CAEE 2024 Conference eeVoices: The Power of Stories

Whose stories matter? And who gets to tell them? It's not common for a municipal government to raise the questions, but in the five years since Denver launched the city's Office of Storytellin, a program designed to preserve and share the city's history and culture primarily by creating films in the voices of residents has evolved to include the desire to inform decision -making at City Hall and to uplift community voices for conservation and engagement, particularly around issues of social justice. Why? Because so many of the stories, from drag queens to wheelchair activists and from Japanese Americans imprisoned by the U.S. government to Chicanos advocating for access to housing and education, are similar and maybe, just maybe, could be taken into account when formulating a more just and informed policy. Denver's Chief Storyteller, Rowena Alegria, founder and director of the Denver Office of Storytelling, will share clips from the office's work and explore how Narrative Justice can be a force for peace.