Using Story Circles

A Story Circle is a small group of individuals sitting in a circle, sharing stories - usually from their own experience or imagination - focusing on a common theme. As each person in turn shares a story, a richer and more complex story emerges. By the end, people see both real differences and things their stories have in common. A Story Circle is a journey into its theme, with multiple dimensions, twists, and turns.

Story Circles are something general and specific and storytelling is something that people have done since time immemorial. Story Circles are often understood as deriving from Indigenous traditions. There are many variations. Theatermakers such as Roadside Theater and John O’Neal have been central in developing the practice for use in creating original performance and community telling and listening projects. Story Circles can become practical interventions for building shared power and moving to action after hearing themes from the stories and building relationships between individuals.

Each Story Circle is unique and can take on the energy of the group. They can support perspective taking, empathy, cultural humility, listening, courage, vulnerability and healing. Story Circles can be light or deep - depending upon the hopes, intentions, and outcomes of your group. Story Circles allow for civic dialogue. When opinions are often polarized, Story Circles can help us find a way to sit alongside each other and develop empathy.

The Story Circles tool was brought to OSU as a part of the People’s State of the Union, Dare to Imagine, and Imaginings campaigns adapted from the US Department of Arts & Culture (2015—2018) by Charlene Martinez who managed Integrated Learning for Social Change, a program within Diversity & Cultural Engagement.