Is it Friday already? That means there’s another Storytelling School with The Moth! The Moth’s Education program is publishing these storytelling activities to help parents and educators with some at-home curriculum. Catch you next Tuesday, and as always, thanks for your support!
The story is:
“The Cultural Wall” by Katiana Ciceron
You can read the transcript of Katiana’s story here.
After you’ve watched and read the story, you can do the following activities:
1. Talk to each other about Katiana’s story.
For each post, we’ll highlight a different crafting strategy for how to make your story compelling. For this post, we’ll focus on THEME. All Moth shows have a theme to help tie the stories together. Storytellers can use theme to brainstorm story ideas on a topic or as an editing tool to help identify what the story is ‘about’ and omit everything else!
Katiana told this story at our Moth Education Program Showcase event in Feb., 2019. The theme that night was Betwixt and Between. What specific parts of this story do you think are particularly on theme?
Picking a theme can help give your story a cohesive shape. Can you identify another theme for Katiana’s story? How could focusing on that theme change what details Katiana might choose to include?
Having a shared “language” can mean a lot of different things. For Katiana, it means learning Haitian Creole but also communicating with her mother through food. What does a shared language look like in your family or community?"
2. Write or tell your own story
Let’s brainstorm stories on the theme Betwixt and Between. Get inspired by these prompt questions to tell your own story!
Tell us about a time you were between two worlds
Tell us about a time you felt stuck
Tell us about a time you were the go-between
Tell us about a time you had one foot out the door
Tell us about a time you were in the middle (between siblings? between beliefs? between two chatty businessmen on an airplane?)
Tell us about a time you felt pulled in opposing directions
3. Activities
Have you wanted to learn another language? Maybe, like Katiana, your family speaks a different language than you or maybe there’s one you’ve always been curious about. Take this opportunity to learn a few phrases from a new language!
For example, how do you say ‘hello’? ‘I love you’? ‘I miss you’? ‘Please pass the cheese’?
What’s your favorite family recipe? Describe it using every sensory detail that you can remember. If you have the ingredients, can you make it? Or can you make a version from what you find in the kitchen? Give it a try!
4. Share this post with a friend!
Click here for activity #9.
The Moth met Katiana Ciceron while she was a student at Brooklyn High School of the Arts in 2018. She went on to tell her story at our EDU Showcase at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY in 2019.
The Moth Education Program works with young people and educators to build community through storytelling workshops, performances and innovative resources. To learn more, visit themoth.org/education
The Moth Education Program is made possible by generous support from The Kresge Foundation, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Charitable Trust, the Kate Spade New York Foundation, and Alice Gottesman.
Additional program support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the New York State Council on the Arts, ConEdison, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.