Welcome to the New Story Video Library - available exclusively to our New Story Journey subscribers! As a subscriber, you have full access to stream or download any of the videos found here absolutely free — just click the link found below each trailer.
We do ask that you not share the link to this page or to any of the videos publicly. If any non-Journey subscribers wish to access these videos, please direct them to our online video store instead.
Quicklinks
March 2020 New Story Retreat
2020 New Story Journey Sessions: May Sessions — June Sessions — July Sessions
August Sessions — September Sessions — October Sessions — November Sessions
NOTE: The embedded videos below are short previews of each session.
Click the links in the descriptions to view or download the full video.
LIVING THE NEW STORY - 2021
Living the New Story - March Conversation: The Parable of the Seventh Story with Mike Clawson
In this first online gathering of Living the New Story, Mike Clawson, New Story producer and co-founder, uses both narrative and prose to describe the six shadow stories that shape our world, as well as a better, seventh story that can help us create healthier, more joyful lives and a more just, peaceful, and beautiful world.
On the morning of 9/11, Lyndon Harris was standing at the foot of the South Tower of the former World Trade Center as the second hi-jacked airplane exploded into it, sirens shrieking, debris falling. From there, Lyndon began a harrowing journey through a time of chaos, crisis, and his life unraveling to a new story of transformation and fresh beginnings. Lyndon shared his story at our Community Conversation on April 13th, 2021, offering tools and resources for transforming our own lives as well through the power of forgiveness.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE FULL VIDEO
Living the New Story - May Conversation: Mapping Your Spiritual Journey
Reflect on your spiritual journey in this interactive workshop with Rachel Shields Ebersole. Learn how to make a creative “map,” noting highs and lows, turning points, landmarks, paths not taken, and the roads branching out in front of you now. Clear some space, grab some markers, and discover new treasures in the twists and turns!
Living the New Story - June Conversation: Ritual as Worldbuilding with Kimmothy Cole
Ritual is the skeletal system that creates structure in our lives and communities. It marks time, highlights significant events and focuses our attention. In this workshop, artist, activist and educator Kimmothy Cole leads us in a discussion of the importance of ritual, ritual as activism, and the ways intentionality in ritual can be a part of a larger effort towards decolonization and anti-racist/oppressive/capitalist culture building.
Living the New Story - July Conversation: Compassionate Questions with Lori Wilson
How might we live into a new story together? Lori D. Wilson will help you explore the transformative power of compassionate questions. Structured around three guiding questions, this workshop makes use of reflection and conversation to create space for you to explore your own story and expand your capacity to ask questions that create transformative space for others as well.
Neighborhoods are overlapping collections of homes, identities & lives-in-process, which together create our communities, our state, country and world. We dream about and work toward a more connected and inclusive existence, and yet most of us don’t even know our neighbors! As a result, we often overlook a valuable playground and proving ground for living out New Story values like hospitality, mutual aid, circular economy, home-grown resilience, connection across diversities, and the joy of sharing differing cultures. In this workshop, Lindsay Razzaz offers inspiring stories and practical tools for meeting your neighbors, building community, and loving where you live.
Living the New Story - September Conversation: Sociocracy with Ted Rau
Ted Rau, co-founder of Sociocracy for All, presents a new form of governance known as Sociocracy, offering design principles for replicable, solid systems based on consent and trust that can be used by a wide variety of organizations.
Living the New Story - October Conversation: Understanding Conflict with David Jenkins
Conflict happens – it happens in families, where we live and around our world. So how do we take control of conflict instead of letting it control us? Relationship and Conflict Coach David Jenkins leads us through the Drama Triangle in this interactive workshop.
MARCH 2020 RETREAT
Opening Session with Bishop Yvette Flunder & K. Stellar Dutcher. Welcome from Gareth Higgins, Mike Clawson, and Micky ScottBey Jones. Special musical performance by Stellar Opening keynote & conversation with Bishop Yvette Flunder.
Movement and Meditation I with Jenna Jasso. A gentle morning movement practice to relieve stress and tension in the body, followed by mindful meditation to ease your mind and presence to the miracle of life. For beginners and seasoned movers & meditators alike.
