In our city, there are many stories, shared from person to person, family to family, and neighbor to neighbor. It is through stories that we understand who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. The Community Story Tree is an opportunity for our stories to do more. By collecting; we honor them. By sharing widely; we foster greater understanding. By preserving, we leave a treasure for future generations. Join us as the Community Story Tree grows.

Resources

A goal of the Community Story Tree project was to identify and address permission and copyright challenges that exist when archiving multimedia content. Learn how we used Creative Commons in the Community Story Tree.

Thank You

The Community Media Center would like to recognize and thank: The Michigan Humanities Council for their support. Our Humanities Scholars: Deb Wickering, cultural anthropologist and professor of sociology at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI and Tim Gleisner, Local History Librarian, Grand Rapids Public Library. We are grateful to Pearl Banks from Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Juan Daniel Castro from the Mexican Heritage Association, and the staff and volunteers at Baxter Community Center. Thanks also to the many other community leaders who helped, including: Julio Cano, Melanie Beeling, Marj Kuipers from Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities, Sue Garza from Cook Library Center, and Marian Barrera-Young. Our appreciation to local musicians Tokyo Morose, The Djangotones, Seth Bernard and Daisy May, Breathe Owl Breathe, The Concussions for letting us use their music.

Screening

On Wednesday, September 30th, 2009, the first 25 stories collected by the Community Story Telling project were screened at the historic Wealthy Theatre. The following pictures are from that event. You can download a digital version screening's program as well.