The following is posted on behalf of the Ad-hoc Committee for NDoW and NDoL.
We invite all campus community members--students, staff, and faculty--to celebrate the National Day on Writing (NDoW) on October 20, 2010, and the National Day of Listening (NDoL) on November 27, 2010. Recently initiated by two different organizations--the National Council of Teachers of English and StoryCorps--both projects recognize the value of intergenerational and intercultural storytelling that captures everyday voices and experiences and preserves them for future generations.
If you are a faculty member, you may choose to integrate one or both projects into your course(s). Each can easily support assignments in writing or interviewing on a wide range of topics, and the assignment templates provided below can be used verbatim or adapted to specific course needs. Faculty, students, and staff may also choose to participate as individuals, submitting a piece of writing or an audio- or videotaped conversation with a loved one.
Assignment Template #1: Listening to Others
For the National Day on Writing: Write a profile (a story, essay, poem, or photo- or video-essay) of a person you care about or would like to get to know better and submit your piece of writing to LIU’s NDoW Voices at a Crossroads Gallery at:
http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/279337
Authors and journalists who write profiles spend their lives delving in and out of the internal worlds of other characters, fictional or non-fictional; but most of us have few opportunities to find out what is really going on in the minds of the people around us, not even those who are closest to us. It is our hope that this project will encourage you to take the time to explore someone else’s world and reflect on the value of this experience to yourself, the other person, your surrounding communities, and even to future generations.
The subject of your profile could be anybody: a new partner, a long time friend, a mother, a father, a grandparent, a crush (if you dare), a neighbor that you always meant but never quite got the time or found the occasion to get to know. You might also choose someone whose life story is relevant to an academic course such as a pharmacist, a nurse, a journalist, or a public school teacher.
To write a profile is an invitation not only to learn about someone else’s feelings, thoughts, and personal history, but also to be reminded of what all of us already know—that attentiveness or mindfulness is crucial to how we come to know and connect to the world and the people around us. For your written profile, feel free to use any angle or any approach to describe your subject: you can speak about how you met, the significance the person had in your life, what is unique about him or her, or what is still mysterious.
For the National Day of Listening: In the weeks leading up to or on November 27, 2010--the day after Thanksgiving--we invite you to participate in StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening by practicing the art of listening and recording a conversation with a person you care about or would like to get to know better (it could be the same person you profiled or someone else).
Audio- or videotape your conversation at home (with a cell phone, computer, or other recording device) or in a soundproof studio at LIU, and share your stories with family, friends, the larger community, and generations to come. In doing so, you will become part of StoryCorps’ amazing national project. For the National Day of Listening, you can again choose to ask any questions that you would like. Here are some suggestions from the Story Corps website for questions that tend to generate meaningful conversations:
What was the happiest moment of your life?
What are you most proud of?
What are the most important lessons you've learned in life?
What is your earliest memory?
How would you like to be remembered?
Assignment Template #2: Sustainability Stories
This past spring, following in the footsteps of many other universities nationwide, the LIU Faculty Senate created a committee on sustainability. The committee has been working hard ever since to assess the environmental sustainability of our campus; to develop extra-curricular and curricular projects and programs that raise awareness about environmental issues; and to help “green” LIU-Brooklyn and improve the environment of the LIU campus and surrounding communities.
One way to foster awareness and learn from each other about how best to sustain both our local communities and our planetary home is to gather stories about what sustainability means to us. This year, for the NDoW and the NDoL, we hope to collect stories from the LIU-Brooklyn campus and its surrounding communities about sustainability.
For the National Day on Writing: Write a story, an essay, or a poem about what sustainability means to you. Consider the term broadly to apply to sustaining anything from your community to water and energy resources or biodiversity. For example, you might write about sustaining your neighborhood, your family, a friendship, or your own course in life (anything from obtaining a college degree, preparing for a particular career, running a marathon, or writing a novel). Or you might research and write about the effects of the British Petroleum oil spill on the Gulf Coast region, or about the causes, effects, and possible solutions for environmental problems like water shortages or climate change, and/or how such problems affect you or someone you know personally.
Submit your piece of writing to LIU’s NDoW Voices at a Crossroads Gallery at:
http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/279337
For the National Day of Listening: In the weeks leading up to or on November 27, 2010--the day after Thanksgiving--we invite you to participate in StoryCorps’ National Day of Listening by practicing the art of listening and recording a conversation on the theme of sustainability with a person you care about or who has knowledge about the topic that you would like to share with others. You might choose to talk with someone about the same issue you wrote about—sustaining your neighborhood, for example, or conserving energy; but you can also explore a new topic for the NDoL.
Among others, people you might invite to participate include family members, neighbors, the elderly, community gardeners, farmers (e.g., at farmers’ markets), food coop members or organizers, local politicians, scientists, health care professionals, the ill, white collar workers, blue collar workers, the homeless, artists, writers, the unemployed, public school teachers, friends, LIU students, or LIU faculty. Audio- or videotape your conversation at home (with a cell phone, computer, or other recording device) or in a studio at LIU, and share your stories with family, friends, the larger community, and generations to come.
Here are some suggestions for questions that might tend to generate meaningful conversations about sustainability:
What are the most important lessons you learned about sustaining family life?
What most helps you and other residents sustain this neighborhood?
What struggles have you had as a _________________, and what helps you sustain your self/your business/your writing/your health, etc?
How can we help sustain the LIU campus community?
As a __________________, what does “sustainability” mean to you?
How do you work as a scientist/health care provider/gardener/etc. to sustain the environment?
What can ordinary people do to help sustain their community/the environment/their hope/etc.?
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Note: For additional information about the National Day of Listening, you may also consult the following links to the Wall of Listening and a Do-It-Yourself Instruction Guide on the StoryCorp website:
http://storycorps/diy/share/wall-of-listening/
http://storycorps/diy/participate/
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