[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
so I’m the youngest of my family and you
can’t tell because I don’t like
attention and they hate they hate when I
say this but I’m the youngest by a lot
so it ain’t just sorry guys back home
huh so what happened was that my parents
mom married in puerto rico moved to the
states to a suburb of New York City had
four kids in a row that’s good Christian
couples do and then decided to go back
to the island where they raised my
siblings and then I like to call it a
miracle but my parents had me and then
moved back to the United States to New
York it’s up to Yonkers a suburb of New
York City and so what that creative for
me was a lot of space between me my
sibling there was a space and a gap of
time but there was also a gap of
experiences they had had this sort of
magical wonderful childhood in Puerto
Rico cause that means that I am American
citizen of Puerto Rican descent and I’m
very proud of that as are the people
that are currently on the island and so
just get it right on cause they had this
fantastic magical childhood and my mom
was one of 15 siblings and so they had
cousins and all this great stuff and
then I had a childhood where I was sort
of disconnected and although Spanish is
my first language
I quickly acclimate speaking English and
I was in a suburb of New York City as
you can imagine that could have been
very fertile ground for a disaster a
young latina in a mostly white suburb
mostly white classes and certainly
people that didn’t look like me or sound
like me on television and so forming my
identity could have sort of stumbled
along the way but something amazing
happened and it happened in the rhythm
and a tradition of the family by the way
we’re four girls and one boy have a lot
of talking happening as well
what happened was this amazing sense of
story just emerged and it’s not as
though we sit around you know a campfire
a guitar you can do that if that’s your
thing wasn’t our thing but what happened
was that every family reunion or just a
random Tuesday someone would say hey do
you remember the time or oh I saw
so-and-so and is she still and it would
begin a cacophony of call and response
so just story after story after story
which was so fun and they did not adapt
that mentality that children should be
in another room so although I was little
I was four or five and they weren’t
their teenage years and very cool they
would bring us in and allow us and say
things like for you here this you could
tell the story what would happen that
time and so slowly but surely my mind
and my soul started to be filled with
heroes and villains and interlopers who
were actually sitting right around
pretty cool and so and so many things
happen that connected me and tethered me
both squirt Oh Riko to my grandmother my
cousins to my mom to my dad so many
different ways I’d love to tell you
those ways but I’d rather just tell you
a story now picture it 1980s my sisters
are all teenagers and at this point one
of my cousin’s had joined our family so
I got another sister and they are all
struggling with one bathroom in a
working-class house in Yonkers New York
and they need to get to school because
my mom’s rule was once the door is shut
you’re not come back inside you need to
get to school on time and I ain’t taking
you so in order to get to school my
sisters have to take number one book bus
and they had to then take all the buses
that connected from there out to their
respective high schools and so my sister
is one morning we’re running a little
bit behind and we’re like we need to
make some decisions real fast as you
can’t come back in the house so three of
my sisters
after getting dressed and putting on
their garb or coming down the stairs
running outside my sister Abbie the
oldest at the time notices the number
one bus was coming and she’s like all
right ladies we need to clap she looks
down and she’s like oh good I thought
these people what we call kids she
should go good
so they start running for the bus none
of them are athletic mind you and as
they begin to rush with the bus my
sister defies declared of the universe
that she had a great idea and she said
oh my god
thank God we’re wearing sneek so ports
well she was supposed to say thank God
were wearing sneakers somewhere in the
middle of the word sneaker the story
changes were not sure what happened she
tripped on air she clipped a sidewalk
her foot hit something and so it went
like this
thank God we’re wearing sneak according
to Abby
she went flat down according to my
sister Sara she was there and then she
was gone according to E and she got full
air she was just full arc in the sky and
then down either way but number one bus
is coming they can’t go home cuz mom
will kill them and Abby is flat on the
ground so even if they look around they
make a decision as you like it was like
Nam
we just don’t grab there threw her over
our shoulder then ran for the bus they
flagged down the bus they get her on
they kind of froze her and she’s oh she
seemed ok that’s where the story picks
up again because Abby’s like that I
wasn’t okay oh no I wasn’t and she picks
that and she’s holding up after a pinkie
and when she shows her pinkie once again
the story of all the corns of Safa there
was a little bit of blood according to
Eaton it was bad according to Abby there
was just blood gushing all over this bus
and so much history is a moment of panic
and camaraderie and friendship yells out
and no one did anything and so according
to them according to them to this day
they managed to get no foot paper and
wrap my sister up like a civil war
hospital and they made it to school and
and to this day 30 35 years lady talked
to Abby she always goes and if you look
right there that scar that’s the price I
paid protecting the gods that day I love
this story so much another story so much
because although I was alive I were than
a teenager but it brings so many things
up for me one of the first things that
it brings up is I remember being 4 or 5
sitting cross-legged on the floor while
my sisters were battling it out to make
sure that they look good
teasing their hair spraying its blue
