Food, Memoir, and Narrative: The Story Only You Can Tell

Veronica Chambers poster

Tuesday, March 6, 2018
 7:00 pm
Hewlett 200
Admission is free and open to all.

Veronica Chambers is a a four-time New York Times best-selling author who specializes in creativity and collaboration. In this talk, she’ll discuss her James Beard award-winning collaborations with chefs such as Marcus Samuelsson, Eric Ripert and her most recent cookbook project, Between Harlem and Heaven which she co-wrote with Harlem chefs JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls. She’ll also talk about the Earth Systems class she is teaching at Stanford this quarter, “Environmental and Food System Journalism,” and how food writing can open the door to explorations of culture, history and identity.

Additional details and map are available on the Stanford Event Calendar.


The Art of Editing with Julia Barton and Sam Greenspan

Poster with Julia Barton and Sam Greenspan

Join the Stanford Storytelling Project for a special conversation between radio veterans Julia Barton and Sam Greenspan.

Julia Barton is an award-winning radio editor, reporter, and writer. Currently, she edits Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell. Her reporting has aired on 99$ Invisible, Radiolab, and elsewhere.

Sam Greenspan is a visiting staffer at the Stanford Storytelling Project. Previously, he was the managing producer at 99% Invisible, where he worked on a number of stories with Julia. Sam is currently developing a new podcast, Bellwether.


An Evening with Rebecca Skloot and members of the Henrietta Lacks Family

Skloot and Lacks Family Poster

Thursday, April 19, 2018 
7:30pm
CEMEX Auditorium
Tickets required

Join us for an evening with both Rebecca Skloot and members of the Lacks family to discuss the story of Henrietta Lacks, the subject of Skloot’s best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Seating is limited. Tickets went on sale for Stanford students and the Stanford community Monday, Jan 29 at noon, and and will go on sale for the general public Wednesday, Jan 31 at noon. Reserve a ticket here.

The event is sponsored by the Stanford Storytelling Project, Stanford Continuing Studies, the Center for Biomedical Ethics, and the Medicine & the Muse Program in Medical Humanities & the Arts.


StoryNight, Fall 2017

StoryNight Poster

Wednesday, December 6, 2017
7pm and 9pm
Elliott Program Center
Free and open to the public. RSVP on Facebook.

Ever wondered what incredible stories your peers might have?
Or what lead them to where they are at now?

Join us for an unforgettable evening of live storytelling on Wednesday December 6th at the Elliott Program Center! Students will perform stories they’ve developed throughout the quarter in the course StoryCraft, taught by TAPS faculty and improv guru Dan Klein and director Michelle Darby.

There are two shows, one at 7pm and another at 9pm (each one hour long), featuring different students. Come to both if you can!

StoryNight is free and open to the public. Come early: hot chocolate and chai will be served before the performance!


Immigrating Release Party

Wednesday, Nov. 29 
6pm
Hume Center Lounge

Undergrads, join us for the release party of State of the Human‘s latest episode: “Immigrating,” which will be released in two parts. We’ll listen to “Episode 1 — Crossings” and “Episode 2 — Conversations” and there will food and friends, in addition to great storytelling.


National Novel Writing Month

To all the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) writers out there! The Stanford Storytelling Project has teamed up with Stanford’s Green Library to create a special table devoted to YOU.

If you need a place to go this month and get that daily word count done, somewhere with quiet camaraderie, where you can sit and grind, where you can get words of inspiration, pep talks, and the chance to get cool, secret treats and be just footsteps away from Coupa coffee, then come to the first floor of Green Library at any time during the library’s open hours and follow the signs to our little NaNoWriMo haven.

At the table you will find binders chock full of inspiring quotes, tips, great passages, exercises, and, most of all, advice on getting back to your writing. 😉 You can sign up in the binders to get emails about periodic treats throughout the month, and you can leave your own sage advice and inspiring words for others.


Oh My Sweet Land

Wednesday, October 18, 2017
2 pm
Branner Hall Dining Room
Attendance is free to the Stanford community, but RSVP through Eventbrite is required.

Theatre by Amir Nizar Zuabi
directed by Torange Yeghiazarian
featuring Nora el Samahy

A woman of Syrian-German heritage recalls her encounter with Ashraf, a Syrian man in Paris, while preparing the Syrian delicacy kibbeh. When he disappears, she goes on a long journey in search of him that leads to stirring conversations with some of the two-million Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. One part detective story, one part a woman’s reckoning with her heritage, Oh My Sweet Land complicates our understanding of the conflict in Syria and highlights the resilience of the Syrian people.

Organized by The Markaz: Resource Center with support from the Haas Center for Public Service, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, the Stanford Storytelling Project, the Office of VPUE, and the WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights & International Justice.


Alice Walker – Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart: Noticing Where You Are, and Who or What Is There With You

Alice Walker

Wednesday, November 8, 2017
7:00 pm
Memorial Church (Simulcast at Cubberley)
The event in Memorial Church is sold out, but you can reserve a free ticket for the simulcast here.

“No one escapes a time in life when the arrow of sorrow, of anger, of despair pierces the heart.For many of us, there is the inevitable need to circle the wound.It is often such a surprise to find it there, in us, when we had assumed arrows so painful only landed in the hearts of other people.Some of us spend decades screaming at the archer.Or at least for longer periods than are good for us.How to take the arrow out of the heart?How to learn to relieve our own pain?That is the question.Like many such questions it is one delved into by Buddhism, but also by anyone who has lived long enough to see, by trial and error, for the most part, that the futility we begin to feel, as we attempt to bring down the archer, leaves our wounded heart untended and the medicine of life that abounds wherever we are, is left unapplied.”—Alice Walker

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry.She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National BookAward for her novel The Color Purple. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies. Walker has been an activist all of her adult life, and believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She has a deep meditation practice. She is a staunch defender not only of human rights, but of the rights of all living beings. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers, yet continues to travel the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed. She also stands, on the side of the revolutionaries, teachers and leaders who seek change and transformation of the world.

This event is part of the Contemplation by Design Summit and is co-sponsored by the Office for Religious Life, the Stanford Storytelling Project, the Health Improvement Project, and BeWell.


First Open Meeting, Fall 2017

First Open Meeting Oct. 3, 5:30pm, Hume Center

Be sure to save the date and come to our first Stanford Storytelling Project open meeting of the term!

Join friends, make new ones, bring new people, your whole dorm!, eat yummy food, and learn all about the fun things in store for the term and the year!

A preview of upcoming podcast themes: Immigrating, Caretaking, Timing, Mirroring, Broadcasting, Myth, Naming … just to name a few.

Here’s our most recent episode for inspiration.

Spread the word! Tell your friends to tell their friends, and so on, and so on …