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How We Work
Herstory’s multifaceted approach to using memoir writing as a tool for social change engages those whose voices have been relegated to silence and those who are committed to ensuring that unsung stories are heard. Herstory’s empathy-based pedagogy makes it possible for workshop participants–regardless of age, educational background, or writing experience–to give narrative shape to their lives in a way that helps people to listen, respond with compassion, and take action to change their own attitudes, behaviors, and ways of engaging with others.
Whether deeply transforming how correction officers view the incarcerated people in their charge, how teachers interact with their students, how parents understand and respond to their children, or how domestic violence survivors understand and respond to themselves, Herstory’s approach has affected countless people’s lives by challenging and changing worldviews and behaviors.
Providing opportunities for people’s stories to be written and heard is the hallmark of our work. We do this in three key ways: offering writing workshops steeped in Herstory’s signature pedagogy; training facilitators, interns, and fellows through the AMH Training Institute; and producing, cultivating, and disseminating a living archive of stories to be widely used. We engage a vast network of collaborators and partners to create with us new ways of working and produce an array of events and publications that ensure that silenced voices are heard. This approach allows us to create an ever-widening network of Herstory writers, facilitators, and allies.
See also:
If Your Words Had The Power
¿What Would You Do?
Writing Workshops
Herstory memoir writing workshops encourage and elicit explorations of our interconnectedness—the core humanity we all share. They create a community of people committed to using their writing to help themselves and others transform their lives and create a more equitable, inclusive world. Herstory’s approach is rooted in the knowledge that each and every person has a story to tell that can make a difference by helping others choose a different path, find the strength to advocate for themselves, grow, heal, and, ultimately, change their lives.
Each workshop begins with inviting participants to finish this sentence in the way that is most authentically their own: “If my words had the power…” This then leads to the “Page One Moment” tool, used in Herstory since its founding in 1997: “Where would you want a stranger-reader, someone who doesn’t know you, to meet you on page one? At what moment in your life would you begin your story, so that from the very first page a stranger could care enough to keep reading, to walk in your shoes as they read?” This empathy-rooted approach to identifying the issues that are central to each writer's need to be heard and creating a scene out of which a story begins to be told works equally well whether the workshop is filled with children in elementary school or men who have just spent decades in prison. It allows anyone, regardless of writing experience or education level, to ground their stories in powerful narrative structures that are equally available to all.
Shernette Pink
If my words had the power _Captions
Finding Your Page One Moment - How We Start (FINAL)
Sustained use of this approach allows participants to connect the dots of their lives to foster greater empathy, understanding, and accountability—both in themselves and in others. It encourages honesty, including grappling with hard truths. This in turn often leads to healing and transformation for the participants as well as a shift from judgment and blame to understanding and compassion for those who hear their stories.
A critical part of Herstory’s work is our commitment to providing opportunities for workshop participants to share their writing in progress with the public, including with stakeholders involved with critical issues, through conferences, forums, and publications. By ensuring that previously unheard, marginalized voices and stories have the chance to resonate in the public sphere, we contribute to a collective quest for a world that values inclusion, human and civil rights, and social justice.