Refugee Resettlement Agency Seeks To Connect Cultures Through Live Storytelling
The organizer behind the International Institute of New England and Massmouth’s live storytelling collaboration “Suitcase Stories” sees it as a way to break down cultural barriers and turn strangers into neighbors. Here, a group of potential storytellers gather at the International Institute’s Lowell office for a storytelling workshop. Photo by Joe Difazio for WBUR
Storytelling is built into cultures around the world. It’s a way of socializing, passing down family history, and for people of different cultures stories can reveal common ground.
Finding that common ground is what the International Institute of New England, a refugee resettlement agency operating in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, hopes to accomplish with “Suitcase Stories,” a new traveling series of live storytelling performances.