eyeshadow it’s where they couldn’t see
right one things that do is put really
tight jeans on so one would get on the
bed neither one go Paul they would get
some stuffing
sometimes they would hook a hanger to
the difference Jake oh yeah
they got into those jeans though and and
whether it was always said or not
somehow I absorb doesn’t matter what you
look like it doesn’t matter your body
type doesn’t matter anything it’s
important that every woman has a sense
of style and so to this day if you line
us up well five lives up against this
picture were always fabulous we all look
different but we all are good the other
thing that I remember and that I know is
I remember that feeling that was my mom
saying look door closes in this house
guy gets to school but don’t have
anything to give you and I don’t have
much to offer you but schools what you
got and you better go grandmother who
couldn’t read mothers who only had a
second grade education out of all her
kids we got four degrees two master’s
degree and a punk kid there was a
college professor when she was 22 years
old on the rag and the last thing is I
remember myself still working-class kids
still having to take a public bus with
my friends being all awkward and weird
right one the four one and thinking how
do i how do I fit in here how do I get
in here and realizing that I could do it
by telling one story and I’m like hey
you wanna hear what happened to my
sister one time she was running for the
number one because that’s the thing
about story I mean that’s why you’re
sitting all that’s what we’ve heard
tonight story is a complete unit of
possibility in 2015 there’s a New York
Times article the author wrote but they
were messing up with their family they
were middle-class two family home they
were fine they were together and somehow
they were just not getting it and there
was a disconnect with their kids and
they thought man we’re really messing
this up because this is what helps form
a foundation for kids and we’re just not
getting a right and so they decided to
research the problem we talk ask
questions and they ask sociologists and
they
professors and they asked teachers what
they came up with was really simple one
of the things that you can do it’s about
a strong family matters and I push on
that right and I say what you have to do
is create a space because what happens
when you hear someone tell a story and
you’re turning and turn off the TV and
you invite people in that you are
creating perfect you possibility I’ll
tell you what let’s dissect the story
right the first thing that happens when
someone tell the story when someone
hears your story is that you remember
and we all know how important it is to
remember and recall we talked about it
right good bad I’ll go in between we
have to remember the second thing that
happens when we tell a story is that we
feel my god we let it all come out we
feel it when we tell it we feel it when
we hear it sometimes we feel bad for
ourselves
sometimes we valuate ourselves the third
thing that happens is tell don’t
underestimate the power of what happens
when things get verbalized when things
get said right it marks you in the world
I’m here I’m matter this was said then
the last thing it does is it connects
how many of us have gone through various
icebreakers and group activities to try
to find a way to connect yeah but
imagine something that just lets it
happen it’s pushing out a space where
everyone can kind of tether themselves
and hear themselves either in the
narrative somewhere else or mentor that
or hear themselves again when they
retell their own stories and how
important is it that when we try to
figure out and create a space in the
world we want empathy we want sympathy
and here’s the possibility by just
moving things aside and inviting story
so author one of the greatest stories
alive or name is Lynda Barry anything
else go look up Lynda Barry her name is
Debra y ly NDA she said that stories are
all around us we just have to invite
them in and we have to create a space so
well and it’s not really hard some of
speakers tonight awk about it’s not
really hard Lynda Barry says and I go by
it
the first
is super easy make a list make a list
make a little list of all the pets
you’ve ever had of all the moms you know
of all the cars bones of all the actors
that come to mind of your best hair days
of your most embarrassing moments the
time you lock the keys in the car that
one time that your best friend spit out
what she was drinking because she read
your tattoo and she was the first one to
tell you it was misspelled true story
not mine make a list and then pick one
pick one of those things and just don’t
force it allow the story to come the
best thing about it is to do in the
present tense right I’m running I’m
walking I’m jumping I’m crying tell her
about someone else but still use the
present tense my mother my mother was
jumping she’s she’s she’s running she’s
laughing the second thing that you do is
that you tell it tell it first to
yourself use your shower great acoustics
put talent how we then I say tell it and
tell it to yourself versus because
there’s a third step that feels
sometimes you’re gonna have to feel
stuff and you want to kind of be ready
for it if you can right and then the
last thing connect to somebody call your
friends call your mom go to dinner right
figure out a place and a space because
what happens when you do that that you
help define your world and you help
define the world for the people that
came from before you the ones that are
next to you and those that are to come
creating a space for story allows us to
be a little less selfish how important
is it for me now and for people from the
US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that
our stories of four are what’s going to
carry us into building tomorrow
[Applause]
maybe the faithful story means you are
purposely creating a possibility to
revitalize or to connect do it often
create stories make people laugh maybe
he’ll cry imitate some folks repeat as
much as you want but I invite you today
to make a space for story thank you
[Music]
you
[Applause]
