A week after President Donald Trump took office, hundreds of people gathered in their homes, schools and places across the country to share stories about how they saw the state of the nation.
“Very sad,” some said. “Becoming aware.” “We can get along.”
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"Carmen Lampe Zeitler believes the best way to connect people is through stories.
That philosophy inspired the Des Moines resident and activist to co-organize a “People’s State of the Union” story circle through the non-governmental nonprofit The United States Department of Arts and Culture."
"At YBCA we are pioneering a new model for art centers as citizen institutions - as activated and inclusive places for people to come together to directly address the pressing questions we face in our communities and in our country," says Deborah Cullinan, CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. "With the Poetic Address to the Nation, we invite the American public to go on the record with their own truth, their own assessment of who we are and who we want to be as a nation."
“The idea is that by collecting all these stories and collecting the things that people hold close to them, then policies can be created that more accurately reflect the people in this country,” Hansen said...
The Merced Multicultural Arts Center will host a participatory art project focusing on immigration stories, according to organizers.
The event is called the People’s State of the Union and has become an annual effort to collect stories from around the country, according to its website. Merced’s version is 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the center, 645 W. Main St., Merced.Sublimity Ore., resident and Merced native, Joshua Hash, 25, right, views a watercolor painting with friend Mike Nicholson, 25, of Merced, left, during a reception for a new gallery at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center’s on, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. Andrew Kuhn akuhn@mercedsunstar.com
Merced residents are invited to take part in sharing their experiences in what organizers are calling “story circles,” according to Colton Dennis, the center’s executive director. The center will have volunteers on hand to take down the stories.