The New Story and the Current Moment with Gareth Higgins. Northern Irish storyteller and peace activist Gareth Higgins presents a conversation on living into a better story amidst the current uncertainty. Where do the six stories connect with your life, and how can embracing the 7th make your life better?
Open Space Conversation Topic 1 - Ways to Share. Retreat participants discuss the question: “What could be an effective way to redistribute and challenge each other to share our part of the $2TR package justly instead of legally, gratefully and mindlessly?”
Open Space Conversation Topic 2 - Who are the Helpers? Retreat participants discuss the question: “Mr. Rogers said - when disaster strikes, look for the helpers. Where are you seeing helpers in the world and in your life right now? How do we find the GIFT and BENEFITS of our Global Restructuring Experience?”
Open Space Conversation Topic 3 - Key Messages of COVID-19. Retreat participants discuss the question: “What are the key moral messages and social lessons we can draw from COVID-19? Example: health care for everyone is not just nice, but critical for a healthy society; international cooperation is of vital importance since we face many problems that know no national boundaries.”
Open Space Conversation Topic 4 - Sheltering. Retreat Participants discussed the question: “The world is just now learning about "sheltering". So how can I best shelter myself and teach others to do the same, inclusive of Gareth's idea of having mentors, developing my purpose, communicating my needs and having a community?” Unfortunately, we were only able to record a 5-minute summary.
Open Space Conversation Topic 5 - How do we Leave Canada? Retreat participants discuss the following: “Bishop Yvette Flunder talked about Harriet Tubman needing to leave Canada to go back to bring people out of slavery. What should we be doing to “leave Canada” to go to people living one of the other seven stories? Someone who disagrees with you?”
A Global Movement for Compassion with Charles Barker. Charles Barker, board chair for the international Charter for Compassion (a New Story partner organization) and founder of Compassionate Dallas/Fort Worth shares the vision and impact of this significant global movement started by scholar and bestselling author Karen Armstrong in 2009.
Enneagram Workshop with Abi Robins. The Enneagram of Personality is a psycho-spiritual personal development tool - a map of the inner landscape that marks out nine basic styles of the human personality. It can also be a powerful tool for transforming your life. Find out more about this ancient method of self-understanding with one of today’s pioneers, Abi Robins (they/them), founder of Conscious Enneagram.
Community First! Join Gareth Higgins for a conversation with director Layton Blaylock as they discuss Community First!, a movie premiered at SXSW in 2019 about Community First! Village, one of Austin’s most inspiring experiments in community for people previously experiencing homelessness. Click here to view the documentary trailer and visit communityfirstthemovie.com for more about the film.
Click here to view or download the full interview with director Layton Blaylock.
How We Create with Patrick Hentsch. Join Patrick Hentsch, MS, NCC, CSAT, LPC of Empowered Maturity, on an exploration of insightful distinctions between Imagination & Reality, Future & Past, and a deeper understanding of how we create one out of the other. He will share a visual conceptual model that brings clarity to the path of Intentional Creativity.
Men Learning to Listen, Unlearn, and Love with Josh Blaine. Through song, nonviolence, constellations, grief work, and silence, Josh Blaine of the Finding Our Voice Project will create a space for men and masculine-identified folks to connect to ourselves and one another. By turning away from mainstream norms of masculinity that rely on and perpetuate domination and violence, we’ll practice pointing ourselves towards a more compassionate masculinity.
Dialogic Workshop with Rev. Dr. Stephen Kinney. “Dialogue” is so much more than just another word for deep conversation. Persons in dialogue engage in the fluid, open-ended interplay of “living words” that interpenetrate one another and thereby constitute and change one another. Meaning is like an electric spark that occurs only when two different terminals are hooked together. As Bakhtin put it: “A meaning only reveals its depths once it has encountered and come into contact with another, foreign meaning.” Join Stephen Kinney for this exploration into the truth that emerges between us as we enter into dialogue with one another.
Listening Party, Live Performance & Conversation with K. Stellar Dutcher. Join transcendental folk artist (and New Story organizer) Stellar for a conversation with Gareth Higgins along with a live performance of songs from their newly released debut album “Off to Starboard.”
