A Powerful Day in Search and Celebration of Story
It was a day set aside to tell stories, be witness to others’ stories, experience deep conversations about the power of storytelling and narratives, and step into our own stories. It was time for Lisa Harris + Company’s: Ephemera: The Key to Collecting Memories. Fully participating would require presence, breath work, openness, and vulnerability. Attendees seemed to acknowledge this, stepping into the safe space with their key -- a Lisa Harris signature item resembling a diary key —- in hand. A tag attached to the key held a word like mother, rise, home, secrets, etc., which led everyone to their designated table and trusted sisterhood for the day’s small group sharing.
Ephemera: The Key to Collecting Memories
A beautiful and nostalgia-evoking stage with plush chairs, vibrant florals and vintage fabrics set the tone for truths to unfold in a safe, comfortable, and supported way. Emcees Shannon Foreman and Amanda Koonjbeharry welcomed all and defined ephemera as: “printed or written items originally created for a specific purpose and intended to be short-lived, but are now precious keepsakes. Ephemera taps into our senses and awakens our memories.” Throughout the day we would come to understand that these memories hold our stories and our stories are what shape us; and understanding ourselves at this deep level helps us do the work of shifting our narratives and creating new and empowering stories.
The creator of all this goodness, Lisa Harris, shared her vision for the day and graced us with a poetry reading of Welcome Home, published in Unveiled Beauty: Handwritten Stories From a Poetic Heart. I was once again reminded that Lisa is a truly gifted storyteller and poet. I was newly struck by how she’s so thoughtfully created a path for others to uncover their stories in an artful, methodical, and curiosity-seeking way. And although the event attendees were at all different stages in their story experience from small group sessions, one-on-one coaching, or the writing program, to now stepping on stage – we could all come together to experience the event and find our own personal meaning and direction.
The day held a brilliant cadence. We were inspired by poetry, prompted in reflection with four separate writing sessions, moved by six incredibly powerful personal life stories, and graced with such wisdom in the form of a fierce panel. There were um-hmmm validations, deliberate moments of pause, the uncovering of new truths on the spot, tears falling softly, intentional breathing, laughter as release, and a deep knowing.
The writing prompts took us into self-reflection and seeking memories of our childhoods, an exploration of where we found hope and love in surprising ways, our views on our physical bodies, and the meaning the word attached to our key. After 10 minutes of writing and quiet time, the small group sisterhoods were able to share some pretty deep stories that past generations might gasp over. No doubt everyone walked away with some starter stories to expand upon. Vulnerability at its finest!
The emotionally heavy parts of the day were in the taking in of the women’s stories. Six brave souls prepared their stories in such thorough descriptive ways that might have seemed specific to an experience, yet the pain, shame, anger, and hurt felt universal and deeply relatable. As Lisa says, “As I listen to women share their stories, hold back their tears and find their inner courage, I begin to recognize myself.” To the day’s story sharers – Siobahn, Alex, Gina, Naomi, Vilay, and Ashley – just WOW and thank you.
These incredible stories of resilience, love, abandonment, not enough-ness, and self-love took my breath away. Many around our tables collectively exhaled at a story’s end. Not once did I feel pity, but rather, power. The energy was palpable. The stories could just be as they were, no context or further explanation needed. The threads of memory, ephemera, settings, objects, relationships, grace, healing over trauma – clearly evidence of the storytellers’ work with Lisa – knit these lived experiences together.
A Profound Panel
In a story time out, we moved into the only panel of the day and wow was it mic-droppingly profound. On stage before us: Catherine Squires, Shoshana Koch, Dara Beevas, and Stephanie Walton who stepped in for Jennifer Waltman, who was unable to attend. The discussion themed The Power of Storytelling and Narratives, lent a critically important lens to the reason behind the story sharing.
The women each brought personal insight to the concept of uncovering your story, where one’s story lives (in the mind and body, noting sometimes language and our memory fails us), our lack of access to generational stories and trauma, and the cracked-open vulnerable yet healing power of writing and knowing our story.
Catherine talked about a tandem process of her story writing and yoga teacher training that happened to engage the mind and body, so she could go through the process and be well. Shoshana referenced her memoir Reclamation and shared how trauma feels like a splitting apart and storytelling has the power to bring these parts of yourself back to center. By creating wholeness in this way, that past story loses its power to harm.
Dara quoted James Baldwin saying, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” She tied the meaning of that to Ida B. Wells’ late 1800’s lynching storytelling and Wells’ acknowledgement of risking her life to be revolutionary. She knew her work was necessary to give others who followed her the stories of Black lived experiences she could never find record of. This meaning of storytelling is important to us even today. Dara said, “Telling your life story is important to deliver someone else to their freedom. It’s not only your purpose, it’s your duty. No pressure.”
Stephanie touched on her experience with Lisa’s storytelling process of leading with healing, not stopping at telling the story of trauma. It helped her write her narrative, then deconstruct that to be about values. In this way, she centers all conversations on values, allowing her to keep boundaries and only share her story with those who’ve earned the right to know it.
These are only surface-level touch points, folks. The panel was full of so much connectedness… I hope everyone took good notes. I can imagine attendees walked away thinking about the possibility that writing our story is a love letter to ourselves – the book we sought, but didn’t exist for us (Dara). We might also consider that if we have daughters, we should write the story. Every daughter deserves to see their mother’s wholeness (Stephanie).
The day wrapped up from our lovely emcees and Lisa, a visual vocabulary challenge from Belen Fleming (Belu Photography), energy and giveaways from Anahita Champion, a music performance by the talented Ashley DuBose, and a shout out to sponsors Women Venture (with inspiring words by LeeAnn Rasachack, CEO), Minnesota Women’s Press, Wise Ink, 3 Bosses, A.R.T. Intimates, Dragonfly Eye Productions, Belu Photography, and Forethought Planning.
Ephemera ended with a nod to embrace the dark and light in our lives, be vulnerable, practice grace and tell our stories. Essentially we closed in true Lisa Harris + Company fashion: above the line with love and light.
--- Event recap provided by Jen Gilhoi of Sparktrack who covers events so event hosts and attendees can continue the event inspiration beyond the event itself. Find her on LinkedIn @jengilhoi or on Instagram @sparktracker. Event recaps capture the spirit of sharing and the themes of the event in a quick, digestible way so that attendees can refer back to it and take action; it also allows the host to archive what was shared and build on that for future events and use in marketing promotions.
