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As president of the International Storytelling Center, Sirah brings a rich and international appreciation to the concept of story as a path to unity.
How many of you consider yourselves to be a storyteller?”
It’s a question Kiran Singh Sirah often asks when he speaks to groups. He will nod at the smattering of hands in the air. Then he challenges the others to realize that everyone has the potential to be a storyteller.
“The closest distance between all of us is a story,” says Sirah.
He’s quick to point out that people use more than words for storytelling. They tell their stories through photography, quilt-making, music traditions and ballads, shaped note singing, art and other methods.
“My brother is a chef,” says Sirah. “It goes back four years ago when his 10-year-old son said ‘Why don’t you do something that makes you happy?’ My brother started using our mother’s recipes. She taught us to cook and told us stories about life and families and traditions. When he cooks now, in a way it’s a form of storytelling. He’s sharing the story of himself; telling the world who he is and where he comes from.”
As the President of the International Storytelling Center (ISC) in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Sirah is a long way from his native England. His parents arrived there as refugees in 1972 as they fled from Uganda. His mother is from Kenya, his father was born in India, and his brother was born in Uganda.
“My own family is a mini United Nations,” he quips.
He understands geographic distance, but he’s also keenly aware of the divisions and distance between attitudes, conflicts and clashing expectations in today’s society. He feels that the art of storytelling is the vehicle toward peace and understanding.
While it sounds good in theory—promoting storytelling as a vehicle to peace and social justice—Sirah moves beyond words to put the strategies into motion. He’s spoken at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center, and led workshops and programs at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon, but he also creates a chance for peace through each interpersonal connection he has whether he’s saying “howdy y’all” to his Jonesborough neighbors or talking face-to-face with others in the global community about their struggles.
One of the newest ISC initiatives is “Stories for Change,” which is an 8-week program geared toward at-risk teenagers in our region. The idea is to help them transform their lives through exposure to world-class storytelling training. The program currently serves more than 1,700 youth.
“They are learning multiple ways of expressing themselves through story,” says Sirah. “These strategies are designed to help young kids address things like trauma or social exclusion, isolation and loneliness. When they feel their voice matters, they can make a contribution just by learning to tell their story.”
He knows first-hand the importance of this shift.
“I came from a background where I participated in a gang as a kid,” explains Sirah. “When you wake up and continually have around you the mindset that you are not good enough, you join groups that make you vulnerable. When you shift the narrative, you can empower young people to feel included. Young people are the same all over the world. When they experience face-to-face interaction, that changes so much an individual’s perspective on the world. When they have their voice heard, it is the first step to saying the voice matters. If we want to foster a listening culture, then we must first listen to our young people.”
Sirah submitted a digital storytelling initiative based on the concept of “Stories for Change” for a prestigious International Peace Award that recognizes innovation and creative approaches to help dismantle armed conflict and political violence across societies. It won the award in May and Sirah is presenting at the International Day of Peace at the United Nations in Geneva this September.
Sirah earned a bachelor’s degree in art and design from Wolverhampton University and a master’s degree in museum, gallery and heritage studies from Newcastle University. He served as the first learning and access curator at the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow, Scotland, before receiving a Rotary Peace Fellowship in 2011 to pursue his Master’s degree in folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill.
His path ultimately led to Jonesborough, where he was tapped in 2013 to take over the ISC when founder Jimmy Neil Smith retired.
Moving into a small community at first challenged Sirah and opened his eyes to new stories along the way.
“I grew up by the ocean. All my life I always knew which direction the sea was. I could tell the type of day because of the smell of salt in the air and the sound of seagulls. I always sensed the sea and breathed with the sea. When I moved to Chapel Hill, I missed it a lot. When I was about to come to east Tennessee, I was told to ‘listen to the magic of the mountains.’ I thought, ‘yeah, right,’” says Sirah.
“I went to go on a hike at Roan Mountain. I walked 100 feet and stopped. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to read the country code. I freaked out. Now it’s kind of cool and I love it. I spent three nights on the Appalachian Trail and it changed me completely. I really know I belong in this place. I just want to be outdoors all the time. I bought a house with a front porch and a fire pit in the backyard—two great places for storytelling. I really appreciate living here.”
He says after first arriving in Tennessee, storyteller Connie Regan-Blake took him to Beech Mountain to the homestead of the late, famed storyteller Ray Hicks.
“I was welcomed by one of his daughters,” says Sirah. “We enjoyed the fellowship, the company and the smells. It felt like I was back in a village in northern India with my grandparents. They had the bed and stove in the living room. I go to places and see these connections. It’s a feeling. It’s an essence.
“I’m still learning about traditions and how people express themselves. I go to NASCAR races because I love to see people expressing themselves and telling their stories in different ways,” he says.”
“Some of these stories go back hundreds or thousands of years,” Sirah continues. “We are all standing on the shoulders of our ancestors who kept these traditions alive for thousands of years. We know where we collectively come from. It helps us understand society today and to collectively think about where we want to go. What’s the story of the future? Storytelling is the most powerful tool to shift the narrative of peace to override the narrative of war. We have the potential to radically shift the planet and create a world without conflict.”
NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
The International Storytelling Center has been hosting the National Storytelling Festival since 1973. This year’s festival takes place October 4-6 and features such storytelling artists as Donald Davis, Barbara McBride-Smith, Josh Goforth and Bill Lepp. Some of the new voices set to speak this year include Simon Brooks, Mara Menzies, Sam Payne and Carolina Quiroga-Stultz.
The three-day festival draws more than 10,000 people into Jonesborough and offers workshops, a Swappin’ Ground where anyone can tell a story, a Yarnspinner’s Party, Story Slam!, Ghost Stories, Midnight Cabaret and more.
ISC president Kiran Singh Sirah says the festival creates moments that lead to stronger interpersonal bonds.
“Storytelling is the binding force,” he says. “When you create this space, you will see someone who supports the NRA sitting next to a Bernie Sanders supporter and they are laughing together and using their imagination. Creating face-to-face interactions is something we should all be encouraged to do in all of the art forms.”
For ticketing information and other details, visit storytellingcenter.net or call 800-952-8392.
The story above is from our September/October 2019 issue.