Porch Stories & Songs. Five people telling our five best stories, with live songs by Stellar peppered throughout: Brian Ammons - Bull & the Gang; Nancy Hastings Sehested - Hope; Remains; Mike Clawson - Heretic; Jasmin Pittman Morrell - Unwinding the Way; Gareth Higgins - You Never Know When a Story’s Over, Especially When You’re in it..
Movement and Meditation II with Jenna Jasso. A gentle morning movement practice to relieve stress and tension in the body, followed by mindful meditation to ease your mind and presence to the miracle of life. For beginners and seasoned movers & meditators alike.
Putting the New Story into Practice: Offers & Needs Market facilitated by K. Stellar Dutcher. An Offers & Needs Market, offering whatever you have to share with others and asking for whatever it is you need.
Open Space Conversation Topic 1 - Useful Questions for Our Times. Retreat participants discuss: “God, what are you doing in all of us and how can I join you in it? God, what are you saying and how can I hear you better? What are the works of God waiting to be revealed in me and each of us in this covid-19 global crisis that affects each of us so intimately and personally? [For some, the word “God” is a good and spacious, familiar and comforting word; and for some, the word is troubling and perhaps painful - whether “God” is a gift word for you, or you would prefer to use the word “Love” or another term, you are welcome to this conversation] Also: What are our pandemic playlists? What music, movies, books, television, art, etc., are bringing you life in these times?”
Open Space Conversation Topic 2 - How Can Diversity Help? Retreat participants discuss: “How much and what kind of diversity in beliefs as well as identity will be helpful in providing us with the dialogical imperative that Mike described, and what differences might be counterproductive or destructive to the sense of community we have here?”
Open Space Conversation Topic 3 - How Are We Changing? Retreat participants discuss: “We saw the cathedral at Notre Dame burn this year--a historic icon so suddenly destroyed. This virus seems just such a fire burning through society. What is being changed fundamentally in our society at this very moment? What is being destroyed? And what will arise from the ashes?”
The New Story and the Future with Gareth Higgins, Mike Clawson, and Micky ScottBey Jones. Conversation with Gareth Higgins, Mike Clawson, and Micky Scottbey Jones on the New Story vision and where we go from here. What’s the vision for the New Story reality in the world & how could it be incarnated in the world in general in the months ahead? What’s the form that this New Story Festival community might take in our lives and in the society around us in the next few months? What are the different ways in which the New Story Community might be an incubator for the broader New Story reality in the world?
May Journey Sessions
May Conversation: From Domination to Servant Leadership
Author and activist Brian McLaren leads us in an interactive conversation on the journey from the domination story towards servant leadership, joined by the magnificent Nikki Lerner for a soulful musical performance. In this opening session of the New Story Journey, our 7-month online experience, we delve into the first of the six shadow stories that shape our lives and our world, and learn how to move beyond them to new and more life-giving stories.
May Mini-Retreat: Opening + Headline Session with Brian McLaren & Gareth Higgins
Authors and activists Brian McLaren and Gareth Higgins take us deeper into the first shadow story, one of domination, or "us over them," the real needs it seeks to address, and the healthier, alternative story of servant leadership for the common good that we are all invited to.
What does it mean to be a leader who needs to take action, but keeps their heart open to their impacts on who they are leading? Leadership at its core is being attuned to what is in service to the whole and guiding others in that direction, though any kind of leader can let their own shadows and blind spots get in the way. When we receive feedback do we automatically get defensive, or can we receive it with an open heart, leaving others feeling heard and understood? Can we be willing to admit we were mis-attuned and learn from the gifts others are offering us? In this session Danny explores what it means keep your heart open while receiving feedback about your leadership in real time.
The Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Circle allows us to develop a deeper understanding of our shared humanity by telling our truths. When we share our stories, we find common ground with those who we perceive as different and build connections that transcend the perceived hierarchy of human value.
We follow scripts subtly and constantly whether it’s in the assumptions woven in the questions we ask ourselves, the way we answer, or the things that are beyond the container of the words being exchanged. Scripts that constrain our complexity don’t invite the expansiveness of who we are nor aid our becoming. Come explore the scripts you may be carrying about yourself, and your role in the world. Consider what has become familiar but no longer serves the “you” you want to be or the world you hope to co-create.
