticed that everyone mostly likes superhero and science fiction movies/books because they are interesting to them.

When we divided into pairs, I worked with the same girl that I worked with last week. She was happy to see me and she told me that she had thought a little about stories over the past week and that she had told a couple of her friends who are at the juvenile center as well. She was a lot more talkative this week than she was last week, which made it easier for me as well. A boy joined our group as well, and he has been there every time we have visited the center. The first week we went, he sat in the back with staff and didn’t participate much. Over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t worked with him but I noticed that he was interacting more. Yesterday I finally got to work with him and he was a lot more talkative than I expected. He even shared a couple personal details. When I gave them the prompt of a time that they helped someone who was sick, he shared about his mother being sick. He told me that growing up they didn’t have a lot of food at home, and that he would steal canned chicken noodle soup for his mother and his siblings. We eventually got back to the topic of superheroes and they told me which were their favorites.

2nd Day at the Detention Center (Feb 13, 2024)

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On February 15, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Kaylee

This week’s visit was very different from last week’s but I still really enjoyed it. This week we got to talk with the kids as a whole group instead of the kids being separated by gender. There were about 8-10 kids there, and we were in a gym area. We got to make a large circle with our chairs and talk all together. I really enjoyed this because it didn’t feel like we were presenting or just talking at the kids; instead, we were talking with them. I paired with two kids, one boy, and one girl. I noticed that the boy had velcro shoes, which was interesting because, in different facilities shoes with velcro are reserved for kids who can’t have shoe laces for their own safety or the safety of others.
As I was talking to my group partners about where they wanted to be in 5-10 years, the boy said he wanted to play in the NFL like his cousin, and the girl said that she wanted to become a defense attorney. She explained that she wanted to be a defense attorney because the one working on her current case is overworked and isn’t doing a great job defending her. I thought that it was very sweet and interesting that she wanted to help someone like herself later in life.
My group was more on the quiet side and gave short responses to the questions I asked. Eventually, I asked each of them what superpower they wanted if they could choose one. They both said that they would want the power to read minds. I asked them to elaborate and they talked about how it would help them know who was lying to them and it would teach them not to trust people. This was sad to me because they both expressed a deep distrust for the people around them, but with their backgrounds and a few personal things they shared, this made complete sense. The boy also started to explain to me how much I reminded him of his sister who had passed, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. All in a;; it was a great visit and as usual we ended it with a fist bump. Both kids said that if they were still at the facility next Tuesday they would love to participate in the story telling visit again.

1st Day at the Detention Center (Feb 6, 2024)

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On February 7, 2024

In Experiential Reflections, Kaylee

Our first day at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center was great. I was looking forward to it all day and I was very happy with the experience. When we arrived, the many locked doors and checkpoints were a little jarring. It started to sink in more that the kids we were meeting with really didn’t want to be there and this was highlighted during our mini-orientation. We talked with a worker and he explained that we needed to be careful with the kids because at the end of the day, they allegedly committed a crime to be there, and they might try to take advantage of our age and kindness. The importance of not giving them a pen or pencil was also stressed which made sense, but it set the tone a little darker. We also were informed that we had to split into groups because one of the female juvenile participants had triggers when it came to being with a large group, and about 7 to 8 juvenile boys decided to take part in the program yesterday. This reminded me of how “the body keeps the score”

I ended up talking with the male participants, which I was nervous about at first because I wasn’t sure how well we could relate and whether or not they would take me seriously. I was wrong, and everyone was extremely attentive and nice. We went around the room and introduced ourselves, and we asked the boys about their dreams. Many wanted to stay in school, pursue carpentry, or be musicians. Many of them also mentioned that they hoped they never ended up back at the center, because for many this was not their first time. We eventually moved on to more storytelling, and I was grouped with two boys. I asked them to tell me about a time they were proud. One of the boys explained a football game where he scored 4 touchdowns, but the other boy felt that he didn’t have any proud moments and started to share some more personal feelings and stories. I was thankful that they shared and had a nice time talking to them.

I noticed how young many of the boys were. We were told that the center housed kids from ages 11 to 17. The boys I met with were on the older side of that, closer to 15 or 16. One of the boys was 16 and had two full sleeves of tattoos and neck pieces, which was suprising to me. When talking to the other boy I worked with I noticed that he talked to himself a lot and repeated certain phrases over and over. He was the one who shared some more personal details with me and I once again was reminded of the reading from “The Body Keeps the Score”. The boys were called to take medicine right before we left, and as we said goodbye I asked one of the workers if it was ok to shake the boy’s hands, and I was told that fist bumps were preferred. I gave the boys fist bumps and invited them to meet again if they were still at the center next Tuesday.

Prep Note Feb 2

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On January 30, 2024

In Kaylee, prep note

I was a little nervous to read “The Body Keeps the Score” because I wasn’t sure how medical/technical it would be, but I found it to be a fairly easy read. One part that I found fascinating was the example of trauma being like a horse and a rider. Often trauma is completely out of a person’s control, similarly to the way the body might respond to it. I thought this was a great way to describe how fight or flight can feel, and how hard it is for a person or “rider” to handle it. Overall I really enjoyed the reading.

Prep Note 11/28/23

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On November 26, 2023

In Kaylee, prep note

What was the story you heard? What makes it a story?

