Working Out Loud: an audio storytelling workshop

In 2019, alongside Johanna Obenda, I organized and developed the curriculum for Working Out Loud: an audio storytelling workshop. Organized in collaboration with The Center for The Study of Slavery and Justice, the workshop invited students to gain the tools they need to produce high quality, ethical audio stories that address themes central to the mission of CSSJ, including the history and legacies of racial slavery.

Through it’s curriculum, this workshop also aimed to deconstruct certain preconceived notions about podcasting and pull back the curtain on audio storytelling. Drawing from personal and collective narratives, students learned to use audio production and storytelling as a tool for examining themes of race, freedoms, and injustices of the past and present. This workshop addressed the many barriers that prohibit people from using podcasts as a medium for activism and storytelling, allowing participants to use their own voice to share a message and challenge the status-quo of traditional radio.

With the assistance of radio producers and editors, workshop fellows produced their own radio pieces, from start to finish, during the month-long workshop.