.png)
LISTEN! Series
A Yearlong Celebration of Stories, Memory, and Cultural Preservation
The LISTEN! Series is Stone Soup Storytelling Institute’s signature year-round program, designed to spark meaningful conversations rooted in history, culture, and lived experience. Each year we select a unifying theme that guides a collection of events—story circles, expert talks, open mics, hands-on experiences, arts programs, and community gatherings.
Our mission is simple: to listen deeply so we can better understand one another.
Through carefully curated topics, we invite storytellers, tradition-bearers, historians, culture keepers, and everyday residents to share experiences that remind us how connected we truly are.
Listening enhances understanding, strengthens community, preserves heritage, and builds trust. In a world that moves quickly, the LISTEN! Series makes time to slow down, honor the stories that shaped us, and explore the histories that deserve to be remembered.
LISTEN! EVENTS
Preserving the Past. Inspiring the Present. Strengthening the Future.
Why LISTEN! Matters
Storytelling is one of humanity’s oldest tools for learning and connection. By gathering around shared stories—especially those at risk of fading—the LISTEN! Series helps:
✔ Preserve cultural and historical knowledge
We uplift oral traditions, local histories, endangered cultural practices, and intergenerational memory.
✔ Build empathy and understanding
By hearing personal and communal stories, we recognize the connections between seemingly different lives.
✔ Create a shared community archive
Each event contributes to a living, evolving source of wisdom for future generations.
✔ Spark curiosity, creativity, and civic engagement
Participants leave inspired to learn more, preserve more, and share more.
✔ Honor diverse voices
The LISTEN! Series celebrates the stories of people who shaped our communities—whether their names are well-known or have never appeared in a history book.
Listening is powerful. When we listen with intention, we carry stories forward.
Past LISTEN! Series Events
(A sample list you can expand; customize based on your archives.)
-
LISTEN! 2025 – “Roots & Routes”
Stories of migration, local family histories, regional traditions, and ancestral connections. -
LISTEN! 2024 – “Across the Generations”
Youth–elder story exchanges, legacy interviews, and intergenerational community dialogues. -
LISTEN! 2023 – “Foodways & Folklore”
Exploring culinary heritage and the cultural stories behind recipes. -
LISTEN! 2022 – “Voices of Home”
Oral histories of neighborhoods, rural legacies, and community memory keepers. -
LISTEN! 2021 – “Healing Through Story”
Post-pandemic stories of resilience, loss, hope, and reconnection.
