Every story counts

Ever thought that your story isn’t worth telling?

Well we here at Stories from the Street just don’t believe you. Sorry but I challenge anyone on that. Failure, the ordinary things of life, the every day challenges we all face-they are the substance of stories that captivate us all and are the glue that keeps society together.

Here at Stories from the Street we are looking to role out a template of 10 books over the next 2 or 3 years. Each one of the 10 will in itself be a category for a mutitude of other books to be published, each in turn gathering up the competely unique  experiences of one person’s story, such as yourself.

Let me share three of these categories where someone like you could either contribute a story or indeed help pull together a whole book of stories.

Villages, Towns and Cities. These will be books gathering the stories from those who live in the place that they,we, call home. The pool of stories gathered from one place will provide what we believe will be a completely authentic snapshot of the story rising from those most qualified to tell it; those who live there.

Special Interest Groups.These will be collections of stories from those within particualr sections of society, such as those with disabilities, those who live in suburbia,  the homeless, those in business, those born in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and so on. The scope is as wide as your imagination.

A Region; like a county, the South Coast, the Home Counties, South Wales and so on. Once more gathering up the stories that are rising from the streets of those places.

So go on. Let your imagination roam and see what could happen if you and a few of  us choose to believe  that our story matters. Go on our web site, www.storiesfromthestreet.com log in and start to write. Alternatively post your story to us at PO Box 318, Thorner, Leeds. LS149EB or email me, steve@storiesfromthestreet.com about the possibility of crafting a collection of stories yourself.

Every story counts.

It does you know.

Stories the great leveller

Yesterdays news of the tragic death of David Cameron’s son Ivan touched a chord in the nation, and a chord in the heart of Gordon Brown; himself a parent who has had to learn how to grieve for a child.

That is the power of story. In a moment all animosity fades and a mutuality is found that crosses the greatest of devides. That’s why I am so passionate about what we are seeking to do here at Stories from the Street.

 Came back from my travels this morning having spoken with a longstanding  friend wanting to explore a book for those who have disability issues.

Wow!

 The sound of many voices being heard. Bridges of understanding being built.

Stories, the fabric of society that either binds it together or tears it apart.

A path worth walking I believe.

Spring, new journeys and Danny Boyle!

Over the last four years the early days of spring have, for me, marked out new journeys.In 2005 I walked out of my door here in the north of England on the road to London; a walk that opened up the road to Rome later that year.

In 2006 it was this time of year I set out from that same city, along with trusted friends, to walk south through Italy then onwards via Athens and Mount Olympus through to Istanbul, the gateway to the east.

In 2007, after much soul searching we picked up the walk again out from Istanbul, the long road east stretching before us as we walked into the unknown fringes of that vast continent.

And 2008, again at this time of year I set off with would you believe 17 other people to walk through the West Bank and via that  back door, into Jerusalem itself. We were perhaps the first people for a couple of decades to pick up the path from Nazereth to Bethlehem, a truly remarkable exeprience.

There were countless moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life and even now enrich the soul during occasional tedious days working in the world that I now inhabit. Yet also there were doubts.  Doubts that followed many a footstep, rattlling round the mind and ensnaring the heart. Doubts that tugged at the corners of our bank balances and the fabric of life at home and doubts that, without the safety of team life and friendship would have quenched the journey even before it had began.

Today I travel south to meet with people from a  couple of towns exploring the possibility of them crafting their own set of real life stories. Of gathering up the tangled threads of those they live amongst and weaving them into a unique volume of stories that we here at Stories from the Street would feel proud to be associated with.

It will be a very different journey for me to those of the last four years. Gone the grit and sweat of the road with rough chunks of bread grabbed on the move. Rather the motorway will be my passage and the service station my lunch companion.

Yet the thoughts and emotions will be the same as much is risked in this new publishing venture. A young family to support and no middle aged paunch to rest back on can risk really be the surf of life?

I love it, and yet at what price?

It’s at these times, and I may be an incurable romantic, but the sight of those kids from Mombai on their way to the Oscars just steels my nerve and fires my imagination. Yep we at Stories from the Street are looking to cut our own path Danny Boyle, and the whole journey of Slumdog Millionaire is an inspiration!

Thanks for that.

You know back in 2005 I could have chosen to play safe and stay at home. Just think of all that I would have missed if I had.

 Back on Friday

Signs of the times

Yesterday I posted on two amazing photos that for me captured a moment in time. Scroll down to yesterdays post to see them; they are iconic. On the one hand Slumdog Millionaire sweeps the Oscars, and on the other Jade Goody prepares for her wedding……..and her death.

As for today consider first of all the scenes in India, and how they celebrated!

A story of rags to riches with actors drawn  right out of the slums,directed by Danny Boyle, a guy who has his own rags to riches story, from a film industry continually in the shadows of Hollywood. Indeed a film that was rejected by one distributor as fit only for DVD’s and not for the big screen.

Now to me, despite the fairy tale nature of the story, there is something completely authentic about this. Not just the subject matter of the film but the way it involved from conception to the full glare of the Oscars.

Then consider  Jade Goody, in a remarkable way celebrating through her wedding, what is suggested will be her last time in public. The icon of the media celebrity era, manufactured out of the land of make belief, prepares, with incredible honesty and courage for her death.

Put another way the  woman who epitomises everything about so called reality TV and our need to find in her story, and others like her, excitement, meaning and identity (as I would suggest a substitute to our own story), exits stage left whilst children burst out of the slums with smiles on their faces to grab their moment of fame and their place in the future.

Now you tell me, which is the more authentic and which story would you most want to be identified with?

 

What a contrast. Could this be a sign of the times- a changing over of an era?

If so, and only time will tell on this, then Stories from the Street is looking to be part of that. Doubt that we will ever win an Oscar! But who knows, we already have our own set of heroes emerging. Could you be one of them?

Jade Goody and Slumdog Millionaire; Two great photos.

Wow  what a picture! Friendship, solidarity, laughter, bravado……for me this has………well nearly everything.

Thanks for giving me the chance  to actually start to like you Jade Goody.

 

But what about this one! This really does have it all; the young versions of the lead actors in Slumdog Millionaire about to set off to LA for the Oscars.

 

 

Two great photos that encapsulate the very best in human nature and made browsing through the papers this w/e good therapy.

Two young kids at the start of an incredible adventure, and one very young 27yr old,  sadly, nearing the end.

Tomorrow is the start of an important week for me. There will be no cameras to capture it but it is that time of year again; that time for journeys to begin.

I will tell you more tomorrow.

PS. Tim, you provoke me with your honesty. Great posts.