The Power of Storytelling
It should come as no surprise that we are #1, foam finger pointing, wave-participating fans of storytelling.
Being immersed in someone else’s experience is a privilege. There is such dynamic power in listening, in being a witness to another person's truth, and in understanding something new.
This love of storytelling is one of the biggest reasons we started The Freya Project — this belief that there is an alchemical miracle that occurs every time a person opens their mind to another's story. Thoughts change, action becomes possible, and most importantly, progress is made.
Like our co-founder Natalka Burian, maybe you sat at the feet of your anecdote-spouting, refugee, immigrant grandparents, and felt connected to the strength of your personal history.
Maybe, like one of our Instagram followers, you saw the story of your relationship with your autistic sibling reflected back at you through a volume of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, and knew you were not alone.
Or perhaps you were like Kate, one of our audience members. You sat with us, and listened to Iris Cohen's Nevertheless, She Would Prefer Not To, and you realized that there was power in your own refusal — that all of the time you spend internalizing the misogyny of the world could be better directed outside of yourself.
Maybe then, like us and the people in our community, you were driven to activism.
“The Freya Project is vital to the community because it reminds us that no matter how much we may differ in terms of career, lifestyle, age, background, culture, etc, we can find a way to connect through our stories. With every woman’s story comes a new perspective and a greater capacity for us all to understand where we come from, and why we are the way we are. It is particularly necessary in our nation’s current climate to search for vessels that nurture connection. The Freya Project does exactly that.”