TMI Project presents The Gift of a Story LIVE STREAM

On #GivingTuesday, Tuesday, November 28 at 7pm, Kingston-based storytelling nonprofit TMI Project will kick-off its annual appeal by hosting The Gift of a Story: A Live Stream Storytelling Salon, hosted at CronArtUSA (by invitation only) and streamed on Facebook Live for the general public. This intimate evening of true storytelling and conversation will be live streamed on Facebook Live, allowing a global audience to connect with and participate in the stories and conversation.

TMI Project hopes to raise at least 10% of its annual appeal fundraising goal of $15,000 over the course of the evening to support its work with marginalized populations and the goal of bringing their stories to light on a national platform.

The Gift of a Story

Tuesday, November 28, 7pm

CronArtUSA By invitation only

To Watch on Facebook Live, Visit: www.facebook.com/tmiproject/

The Gift of a Story’s line-up will feature Erica Chase Salerno, a New Paltz resident who will debut a true story about living with stage four breast cancer; Tameka Ramsey who will share her story about her overnight stay in a former slave dwelling on Huguenot Street, from Reclaiming Our Time, a production that debuted this past September in partnership with The Slave Dwelling Project and Historic Huguenot Street; and Shai Brown, who will share her story about how, growing up, her mother used her as a decoy in shoplifting exploits, from TMI Project’s #BlackStoriesMatter initiative. The stories will be followed by a Q&A and community dialogue. Live stream audience members can tune in on TMI Project’s Facebook page at 7pm to experience The Gift of a Story and participate in the conversation by posting their questions and comments to the live stream from home.

“Can you imagine what the world would be like if we couldn’t tell our stories?” asks TMI Project co-founder and Executive Director, Eva Tenuto. “There has never been a more important moment in our culture to break the news cycle and insert compelling personal stories into the popular narrative.”

TMI Project’s annual appeal goal is to raise $15,000 by year’s end to help support them in bringing the personal stories of marginalized populations to a national audience through four initiatives in 2018; Vicarious Resilience — a documentary based on TMI Project’s ongoing collaboration with the Mental Health Association of Ulster County (MHA), Locker Room Talk, a documentary chronicling Kingston High School football players’ participation in a TMI Project memoir writing and storytelling workshop designed to confront a hyper-masculine culture and redefine what it means to be men, presented in partnership with A CALL TO MEN, and #BlackStoriesMatter, an initiative to elevate the underrepresented stories of the black experience in America, as well as TMI, The Podcast.

“It’s not hard to imagine the impact of repressed stories,” states Tenuto. “The absence of a diverse national narrative results in homophobia, racism, sexism, violence, sexual assault, hate crimes, fear, stigma, shame, eating disorders, addiction, suicide—all derived from “otherizing” those we’re not familiar with or silencing ourselves out of fear. Imagine if we could harness the power of the personal narrative for social change on a national level.”

Contributions to TMI Project can be made at: https://www.tmiproject.causevox.com starting on November 28th.

ABOUT TMI PROJECT

TMI Project offers transformative memoir workshops and performances that invite storytellers and audience members to explore new perspectives. TMI Project envisions a world where true storytelling is an agent of change; where, through the sharing of radically candid, true, personal narratives, everyone—storytellers and listeners alike—can become empowered, release shame and stigma, and replace old understandings with new ones. They aim to incite social, legal, and political change by arming activists with the skills needed to be captivating storytellers, and by amplifying the voices of populations whose stories often go unheard.

Through true storytelling, TMI Project focuses the spotlight on stories told by people from marginalized populations, humanizing issues often overlooked by mainstream media. They also focus on the work of emerging and veteran activists and leaders, to document the way they are changing the world; stories that may not be recognized in history books but need to be heard and recorded for future generations.

Since 2010, TMI Project has led approximately 65 workshops and staged performances by nearly 1,400 participants, which have been presented to audiences of over 13,000 people in schools, colleges, prisons, mental health clinics, theaters, community centers, and the United Nations. Their workshops and performances are tailored to women and men of all ages and backgrounds.

More information on TMI Project can be found at: www.tmiproject.org

Watch the livestream at: facebook.com/tmiproject

Contribute to the annual appeal between November 28-December 31 at: www.tmiproject.causevox.com