More Than a Single Story, the core project was inspired when Carolyn Holbrook heard Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story. Adichie commented, “It is vital to listen to the multiple stories of a person or a place, to truly engage
and gain an objective and in-depth understanding of a subject…”
Holbrook’s 2015 Artist Initiative Grant was her opportunity to experiment with More…Story as a way to bring those stories into the public arena. It began as a series of six panels featuring writers of color and indigenous writers (WOCI writers), sharing work and engaging audiences in
conversation around issues and ideas, and approaches to writing about them. Topics ranged from ambiguous loss to reclaiming body image to how food issues affect us individually and in community. Hoping for about 25 participants at each event, over 150 showed up. Since then, more organizations have asked for More…Story, and Holbrook is expanding it to include men/male identified/LGBTQI writers of color and indigenous writers. Upcoming themes include Vigilance, Courage, Difficult Women Persisting, Masculinity within Cultures of Color, and more. While More…Story features writers of color and indigenous writers, all communities are welcome and encouraged in these conversations. By featuring diverse voices that have long been marginalized, More Than a Single Story balances public discourse and provides a forum for
cross-cultural understanding.
