Story Circle Toolkit 

Download our Story Circle toolkit here!

A Story Circle is a group facilitation process built around narrative and personal experience. A group of people tell personal stories, led by a facilitator. Story Circles are always meant to create a safe space for people to share across different experiences.

John O’Neal, civil rights activist, playwright, actor, and co-founder of Free Southern Theater, formed Story Circles as an alternative to the traditional theater talkback. He made the methodology available to the Ashé Cultural Arts Center and Junebug Productions, who shared the process with the National Public Housing Museum.

Thanks to our major funders who make this work possible: CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, the Crown Goodman Family at Crown Philanthropies, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Kresge Foundation, and the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince