ABSTRACT
This chapter considers ways to move from stories to storying through the conversations we have with young people. In dialogue, the listener shifts from being the target of the speaker to being a co-narrator of the stories that are emerging. Social poetics refers to a dialogue of transformation, emergent meanings, new possibilities, and resistance to the all too common silencing of young people. Language practices are the relational stuff that contribute to making meaning and shaping lived experiences. The narrative turn serves as a guiding metaphor for the understanding that people organize and make sense of their lives through stories. Some of the young people rap or create visual art projects that tell their stories of resistance, thus reclaiming their storytelling rights. Narrative practitioners use social poetics to describe relationally engaged conversations that make the transformative possible.