May Mini-Retreat - Authentic Relating Online with Sara Ness
Can online connection be as deep and intimate as in-person relating? Let's find out! In this workshop, Sara will share some relating games with us that specifically thrive online, and teach you how to bring them to your own life and communities.
June Journey Sessions
June Conversation: 12 Step Model Toward Beloved Community (Part 1)
Emmy award-winning storyteller and racial equity and justice consultant Melvin Bray joined us for a discussion on overcoming our societal addiction to racism and structures of injustice, replacing them, instead, with beloved community. We were also inspired by new music from K Stellar Dutcher.
June Conversation REMIX: 12 Step Model Toward Beloved Community (Part 2)
In this LIVE continuation of our previous Conversation with Emmy award-winning storyteller and racial equity consultant, Melvin Bray, we are taken even deeper into his 12-Step Model Toward Beloved Community. Melvin helps us begin to overcome our social addiction to racism and structural injustice, as he guides us through several of the key Steps in this interactive workshop.
Vance Blackfox, member of the Cherokee nation and creator/director of Other+Wise, helps guide us into questions of how people with privilege can further racial equity when engaging with Indigenous people and POC, and how to honestly acknowledge and redress past harms.
June Mini-Retreat - What Have We Done?: Healing Moral Injury with David Peters
What do we do when we have done things we wished we hadn’t? Using the lens of moral injury, Rev. David Peters, “the TikTok Priest,” explore what a healing journey can look like for people waiting for the other shoe to drop.
June Mini-Retreat - Peace and Conflict in Northern Ireland with Lesley Carroll
Lesley Carroll was one of the youngest clergy people involved in the northern Irish peace process, engaged in violence reduction work for over thirty years. She now serves as the Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, investigating complaints from prisoners and prison visitors, and deaths in custody. In this workshop she is in conversation with New Story Festival co-founder and northern Irish story activist Gareth Higgins, about how the best response to a broken society is to become part of the healing.
June Mini-Retreat: The Hero's Healing Journey with Modern Mystery School practitioners
Rewrite your story and become the hero in your life! This requires getting unstuck from the past, healing old traumas, and connecting to your uniqueness, purpose, and light. A panel of professional energy healers from The Modern Mystery School share their own personal stories of healing, why they became healers, and how a holistic lifestyle, spiritual healing and meditation are essential tools for creating new stories in our lives and in our world. The session will conclude with a group healing meditation facilitated by Stacie Haynes, Tien Bui, Ian Strachan, and Emily Berry.
June Mini-Retreat: Spiritual Practice & Performance with Neil Orts
Actor, director, and performance artist Neil Ellis Orts will lead participants in practices for performers who want to engage theological ideas as they prepare. Primary concepts include breath/spirit and resurrection as we consider performing as an act of kenosis or the gift of self-emptying. Participants will leave with some ideas and adaptable exercises toward a more embodied presence onstage.
July Journey Sessions
July Conversation: From Isolation to Contemplative Action with Pádraig Ó Tuama and Phoebe Hunt
Irish poet and peace activist Pádraig Ó Tuama and mystic indie folk artist Phoebe Hunt join us for a discussion on moving from the story of Isolation - “us staying apart from them” - in which we forfeit the gifts of diversity for a false sense of safety and identity, to the story of Contemplative Action in which we nurture the inner life through times of solitude, not to hide from the world, but to be able to love it more and serve it even more effectively.
July Mini-Retreat Headline Sessions - Naming What We Need in Demanding Times with Pádraig Ó Tuama
Old arts of prayer from across many traditions land on some shared wisdom: in demanding times, hone and hone and hone, discern, dig to the core and find the one thing that is at the heart of your need. What we want, what we need will drive us, so it is wise to pay attention to it. Using some old wisdom from prayer traditions, along with personal reflection and poetic writing exercises, Irish poet and peace activist Pádraig Ó Tuama helps us explore how discerning our single deepest desire can support us with fortitude during the long ache for justice.
July Mini-Retreat - Bringing People Together with Simone Talma Flowers
For over 32 years Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT) has successfully brought people together across our many divides. In this session, Executive Director Simone Talma Flowers explores how iACT fulfills its mission to cultivate peace and respect through interfaith dialogue, service and celebration. She shares the joys, challenges, lessons learned, discoveries and how to move forward.
