Dear World: Black ink, bold stories
College is crazy. All at once, there is a blur of madness that overwhelms us. Juggling classes, clubs, events, homework, getting enough sleep (haha) — the list goes on. Sometimes, we move so quickly and get so involved in our own lives and stories, that we miss out on what is happening around us.
If we all took a moment to slow down and look around, we could realize how much we have in common. Our stories are different, but we always come back to the same place: a place of strength, power, and trust. This past week, Muhlenberg College was given an opportunity to share its stories, thanks to an amazing event called Dear World.
Dear World is a storytelling event that started in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2009. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, people were looking for a way to maintain a sense of community in the ruined city. They began gathering people and having them write on their hands, arms, chests and faces in black marker something they loved about their city, in a project originally entitled Dear New Orleans. People wrote hopeful, cheerful messages such as, “Go Saints!” and “Best food in the country!”
When a woman came up with her husband and pulled open his shirt, the entire project changed forever. The words “Cancer Free” were written on his chest. Suddenly, the Dear New Orleans founders were introduced to a new, exciting form of storytelling, and ways to send powerful messages about people’s struggles, challenges, victories and triumphs. Thus, Dear World was born.
Since its founding, Dear World has traveled all over the globe and has collected hundreds of thousands of beautiful portraits of people who tell their stories with a few simple words written on their bodies. When the Muhlenberg Activities Council (MAC) found out about the program at a fair last fall, they knew they had to bring this exciting event to the Muhlenberg campus.
“The MAC members went through training for dealing with sad stories and helping people dig deeper,” said MAC president Maddie Satin ‘17. “The event was open to everyone, and everyone was able to tell a unique story that only they can tell.”
Over the course of two days, more than 200 Muhlenberg students and faculty participated in the event. People gathered in the Light Lounge in Seegers Union and spoke with Dear World representatives and their fellow students about the stories they wanted to share and have photographed. Once they had decided what they wanted to communicate, they reduced their stories to a few simple words and had them drawn with whiteboard markers on their arms, hands, chests, backs, and faces. The photos taken were then presented in a gallery in the Great Room in Seegers Union last Thursday night.
At the gallery, four students and a faculty member came up and bravely presented the full story behind the words they wrote for their portraits. One student had written “I Got the Letter” on his chest, and talked about the delight he felt when he was accepted to a prestigious college prep program to which very few others in his school were admitted; another student talked about the strength she found within herself after she ended an emotionally abusive relationship. The faculty member who spoke told the story of how his doctor took both of his hands and held them tight when he told him he had cancer, and didn’t let go during the entire appointment.
“This is a great opportunity to tell those stories that would otherwise be invisible,” said Dean Allison Gulati, who assisted MAC with the event.
“Most of the stories we hear are ‘I’ve never told anyone this before’ stories,” said Katie Greenman, a Dear World storyteller and photographer. “Those are the stories of abuse and mental health. Once they are brave enough to tell us their stories, then they have a portrait where they finally can tell it [to everyone else]. These are not just pretty pictures.”
Greenman said coming to Muhlenberg was a great experience. “People were very open [about their experiences], it’s what they wanted and they feel good about it.”
“I think it’s really valuable for students to share their stories,” said Dawn Jefferson, a field producer for the event. She remembers one powerful story about a woman who wrote “Green Bananas” on her arm. This was representative of how she supported her husband while he had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy, and whenever she left for the grocery store, he would joke, “Don’t buy green bananas, I “Don’t buy green bananas, I might not be alive tomorrow!” When her portrait was taken, her husband was thankfully in remission, but that didn’t make those two simple words any less emotional or important for her.
During the gallery presentation, Greenman talked about the event’s experience in Boston shortly after the bombings that took place during the Boston Marathon in 2013. The survivors of the bombings banded together to discuss the trauma they had undergone, and were there to support the families of those who had died. This is an impressive example of how a project such as Dear World can bring communities together.
The participants at the gallery were put to the challenge of simply listening to the stories that were told, and at one point were asked to introduce themselves to someone they didn’t know. Everyone found pieces of stories to which they could relate.
This was an emotional, moving evening that, I am not afraid to admit, left me in tears. Hearing what everyone had to say was incredible, and to hear what some of these people survived restored my faith in what we can accomplish, both alone and together.
This was a wonderful event presented here at Muhlenberg, and it is projects like this that help bring us closer together as a campus. Through these stories, we come to realize how alike we all are.
We may have different experiences from one another, and all of the stories that are told are completely unique to each person who tells them; but we find so many similarities in each other once we open up and explain where we’ve been – and how we’ve gotten where we are.