[Applause]
so I’m the youngest of my family and you
can’t tell because I don’t like
attention and they hate they hate when I
say this but I’m the youngest by a lot
so it ain’t just sorry guys back home
huh so what happened was that my parents
mom married in puerto rico moved to the
states to a suburb of New York City had
four kids in a row that’s good Christian
couples do and then decided to go back
to the island where they raised my
siblings and then I like to call it a
miracle but my parents had me and then
moved back to the United States to New
York it’s up to Yonkers a suburb of New
York City and so what that creative for
me was a lot of space between me my
sibling there was a space and a gap of
time but there was also a gap of
experiences they had had this sort of
magical wonderful childhood in Puerto
Rico cause that means that I am American
citizen of Puerto Rican descent and I’m
very proud of that as are the people
that are currently on the island and so
just get it right on cause they had this
fantastic magical childhood and my mom
was one of 15 siblings and so they had
cousins and all this great stuff and
then I had a childhood where I was sort
of disconnected and although Spanish is
my first language
I quickly acclimate speaking English and
I was in a suburb of New York City as
you can imagine that could have been
very fertile ground for a disaster a
young latina in a mostly white suburb
mostly white classes and certainly
people that didn’t look like me or sound
like me on television and so forming my
identity could have sort of stumbled
along the way but something amazing
happened and it happened in the rhythm
and a tradition of the family by the way
we’re four girls and one boy have a lot
of talking happening as well
what happened was this amazing sense of
story just emerged and it’s not as
though we sit around you know a campfire
a guitar you can do that if that’s your
thing wasn’t our thing but what happened
was that every family reunion or just a
random Tuesday someone would say hey do
you remember the time or oh I saw
so-and-so and is she still and it would
begin a cacophony of call and response
so just story after story after story
which was so fun and they did not adapt
that mentality that children should be
in another room so although I was little
I was four or five and they weren’t
their teenage years and very cool they
would bring us in and allow us and say
things like for you here this you could
tell the story what would happen that
time and so slowly but surely my mind
and my soul started to be filled with
heroes and villains and interlopers who
were actually sitting right around
pretty cool and so and so many things
happen that connected me and tethered me
both squirt Oh Riko to my grandmother my
cousins to my mom to my dad so many
different ways I’d love to tell you
those ways but I’d rather just tell you
a story now picture it 1980s my sisters
are all teenagers and at this point one
of my cousin’s had joined our family so
I got another sister and they are all
struggling with one bathroom in a
working-class house in Yonkers New York
and they need to get to school because
my mom’s rule was once the door is shut
you’re not come back inside you need to
get to school on time and I ain’t taking
you so in order to get to school my
sisters have to take number one book bus
and they had to then take all the buses
that connected from there out to their
respective high schools and so my sister
is one morning we’re running a little
bit behind and we’re like we need to
make some decisions real fast as you
can’t come back in the house so three of
my sisters
after getting dressed and putting on
their garb or coming down the stairs
running outside my sister Abbie the
oldest at the time notices the number
one bus was coming and she’s like all
right ladies we need to clap she looks
down and she’s like oh good I thought
these people what we call kids she
should go good
so they start running for the bus none
of them are athletic mind you and as
they begin to rush with the bus my
sister defies declared of the universe
that she had a great idea and she said
oh my god
thank God we’re wearing sneek so ports
well she was supposed to say thank God
were wearing sneakers somewhere in the
middle of the word sneaker the story
changes were not sure what happened she
tripped on air she clipped a sidewalk
her foot hit something and so it went
like this
thank God we’re wearing sneak according
to Abby
she went flat down according to my
sister Sara she was there and then she
was gone according to E and she got full
air she was just full arc in the sky and
then down either way but number one bus
is coming they can’t go home cuz mom
will kill them and Abby is flat on the
ground so even if they look around they
make a decision as you like it was like
Nam
we just don’t grab there threw her over
our shoulder then ran for the bus they
flagged down the bus they get her on
they kind of froze her and she’s oh she
seemed ok that’s where the story picks
up again because Abby’s like that I
wasn’t okay oh no I wasn’t and she picks
that and she’s holding up after a pinkie
and when she shows her pinkie once again
the story of all the corns of Safa there
was a little bit of blood according to
Eaton it was bad according to Abby there
was just blood gushing all over this bus
and so much history is a moment of panic
and camaraderie and friendship yells out
and no one did anything and so according
to them according to them to this day
they managed to get no foot paper and
wrap my sister up like a civil war
hospital and they made it to school and
and to this day 30 35 years lady talked
to Abby she always goes and if you look
right there that scar that’s the price I
paid protecting the gods that day I love
this story so much another story so much
because although I was alive I were than
a teenager but it brings so many things
up for me one of the first things that
it brings up is I remember being 4 or 5
sitting cross-legged on the floor while
my sisters were battling it out to make
sure that they look good
teasing their hair spraying its blue
eyeshadow it’s where they couldn’t see