July Mini-Retreat - How to BE Grounded in an Uncertain World with Heather Elizabeth Neary
During this session, Heather Elizabeth Neary shares 6 key TRANSFORMational tools for navigating these tumultuous times with ease and grace. You will leave with clarity about your healing path while feeling inspired, empowered, and renewed with a clear vision of how you can CREATE a life of meaning where LOVE reigns. You will feel SUPPORTed and SAFE to EXPLORE the bigger picture of what is occurring in our world in a community of like-minded people who are committed to BEing a positive change!
July Mini-Retreat - Spirituality in a Post-Religious Age with Kyndall Rae Rothaus
After spending the first eight years of her career as a Baptist pastor, Rev. Kyndall Rae Rothaus left institutional church ministry to work one-on-one with people who are in search of a spiritual path—within or without the church. With storytelling and interactive ritual, Kyndall provides guidance into cultivating one’s spirituality in an increasingly post-Christian world.
In this session, the Rev. Dr. Mary Street Wilson proposes that a trauma informed theology of resurrection begins by acknowledging the fear and trembling, along with the silence of the victims. Furthermore, resurrection is not a once and done event nor is it an isolated individual experience. We are raised together in community, breaking the silence of fear, remembering the trauma and re-membering our lives, and then we move to empowering survivors to thrive.
AUGUST JOURNEY SESSIONS
In this Conversation we are joined by Linda Sarsour, the Palestinian-American co-founder of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, and musician Denison Witmer for an interactive conversation on moving beyond stories of separation, scapegoating, and purification towards a story of compassion, healing, and a shared future, even for those we now consider our enemies.
Audre Lorde taught us that the focus of true revolutionary change isn't just on outside oppression, but the pieces of oppression that are lodged deep inside ourselves. Join Micky for an exploration of the continual work of self exploration, liberation and co-creating micro and macro worlds where we can all thrive. Along with teaching from Micky, the Justice Doula, this session will include meditation, journaling and self-exploration exercises to help us move from the purification story to stories of compassion, inclusion and community.
August Mini-Retreat - Home Pluralism: How Human Origins Shape Interfaith Environmental Action
Religious pluralism invites us to consider the unifying similarities that link diverse faiths. A robust pluralism allows us to bridge religious differences to create mutual respect, mutual inspiration, and mutual action. This panel of scholars discuss their new concept of “home” pluralism, integrating environmental and interfaith approaches to define a common historical, genetic, and evolutionary African home as the basis for pluralism, highlighting how scientific approaches to human origins can unify religious understanding of a shared identity and motivate shared stewardship of our beleaguered planet.
August Mini-Retreat - How We Fail or Succeed at Connecting with One Another with Patrick Hentsch
We live in paradoxical tension between our individual and social natures. Humans need to connect with each other; and yet every connection carries the risk of injury to, or annihilation of the self. Honoring the self while forming social bonds requires a dynamic balance between the extremes of being a disconnected rebel and a disempowered conformist. In this session, Patrick presents a conceptual model of factors that inform how we risk making the connections that are so vital to our personal and collective wellness. The model reveals how the obstacles to interpersonal intimacy can be negotiated with heightened awareness.
August Mini-Retreat Reimagining The Border with Gavin Rogers & immigrant friends
The crisis on the border continues to grow and become more disorienting each day. Learn the latest update on the border and how we as people of faith can help reestablish order through acts of solidarity, empathy and compassion while still respecting the laws of the nation. Facilitated by pastor/activist Gavin Rogers, this session primarily features an interview with one of Gavin’s young immigrant friends sharing her own story first hand.
August Mini-Retreat - Body Awareness with Maida Ference
Maida Ference, founder of Nuanced Nutrition, offers personal, practical tools to help quiet dietary confusion and dogma so you may more easily discern how to nourish your body in partnership with your mind and spirit.
SEPTEMBER JOURNEY SESSIONS
September Conversation: From Victimization to Empowerment & Healing with Lt Gov Peggy Flanagan and Jennifer Knapp
Hear from Peggy Flanagan, the Lt. Governor of Minnesota and currently the highest ranking Native American public official, and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jennifer Knapp as they join us for a frank and personal conversation about the journey from the Victimization Story to one of Empowerment and Healing, and how they each use their positions of influence to empower and help others.
