Immigration Storytelling Workshop

On Monday, May 11, 2009 a group gathered in the basement of the Cambodian American Heritage Museum to discuss immigrant stories in a workshop hosted by the Chicago Cultural Alliance and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The Medill School of Journalism was recently awarded a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to start a collection of immigrant stories to be placed on Immigrant Connect Chicago.

The workshop, run by Jack Doppelt, a professor at the Medill, focused on teaching the participants the core questions and interview techniques required to draw out the stories that everyone has about immigration or migration. With the assistance of some written prompts, the group divided into partners and began to tell each other their stories, or the stories of someone they knew. The results were astounding; when given the task of reporting on other people's story, everyone was able to relate the story of their partner in great detail.

With the knowledge of how to start asking the questions that can facilitate dialogue about an individual's immigration experience, this workshop was timed to occur one week before the Talking about Im/migration facilitator training workshop at The Field Museum. These skills will be expanded during the day-long session on Monday, May 18 2009 and over the next few months.

The Immigrant Connect Chicago program is an online forum, where people can write their own stories or contact a member/student of the university program to assist them with writing their story. The ultimate purpose of this program is to bridge immigrant groups and cross ethnic and generational lines within communities. Their goal can in many ways be assisted by the Alliance, and makes the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University an ideal partner organization. For further information on sharing your own, or someone else's immigration story, you can can contact Professor Doppelt and his students at contact@immigrantconnect.org.