Resources and strategies for using the power of narrative in your activist campaigns.
A project from the Story Team at Greenpeace.Start Telling Your Story TodayLearn More About Storytelling
Stories help us decide which futures are possible, and how those futures may be brought into being. If we pay attention to the stories that a culture holds dear, we discover its deep structure. We learn what is most important to people, what they value, and what they disregard.
When we look at a story, we ask: Who is included? Who is left out? Who is the “hero”? Who gets to write the story? Who is silenced? What “truths” about the world does the story promote? Storytelling is the act of making these decisions anew.
The stories of too many have been suppressed for too long. These stories must be told and heard for they can build, unite, liberate, and illuminate. Storytelling has been a critical tool and space for resistance and progress. Through stories, we illuminate hidden truths, we counter myths that oppress, we unify and build communities. Storytelling is essential to making change. What’s beautiful about stories is that everyone has a story.
Rewrite the stories and we can rewrite how society sees and understands. Few things are as powerful as a story well-told. The tools on this site are designed to help you tell yours as truthfully, vividly, and powerfully as possible.
Storytellers aren’t content with the stories that already exist. We have something more to say. We recognize which stories are circulating in our culture, and understand that they can broken apart and rewritten. Storytellers aim to show a part of the world others haven’t seen before, or to help others see that world from an unfamiliar angle. Like all sources of power, storytelling is shaped by access. As we begin to write our stories, it’s important to consider who’s holding the pen as well as what words we’re choosing. When we expand our vision, we expand the range of what seems possible.
