ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the Storytelling Project and the development of a pedagogical model for teaching about race and racism through storytelling and the arts. Recognizing that racism is "embodied and ideational" as well as "structural and institutional" the arts provide a way to engage body, heart and mind to open up learning and develop a critical perspective that affords broader understanding of cultural patterns and practices. At the heart of the Storytelling Project Model is the deliberate and purposeful creation of a community of diverse members in which stories about race and racism can be openly shared, respectfully heard and critically discussed/analyzed. The aesthetic experience of stories told through visual arts, theater, spoken word and poetry, can help us think more creatively, intimately and deeply about racism and other challenging social justice issues. Racial identity in other words does all sorts of practical "work"; it shapes privileged status for some and undermines the social standing of others.
