University of Oregon students and community members are invited to share personal stories this Friday, as part of the “People’s State of the Union,” a grassroots, informal response to the annual presidential address.
The People’s State of the Union is a nationwide conversation that aims to tap into the personal American experience through public storytelling. This event focuses on a citizen’s personal insight and experience in relation to the country’s state. The event will take place at 2:30-4 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29 at the Many Nations Longhouse (1630 Columbia St.)
Participants will choose one of the following prompts: a story the president should hear, an experience that led to insight regarding the current state of the union or a story about when one felt a sense of belonging (or lack thereof) in one’s community.
“It’s a weaving of a collective narrative and culture and community, belonging or not belonging,” said John Fenn, professor in the UO Arts and Administration program, who was recently appointed as a cultural agent for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC). Fenn, who is coordinating the event, anticipates that community members will share stories at the event, each two to three minutes in length.
The USDAC, a non-governmental organization, aims to encourage and augment cultural living on a community scale throughout the United States. Its website states: “Democracy is a conversation, not a monologue. Understanding the state of our union takes we the people reflecting in our own communities on our challenges and opportunities locally, nationally and globally.”
Across the country, others will be sharing similar stories in groups of varying sizes.
“I think it’s important to get people and communities together to kind of share perspectives in a variety of ways,” Fenn said. “What’s neat about this one is it’s focused on equity and inclusion and participation through arts and culture.”
The content from the People’s State of the Union events across the country will be sent to a council of poets for review, rearrangement and reformatting.
“[The poets] will sift through all this stuff and see what kinds of conversations, concerns, celebrations and themes are going on around the country based on these stories,” Fenn said. “They draw direct quotes, take poetic license and use their craft to speak of and for communities around the country that have contributed.”
The final poem will later be broadcasted on Free Speech TV online.
Last year, he said the poem included references to the Black Lives Matter movement, the death of Eric Garner and immigration issues.
“It can be political, but it’s also about how it’s experienced and talked about by people on the ground,” he said.
More information about the event can be found at www.usdac.us/psotu.
Watch the USDAC’s 2015 People’s State of the Union, published last March, below.