The Porch Storytelling has delighted, challenged, inspired and moved audiences in Asheville, NC, since it began almost three years ago, as listeners learn how universal our personal stories are. Porch stories have to be true, personal, and told in ten minutes or less. In order to take life seriously, we need to learn not to take ourselves too seriously, and at this New Story retreat three Porch Storytelling hosts - Nancy, Brian and Gareth each shared one of their favorite stories about moving from victimization to healing.
September Mini-Retreat - Forgiveness and the quest for community in postmodernity w/ Rev Jo Kretzler
We all deal with hurt at some time in our lives and we also have hurt others no matter how unwittingly. When this happens, it is important to seek forgiveness and offer it to others. This workshop will be a brief talk and discussion around the theology of forgiveness, how to forgive others, how to forgive yourself, how to receive forgiveness. We will discuss the work of forgiveness while recognizing the importance of setting healthy boundaries with people who have hurt you. There will also be rituals and practices demonstrated to help with the art of forgiveness and we will look at both Jewish and Christian writings on this topic.
Leaders from the Texas After Violence Project explore ways that we all might work together to transform stories that do not contribute to the thriving of humans and the planet into stories that do. Utilizing their large archive of oral histories that explores the impact of violence on Texans and our experience facilitating collection of those stories, they discuss how all stories are co-creations, and involve the audience members in the co-construction of healthy, non-violent narratives based on their own experiences.
September Mini-Retreat - Truth Be Told: Breaking Free from Imprisoning Narratives
Truth Be Told hosts a story gathering featuring women who learned to tell their stories in a Truth Be Told classroom while incarcerated. Come be a Respectful Witness to women who have liberated themselves from imprisoning personal narratives and are now reimagining justice for all women. This session will be presented by staff and participants from Truth Be Told, a non-profit organization that provides transformational programs through self-discovery for women who are or have been incarcerated resulting in increased self-worth, accountability, and positive contributions to society.
Permaculture is the creation and maintenance of agricultural systems that are stable, diverse, and resilient, much like natural ecosystems. But how does one go about applying that philosophy to their home garden? In this class participants will learn how to begin and maintain a basic vegetable, herb, and/or pollinator garden. The emphasis is on site selection, soil preparation, plant selection, harvesting, seed saving, and regenerative techniques to maintain a garden- far beyond a simple discussion on organics! No previous gardening experience is necessary.
OCTOBER JOURNEY SESSIONS
Want it? Got it? Did it make you happy? Us neither. What your grandmother told you was true: there’s more than enough for everybody, and if we all bring what we have, and ask for what we need, miracles happen. Join Rev. Shannon Spencer, founder of the Asheville Poverty Initiative, for this interactive conversation about how to release the fear of not having enough and pick up ways to appreciate and enjoy all the gifts already around us instead. Shannon will be joined by Dirty Gospel musician, spiritually messy pastor, and optimistic Mets fan the Reverend Vince Anderson, for a special musical performance you won’t want to miss.
October Mini-Retreat Headline Session: From Accumulation to Appreciation & Generosity
Throughout this half-day of interactive online workshops presented by engaging thinkers and practitioners, and a provocative headline session with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, we will explore the last of the six "shadow" stories (i.e. deep cultural narratives) that shape our lives and our world - the Story of Accumulation, which leads us to shape our identity around what we own and consume, with little regard for the needs of others. Throughout this mini-retreat we will discover together how to move beyond this destructive shadow story toward a story of Appreciation and Abundant Generosity - savoring the good gifts of life and freely sharing what we have with others, trusting that if we were all to do that, there would always be enough.
October Mini-Retreat — A World Future We Need - The Emerging New Stories with Michael Ignatowski
We view the world through the stories we tell ourselves about how the world works. A new set of stories is emerging from science and economics: evolution is a story of increasing levels of cooperation, managing the commons is more important than managing the market, increased social and intellectual capital is more important than increased physical and financial capital, and we can achieve a goal of ever increasing quality of life without ever increasing consumption. Come and learn more about this, and how these principles will guide us forward in our effort to create a better future.
