The Telling Room

Four storytellers- Thew Elliott, Kazeem Lawal, Donna McNeil, and Oliver Griswold, tell stories of "Gulp" moments including a mix tape that missed its mark, a pair of jeans that bought a young man his freedom, a summer tryst that tested a family's courage, and a political firestorm at a bucolic boarding school.

In this episode we go back to November 17, when we won a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award for our Young Writers and Leaders program. While our Executive Director Heather Davis and YWL alum Ibrahim Shkara accepted the award from First Lady Michelle Obama at The White House, over 100 students, mentors, teachers, and friends gathered at The Telling Room to watch the live stream and celebrate the program.

Storytellers included Kate Dalton, Abdi Nor Iftin, Karmo Sanders, Tina Smith, and Brendon Whitney

An interview with Aruna Kenyi, one of our first students

A look at how a piece of writing is chosen for our annual anthology

Five people tell live 10 minute stories on the theme of Home

A Conversation with writers Jaed Coffin and Fadumo Issack

TR Student Grace Whited talks with teacher Andrew Griswold about the success of her story, Box of Hope

We explore personification through student stories of objects - in this case an old truck and the ice on a winter lake

A look back at memorable stories from students Missouri Alice Williams and Edna Adan