right one things that do is put really
tight jeans on so one would get on the
bed neither one go Paul they would get
some stuffing
sometimes they would hook a hanger to
the difference Jake oh yeah
they got into those jeans though and and
whether it was always said or not
somehow I absorb doesn’t matter what you
look like it doesn’t matter your body
type doesn’t matter anything it’s
important that every woman has a sense
of style and so to this day if you line
us up well five lives up against this
picture were always fabulous we all look
different but we all are good the other
thing that I remember and that I know is
I remember that feeling that was my mom
saying look door closes in this house
guy gets to school but don’t have
anything to give you and I don’t have
much to offer you but schools what you
got and you better go grandmother who
couldn’t read mothers who only had a
second grade education out of all her
kids we got four degrees two master’s
degree and a punk kid there was a
college professor when she was 22 years
old on the rag and the last thing is I
remember myself still working-class kids
still having to take a public bus with
my friends being all awkward and weird
right one the four one and thinking how
do i how do I fit in here how do I get
in here and realizing that I could do it
by telling one story and I’m like hey
you wanna hear what happened to my
sister one time she was running for the
number one because that’s the thing
about story I mean that’s why you’re
sitting all that’s what we’ve heard
tonight story is a complete unit of
possibility in 2015 there’s a New York
Times article the author wrote but they
were messing up with their family they
were middle-class two family home they
were fine they were together and somehow
they were just not getting it and there
was a disconnect with their kids and
they thought man we’re really messing
this up because this is what helps form
a foundation for kids and we’re just not
getting a right and so they decided to
research the problem we talk ask
questions and they ask sociologists and
they
professors and they asked teachers what
they came up with was really simple one
of the things that you can do it’s about
a strong family matters and I push on
that right and I say what you have to do
is create a space because what happens
when you hear someone tell a story and
you’re turning and turn off the TV and
you invite people in that you are
creating perfect you possibility I’ll
tell you what let’s dissect the story
right the first thing that happens when
someone tell the story when someone
hears your story is that you remember
and we all know how important it is to
remember and recall we talked about it
right good bad I’ll go in between we
have to remember the second thing that
happens when we tell a story is that we
feel my god we let it all come out we
feel it when we tell it we feel it when
we hear it sometimes we feel bad for
ourselves
sometimes we valuate ourselves the third
thing that happens is tell don’t
underestimate the power of what happens
when things get verbalized when things
get said right it marks you in the world
I’m here I’m matter this was said then
the last thing it does is it connects
how many of us have gone through various
icebreakers and group activities to try
to find a way to connect yeah but
imagine something that just lets it
happen it’s pushing out a space where
everyone can kind of tether themselves
and hear themselves either in the
narrative somewhere else or mentor that
or hear themselves again when they
retell their own stories and how
important is it that when we try to
figure out and create a space in the
world we want empathy we want sympathy
and here’s the possibility by just
moving things aside and inviting story
so author one of the greatest stories
alive or name is Lynda Barry anything
else go look up Lynda Barry her name is
Debra y ly NDA she said that stories are
all around us we just have to invite
them in and we have to create a space so
well and it’s not really hard some of
speakers tonight awk about it’s not
really hard Lynda Barry says and I go by
it
the first
is super easy make a list make a list
make a little list of all the pets
you’ve ever had of all the moms you know
of all the cars bones of all the actors
that come to mind of your best hair days
of your most embarrassing moments the
time you lock the keys in the car that
one time that your best friend spit out
what she was drinking because she read
your tattoo and she was the first one to
tell you it was misspelled true story
not mine make a list and then pick one
pick one of those things and just don’t
force it allow the story to come the
best thing about it is to do in the
present tense right I’m running I’m
walking I’m jumping I’m crying tell her
about someone else but still use the
present tense my mother my mother was
jumping she’s she’s she’s running she’s
laughing the second thing that you do is
that you tell it tell it first to
yourself use your shower great acoustics
put talent how we then I say tell it and
tell it to yourself versus because
there’s a third step that feels
sometimes you’re gonna have to feel
stuff and you want to kind of be ready
for it if you can right and then the
last thing connect to somebody call your
friends call your mom go to dinner right
figure out a place and a space because
what happens when you do that that you
help define your world and you help
define the world for the people that
came from before you the ones that are
next to you and those that are to come
creating a space for story allows us to
be a little less selfish how important
is it for me now and for people from the
US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that
our stories of four are what’s going to
carry us into building tomorrow
[Applause]
maybe the faithful story means you are
purposely creating a possibility to
revitalize or to connect do it often
create stories make people laugh maybe
he’ll cry imitate some folks repeat as
much as you want but I invite you today
to make a space for story thank you
[Music]
you
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