Changes at "October Story Swap (presented by The School of Us)"

1. The School of Us is a local media co-op, creative community, and modern-day suburban "Folk School" that we're building for neighbors in Northern Virginia. Want to get a sense of what that could look like?

Learn more about Swapping Stories, the homegrown workshop created by former Wakefield drama teacher and Kennedy Center teaching artist Judy Thibault Klevins, that inspired this practice.

The School of Us "Story Swap" is a hands-on community storytelling experience with the power to turbocharge local connection-building and changemaking work. You’ve been nominated because someone in our network thought you had life experiences to share that it might be cool or important for others to hear about. (You likely know other folks who do, too! Please nominate them by sharing this invite.)

How this works: Over a ~2.5 hour session, participants are paired off and guided through a safe and creative discovery process that helps them share meaningful stories from their own lives. The end result is a storytelling slam a la "The Moth," with one powerful twist: each participant shares their partner’s story as if it were their own—creating a profound experience of deep listening and validation across generations, backgrounds, and life experiences. Our October session will focus on issues impacting the lives of folks in NoVA neighborhoods, right now.

Story prompts might include: 🚨Tell me about a time your life was touched directly by a current event. 💜Tell me about an experience that gave you a very strong feeling (either positive or negative) about living in Arlington or Northern Virginia. Light refreshments will be served.

What is this all about?

With your help, we're hoping to offer a series of Story Swaps to the community in 2026, and use them to inspire multimedia and other live experiences that tell "Our Big Story." This October proof-of-concept workshop will gather leaders and storytellers from in and around Arlington/NoVA to build interest, demonstrate possibilities, and identify local partners who want to unite to build social connection and civic agency in this critical moment.

Imagine… 🎓High school journalism or video students are paired with longtime residents of Halls Hill and Green Valley to collect oral histories from Arlington’s historic Black neighborhoods.

🏡Young renters are paired with retired homeowners to build understanding around a polarized zoning issue, and help everyone see the bigger picture. ❤️‍🩹By invitation only, residents whose neighbors or family have been touched by immigration raids gather to share stories humanizing the people that our community is losing.

(The “swapping” element might serve to further anonymize and protect community storytellers if they decide they’d like to share their story more publicly.) "Our Big Story" is a project of The School of Us, a new local media cooperative, creator community, and "modern-day folk school" we're building for residents of Arlington and Northern Virginia. To learn more, reach out to me: Kristeneliseclark@gmail.com