This is the year...

IN JUNE OF 2016 WE HELD OUR 6TH ADVANCED PRACTITIONERS TRAINING N BEAUTIFUL CORBETT, OREGON.

Over the course of 5 transformative days (and on the heals of the Orlando Massacre) 50 people gathered to share, learn, connect, and expand the possibilities of what story-based strategy is and how it can truly Change The Story. We opened the training with "Imagine the Angels of Bread" by Martin Espada, and we closed by making our own version of this powerful poem. We share this now to serve as both a source of inspiration & as a reminder of what we know to be possible.

This is the year the ancestors find their way back into our voices because we are the storytellers who will bring their herstory back to life.

This is the year we learn from our past to create visions for the future.
This is the year we involve those affected into the planning process.
Because we are the storytellers who provide tools for those who have never been able to write their own story.

This is the year we live our imaginings because we are the storytellers who remember that dreaming is necessary for creation.

This is the year we write complicated stories that are honest and impactful because we are the storytellers who don’t take things at face value.

This is the year we shift to a narrative of love. Because we are the storytellers who fight for our communities, feel angry for our communities, and believe in the liberation of our communities.

This is the year when hope is not simply something to distrust, when love is not necessarily something to ridicule. We are the storytellers who use the 4th Box to transform the world and transform each other and are generous with our gratitude and love for each other.

This is the year we flip the script on capitalism and reclaim public lands for working class families because we are the storytellers who have the power to organize and speak for ourselves and let it be known people are more important than profits

This is the year our giant whispers shake the fence out from under the fence sitters because we are the storytellers whose fearless dreams are stronger than greed or fear.

This is the year we stop waiting for misogyny noir and rap to disappear.
Because we are the storytellers who visibilize harm done and author ways to heal, connect, and ask for conscious consent.

This is the year we celebrate our differences while weaving together our sameness to become an unbreakable fabric that wraps and heals the world with our collective love. A love so powerful that misogyny and patriarchy dissolve from that power we created as one good mind.Because we are the storytellers who have the strength and drive to change the world for the children yet to be born. They are watching and counting on us.

This is the year we envision and create our cities and towns as safe, affordable places where we all can thrive. It’s the year we challenge white supremacy and fund black futures. Where we dismantle patriarchy brick by brick. Because we are the storytellers who are not afraid to play and get silly and rest and listen across difference and love our full selves and each other.

This is the year the world will:

• Realize the full dignity and light of black and brown immigrant people
• Beat back powerful corporations who harm our environment and our community
• Eradicate hate and discrimination against LGBTQ and transgender people

Because we are the storytellers who remind the world of our beauty and resilience in each of us. 

This is the year to harvest the fruit of our labors for the past 10 years of fighting gentrification! We now have over 8 parcels of public land for public goods, such as community gardens & affordable housing units.Because we are the storytellers who had change the system and implemented a state policy stating that all public land only be used for public goods.

This is the year we felt the last case dismantling shimmering in our spirits, like joy and safety because we are the storytellers who imagined our beautiful brilliant communities and families towards home.

This is the year we beat rising fascism because we are the storytellers who can move from anti- to instead, with a queer, multiracial vision for positive future.

This is the year that the right and left put respect on the far left’s because we are the storytellers who are thinking transformatively

This is the year we watch the billionaires bow and their shrines crumble, because we are the storytellers who harness the voice of the people.

This is the year our small blossoms flame into a wildfire - consuming delusion like underbrush, leaving behind justice to greet the Sky Mother un-hobbled. We are the storytellers who carry the pollen of discontent to wake sleeping buds into flaming blooms.

This is the year all the innocent and guilty escape the prison to hold accountable the institutions responsible and they all laugh with joy because we are the storytellers who fill the guns on the belts of CO’s and cops with glitter, pass out master keys on visiting day.

This is the year that our tears rain on the dead to seed our power
We are the stories who will deliver this world to freedom with our flowers.

This is the year we make our worth as visible and plain-sighted as the sunrise ten minutes after a morning coffee. Because we are the storytellers who can hold the sky.

This is the year when the heart takes power because we are the storytellers who build love and connection.

This is the year the world wakes up, because we are the storytellers who spoke the truth so boldly, and shared the vision so clearly that hearts were finally touched.

This is the year we act because we know every human being’s inherent value. We are the storytellers who say yes to love and ourselves.

This is the year when our people really see each other because we are the storytellers who invite to be whole, they, themselves.

This is the year when mirrors show us what we always believed about ourselves (before we were taught to look for the flaws)
Because we are the storytellers who tell stories of self love and unapologetic pride  

This is the year we love each other because we are the storytellers who know the magic of our people.

This is the year we liberate ourselves and love ourselves. We are the storytellers who say yes.

This is the year we give ourselves time to rest because we are the storytellers who claimed space for our communities.

This is the year that I take care of my body and health. We are the storytellers who can heal and transform the world with our love and creativity.

This is the year we take a leap into a future where we’re all liberated of isms, expectations, and assumptions. Because we’re the storytellers who dictate what will happen next. We are the authors of our tales.

This is the year that we take risks, try new strategies, and keep fighting for new futures. We are the storytellers who make new possibilities imaginable and reality.

This is the year every one of us, body and soul, will be safe in every place on this earth. Because we are the storytellers who dare to remember and imagine all we have been, all that we are, and all we have yet to become.

This is the year where our collective strength outweighs individual actions
Because we are the storytellers who have become even more united and dare to change the world, together.

This is the year we fight against all odds to surface and amplify our truths and dreams for justice. Because we are the storytellers who have the strategy and tools to unite our struggles and visions for collective liberation.

This is the year we see the answers in each other because we are the storytellers who sparked the lingering hope and invited people to risk acting their imagination.

This is the year of “do no harm, but take no shit” because we are the storytellers who have nothing to lose but our chains. We know that we will win.

This is the year we say enough because we are the storytellers who are ready.

This is the year everything changes because we are the storytellers that change the narrative.

This is the year of power because we are the storytellers who control history.

This is the year, because we are the storytellers who will change “His Story to our story.”

This is the year 2050. We are the storytellers who guided humanity out of its fossil fuel addiction, who outsmarted the “isms” and who bridged the gaps.

This is the year, because liberation can only happen when all of us are free.
We are the only storytellers we need.