Listen Up!

We hosted the "Stories of Race in Woods Hole: Listening as Allyship" July 17, 2019 as a way to have the voices of the underrepresented people of color in Woods Hole (and Falmouth) anonymously share their experiences with racism and racial bias. Our goal was to create a setting where their voices were heard, where they would not be interrupted or have their stories denied or minimized. A space where listeners were challenged to think about their community and how people of color's experiences are different than theirs. A space where listeners could learn how to be [better] allies.

The encouragement, support and feedback we received from that event was overwhelming, and thus we've decided to make this a series rather than just a one time event! We have decided to call it "Listen Up!".

Our goal is for each listening session to be different people sharing different stories, but they all have the same rules: come with an open mind, be respectful and NO talking. These listening sessions are to listen, learn and reflect on what you hear; not to debate, critique or minimize these stories or how the storytellers feel. We hope to share stories from people of all marginalized groups.

With permission from each story teller, we will post the recordings or transcriptions on this page for you to read listen to. Or, we will post links to stories written about the events where stories can be read. We do encourage you to attend the event, as you can imagine, it is more powerful in the setting we create.