Gathering Stories: Digital Storytelling Workshop for High School Women
Date: July 10-14th, 2023
What’s Your Story?
Explore new possibilities for Telling Your Story and Sharing it Digitally in this summer workshop on the RIT campus with other creative, curious, motivated young writer-artist-storytellers.
This unique workshop for young women might be just the space you need to explore, wander, and expand your storytelling horizons! Led by RIT faculty and guest storytellers from the Rochester community, the workshop is open to women, nonbinary, and transgender women in high school in fall 2023. FirstStudent bus transportation is provided from Rochester to the RIT campus in Henrietta. This workshop is made possible by a grant from the Cornelia T. Bailey New ERA Women Writers Grant.
Click on the link here to see a short video about the workshop experience.
You'll...
- Receive a $250 stipend - provided after the successful completion of the workshop - to offset time you might have worked during this week
- Playfully practice the art of storytelling with talented young women from across the Rochester area
- Experiment with new digital and multimedia storytelling methods in RIT computer labs
- Learn the tricks of the storytelling trade from RIT faculty, local storytelling artists, and creative writers
- Expand your horizons by telling your story – a creative encounter with writing strategies that you might also use in college and job applications
- Build confidence with your 4-person story circle
- Discover women storytellers and their creative methods of word-play to share their story and make connections.
Our Team
Faculty Leaders
Laura Shackelford
Professor, English
Interests: Narrative theory, Digital literary practices, Literary Media Studies, Feminist Science Studies, Science Fiction, Contemporary Novel, Systems theory and Bioinformatic Sciences.
Karen (Ren) VanMeenen
Senior Lecturer, English
Interests: Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Media Literacy, Visual Literature, Graphic novels, documentary photography, socially aware fine art photography, video installation, Photojournalism and the aesthetics of atrocity
Ammina Kothari
Professor, Director of Harrington School of Communication, University of Rhode Island
Interests: Global communication; health, gender, technology and religion; journalism, media studies, women’s and gender studies, computer-assisted journalism.
Rashida Burch-Washington
Manager, Operations & Producer & Educator at Rochester Community TV
Interests: Rashida manages radio station WXIR, but teaching youth is her favorite responsibility at RCTV. While she loves the work she does with the community through RCTV, Rashida’s favorite job is being a wife and mother of two.
Guest Storytellers
DeAnn De Leon
Producer / Director at Rochester Community TV
Interests: Filmmaking, Storytelling Editing, Documentary Film, Journalism, Screenwriting
Sonja Livingston
Author; Associate Professor, Creative Writing, Virginia Commonwealth University
Interests: Memoir, Personal Essays, Personal Geographies, Lyric Essays, Brief Nonfiction, Unsung Voices, Writing about Class, Gender, Roots, Race & Religion. Hobbies: nature walks, eating potato-based foods, hanging out with cats.
Christine Green
Freelance Writer/Teaching Artist
christinejgreenwrites@gmail.com
Interests: The primary focus of Christine’s freelance work is to highlight the outstanding literary scene in the Rochester area. Other areas of interest include Latinx and Chicanx arts and culture, teen writing classes, and lyrical and speculative creative nonfiction. Outside of work Christine like to garden, watch lots of TV, and nap whenever humanly possible.
Helen Atawube Yitah
Professor, Dept of English and Dean, School of Languages, University of Ghana, Accra
Interests: African literature, Women's oral and written literature, children's literature