We seek to tell our unique histories, framed for us as BIPOC communities to learn with and from one another.

What are we creating?

The final product will be a series of short videos and companion conversation guides. The videos will feature multiple storytellers from Minnesota BIPOC communities. Storytellers in this project will participate in video recording sessions with Alfred Walking Bull (Sicangu Lakota) serving as interviewer and story weaver and Ryan Stopera serving as videographer and film director.

Purpose

Weave together diverse narratives that build solidarity across cultures, engage and activate networks, and promote awareness of Linking Leaders.

Outcome

• BIPOC Minnesotans have access to community-driven stories of history and place about other racial or ethnic groups, of which we are not members.

• BIPOC Minnesotans have a resource, through which we can learn about one another’s histories.

• BIPOC Minnesotans have more/additional tools to have intra, inter, and cross racial/ethnic dialogue about our shared and divergent histories.

• Viewers of the videos and users of the conversation guides find pathways to solidarity between our communities.

Process to Apply to be a featured Storyteller in the Video Series

• We ask Storytellers submit using this form https://www.truthinhistorymn.org/apply by August 30, 2023

• In the online form you will be asked for:

  • Name(s)

  • pronoun(s)

  • Optional Demographics

    • tribal affiliation(s) if applicable,

    • races/ethnicities of the applicant(s)

    • gender identities of the applicant(s)

    • sexual orientations of the applicant(s)

    • contact information (email and phone)

  • Responses to these questions (responses can be written directly into the form, uploaded as a .doc or a .PDF, or uploaded as a .mp4 video file…..PLEASE NOTE: this does not have to be formal language, it doesn’t need to be a perfectly polished draft, and is not going to be your script for the videos. Your application does not need to be highly designed or produced. This application is simply to indicate your interest in participating as a storyteller. Simply said, you don’t have get fancy, you don’t need to be a formally trained historian or academic expert, we’re seeking BIPOC folks that want to share stories broadly between and among our communities. We don’t expect you to incur any cost to submit beyond your time, no need to purchase any technology or equipment to apply. Applications will be used to help us select a set of story tellers for this project)

    • Tell us about who you are, who your people are, and how you come to be someone that shares stories about race, ethnicity, and history in place (are you a group or one person and how will you participate if you are more than one person?)

    • Our funder requires the videos focus on BIPOC Minnesotans and our connection to the geographies now named Minneapolis, or Saint Paul, or Saint Cloud, or Bodies of Water that share the same geography with Minnesota, please tell us about your connection to one or more of those identities and one or more of those places

    • We are focused on stories of place. What are your ideas for stories you might share about your racial/ethnic identities and the places now named Minneapolis, or Saint Paul, or Saint Cloud, or bodies of water that share the geography called Minnesota?

• Once we receive all the applications, we will choose a set of storytellers to participate in the video production process. It is likely we will select no more than 16 total people as storytellers, we will offer the chosen storytellers a stipend of at least $2,500 depending on the total number selected.  

• It is possible we will end up with a storyteller group with a concentrated geographic focus. We commit to a storyteller group with representation from across BIPOC communities of Minnesotan and we understand and acknowledge that within each BIPOC identity there are multiple various ethnicities, affiliations, and experiences and given this reality we know that no storyteller group will be a complete representation of any one set of communities or lived experiences.

• Storyteller applications will be compiled by project facilitators Alfred Walking Bull and Alfonso Wenker and presented to the Linking Leaders team for a final decision.

• Production process:

  o   September > facilitated gathering of storyteller group

  o   September/October > video recording

  o   November > production team edits and refines vides and makes conversation guide

  o   January > community event to launch videos

   

  Questions? Please contact Alfred Walking Bull and Alfonso Wenker, project facilitators by emailing info@truthinhistorymn.org. Truth in History is a project of Linking Leaders. Linking Leaders has contracted with Alfred and Alfonso to manage this video project.