October Mini-Retreat — Contemplative Resistance w/Mark van Steenwyk
This workshop helps participants confront the toxic narratives and ideas that have taken root in our society, contributing to ongoing injustice. We also discover how those narratives and ideas have taken root in our own imaginations. Together, we begin to uproot those narratives inside ourselves and in our society—a process that leads to transformation.
October Mini-Retreat — Embodied Origins for a New Story with Sarah Martin
We are undeniably shaped by our origins – where we come from, inherited histories and stories, cultural foundations, layers of life experiences and interactions. We also create a new future in every moment we live. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all laying the foundation of our future. In this workshop we explore how embodiment can both reveal and generate our reality and explore new possibilities for our future. What is the embodied story in which we live? How does this story support what’s possible for us, our community, and the world? What will we choose to embody as the Origins of a New Story?
October Mini-Retreat — Beyond Design: A Systems Approach with Victor Udoewa
If you want to know how to choose and implement the most effective and useful intervention to solve a social ill in your community, a systems approach is required. We will introduce you to a robust systems practice. You’ll learn about how we first gain clarity about a particular system and then map it. The session will focus on the next step after mapping: we analyze the map to determine the highest-impact leverage points in the system so we can act strategically and unlock positive change within the system. This will allow you to address the actual underlying, root, systemic causes of the problems you are facing. We will then talk briefly about what happens after the analysis and action. Once you have performed some intervention you will continue to adapt and learn, remapping the system as it changes in response to your actions as well as the actions of everyone in the system.
NOVEMBER JOURNEY SESSIONS
All the stories of separation, selfishness, and scapegoating find their resolution in the ultimate story of connection - what Thich Nhat Hanh calls the story of interbeing, what others call the story of Compassionate Action, Collective Liberation, and Radical Reconciliation. In this New Story, we learn to honor reality, and be led by love - of the world, of our neighbors, of ourselves. One week after the US Presidential election, we shared together a story of hope, connection, and the common good, guided by some truly liberated people. Listen in on this interactive conversation with Bishop Yvette Flunder, founder of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and acclaimed folk artist David Wilcox on this seventh, New Story, the culmination of our entire New Story Journey.
In this final New Story Journey Mini-Retreat, New Story founders and board members - Mike Clawson, Micky ScottBey Jones, and Gareth Higgins - share stories and connections to help define the Seventh, "New" Story and close this chapter of the Journey. They consider where we’re at given recent events - from the Presidential election results to the potluck in your neighborhood, and share dreams about the next phase of the New Story.
Whatever the outcome of elections, there is still work to be done. The first task is discernment - of what has happened, and what is being asked of the New Story Community. In this session Gareth Higgins and K Stellar Dutcher help us discern together, share stories of hope and challenge, and perhaps come to understand what the next steps might be.
The stories we are hearing around us today may be a source of stress and anxiety, but when it comes to safety our bodies don't really understand the story we are living. It only knows am I safe, can I rest, can I trust in this connection? Or am I activated and overwhelmed or shut down and frozen. In this workshop Danny Morris mixes neuroscience, somatics and contemplative spirituality to help us explore practices that regulate our nervous systems; to find the parts of ourselves that are stressed and anxious and like a loving mother soothe and calm the little ones inside who don't understand the stories, they just want to feel safe and secure.
November Mini-Retreat - Moving on to BOTH/AND with Charter for Compassion leaders
COVID 19 has demonstrated that inequality, injustice, and a clouded view of diversity create a world view of US/THEM, and our vision of inclusion and reconciliation can often seem on a distant horizon. By analyzing trauma, developing resilience, and implementing compassion, we can move into a COVID 20/20 vision of BOTH reconciliation AND liberation.
November Mini-Retreat - Building a New Story for the Future with Mike Clawson
When people ask why we started the New Story Festival (and now the New Story Journey), we often say, without any hyperbole or exaggeration, that our goal is, literally, to change the world - to shift the deep narratives that shape our lives, identities, and society, and that's exactly what New Story events exist to do.
So what's the next step? How do we continue working towards this vision of a better future in the near term? What can you as New Story community members do over the coming months to continue building the New Story vision of collective liberation and reconciliation in your own lives and communities?