I stayed on campus during the break instead of traveling home for the holiday. On Thanksgiving, I FaceTimed my sister and my grandma while they waited for dinner to be ready. While talking to my grandma, my aunt was brought up. The story that my grandma decided to tell me about my aunt was brought up naturally. My aunt is notorious for her cooking skills. We love her, but she has been banned from making the Thanksgiving mac and cheese. I’m old enough to remember the time when she still brought side dishes to Thanksgiving, but my grandma told me a story from when my aunt first started dating my uncle in the early 2000s. My aunt is related to me through marriage, and she wanted to impress her future husband’s family. On her first Thanksgiving with my family, she didn’t want to come empty-handed so she decided to make a pie. All she planned to do was buy a premade pie crust and a canned filling. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not making a pie from scratch; it’s hard to mess up. On the morning of Thanksgiving, she was in a rush to get ready and was running late. Her hair was in rollers, she was trying to get dressed, and my uncle was rushing her to get ready. She realized that she had forgotten to make the pie, so she ran into the kitchen to let it cook while she did her hair. She opened a can that was sitting on the counter, dumped it into the pie crust, and threw it in the oven. While she finished her hair and makeup, she smelled something funny coming from the kitchen. As she checked on the pie, she realized that instead of grabbing the can of pie filling, she grabbed a can of tuna fish. It was my grandmother’s first time meeting my aunt, but she didn’t judge her. My grandma thought it was the funniest thing to ever happen, and she and my aunt still joke about it every Thanksgiving. I think what made this story a story was the emotion and the sequence of events. If the story was told out of order it wouldn’t have made sense. If the emotion my grandma expressed when telling the story was different/more negative it would have changed the story completely as well.

Class Notes 11/16/23

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On November 16, 2023

In Daily Class Notes, Kaylee

  • Our class next Tuesday will be over Zoom.
  • Over break, we need to collect a story. Our prep note after the break will be about debriefing stories
  • We started the class by talking about everyone’s plan for their story project and how we might work the reading into our story. The project will be creative, and we will create a rubric together.
  • We discussed the book
    • The book is about how the founders of Moth coach people to help them tell their stories.
    • In the narrative stepping stones portion, Mitch was struck by the metaphor of stepping stones.
    • For many people’s stories, it is easier to know the story’s end and beginning. The middle pieces of the “story puzzle” are a little more of a grey area.
    • There are three elements of a good story: Scenes, summaries, and reflection.
    • Instead of just describing something/someone, you should try to include examples of how they can be described that way. (For example: Don’t just say “My son had charisma”; you need to include examples of him being charismatic)  (show; don’t tell)
    • Pg. 107 has a good example of how stories should have some level of meaning (but we’re not writing fables)
    • There’s a difference between including some comedy in your story and doing standup.
  • One strategy for our story assignment can be to write down every detail about a story, and then shift through the details and decide what to include and what you don’t need.
  • “Nanette”: a comedy special by Hannah Gadsby is something interesting you can watch to see how humor can be used as a tool to tell a story.
  • We grouped up and talked about our stories and how to improve them.

 

  • What do we want to get out of our story project?
    • We want to learn more about our classmates and their stories
    • Maybe include 1-2 points for active listening?
    • Maybe at the end of each story, we turn in a paper that rates how engaging the story was?
    • Maybe for our final portfolio, we could talk about someone else’s story/ make a story connection?
  • 20 points total for the storytelling project
    • 5 points for skill as a listener
      •  Maybe have a test after each story (kinda): “How would you tell this story in 6 words after hearing it?”
      • Maybe just write a “Here’s what I got out of your story” note for everyone who presents?
    • 15 points for the story itself
      • doesn’t have to be shocking or deep, but the story should have substance
      • One category of points could be relatability (does the story have an applicable theme)
      • Taking time to come up with a story that does justice to the assignment is important (carefully shaped)
      • Points for putting effort into the final product? Was the story/final product polished?
      • Make sure your presentation isn’t a lecture or a list of facts
      • The meaning can be light (doesn’t have to be as serious as the boy who cried wolf”

Prep Note 11/9/23

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On November 8, 2023

In Kaylee, prep note

I enjoyed Professor Dolson’s story because it was very well crafted. I noticed how there was a mix of personal pictures and more generic ones, which I liked. I liked hearing a personal story from Professional Dolson and enjoyed the happy/nostalgic tone throughout the video. The last part about how the houses were “us, not they” was the part that I found the most powerful. We as a society as quick to make judgments, and this story is a good example of the importance of slowing down and thinking more about similarities than differences.

Prep Note 11/7/23

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On November 7, 2023

In Kaylee, prep note

I listened to the “Wild Women and Dancing Queens” story. The speaker was Lex Jade, and she was very passionate and lively while she was telling her story. When she was 14 years old, she went to an all-girls camp and learned a lot about her femininity and self-image. One night at her camp, her cabin decided to go streaking. She was nervous about it but she eventually decided to take part in the situation. While they were running around she was worried about getting hurt or sick, but she didn’t worry about her body or what she looked like. She and her cabinmates sang “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, and that night did a lot to help how she viewed herself and those around her. The narrative structure of her story is chronological, and she tells the story in the order in which the events happened. I really enjoyed hearing Lex Jade tell this story and I respect her openness and vulnerability while telling it.

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