The PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project: What It Is & How You Can be Part of the Story
America is a rich tapestry of geographies, climates, cultures, and people divided and united into states, cities, communities, and neighborhoods. America is a land with a rich history of migration and immigration; it’s a country of pride, passion, and power, as well as one of sorrow, struggle, and strife. There is no one story that fully captures what it means to be American, which is why the PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project was manifested to tell all of the stories.
What is the PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project?
When you think of what it means to be American or to be of America, what comes to mind? Surely, your individual experience, which is indeed American regardless of whether you are a Caucasian born in American or a first-generation immigrant who is attending university and assimilating into the culture of whatever city you inhabit. You are just as American as the large family who lives down the street or the single mom up the road.
PBS recognized that all of these people and everyone beyond and between were equally American, but there is no lens and certainly not a portrait lens (which is intended to capture a subject in focus) that could possibly represent all of America in one narrative. Enter the PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project.
The PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project is a living web and social platform that invites anyone and everyone to submit their individual stories to their website. Stories can be submitted as videos, images, text, and any combination therein.
The project’s aim is to give an honest glimpse into what it’s like to be American today and to enable your voice to be heard.
While the project is currently only online, it will soon also be available as:
· A nationally-televised PBS documentary series
· Social media experiences and conversions
· PBS members station events
· A digital video series
How You Can be Part of the PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project
As they say on the PBS American Portrait website, your story is our story, and it’s all part of PBS American Portrait. Ahem. Are you ready for your closeup? Participating is both easy and vital.
To share your story, go to the main website and click the option to “share your story” or just go directly to the create page.
If you’re sitting here thinking, “I have no idea what story to tell,” don’t worry. The site offers thought-provoking questions and prompts that help you. All you have to do is to fill in the blanks. After all, even professional storytellers need a little guidance when it comes to storytelling because all us have such lengthy, complex, and varied stories. Do we tell a story of struggle and strife or one of power and positivity? Because no matter what’s happened, we all have an arsenal of stories like that ready to flow.
Telling Your Story—A Few Helpful Tips
So, you’re ready to get started, to share your story because it’s part of this big, amazing American portrait. After you register and create your profile, you can pick the prompt that you want to work with.
Here are a few types of prompts.
· For my people…
· I stand for…
· Looking ahead, I…
· My life right now…
· My American dream…
· To me, work means….
· Family looks like…
· At this point in my life…
· I was raised to believe…
· My greatest challenge is…
· I never expected…
There are many more. Once you pick your prompt, you can enter your text, video, or images (or a combination of media-types) that tell your amazing story. If you’re still not sure what kind of story to tell, think of it like a memoir. When writing memoir, you want your story to have the following:
· A beginning, middle, and end
· A strong, clear character
· A theme or a message
· Transformation
Even in a short one-minute (or less) story, you’ll reveal something new to your audience by the end. Another tip is to be positive. Life can be tragic, but the best memoirs are those that reveal the lesson learned, the beauty of the light that shines through the dark of hard times. While you may have been a victim at some point either by fault of another person or circumstance, don’t make yours a poor, pitiful me story…make it one of triumph and overcoming adversity.
If you’re still in doubt, spend a few minutes reading, viewing, and watching the other incredible stories already uploaded to the PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project website.
When you are ready to tell your story, keep these key takeaways from the guidelines in mind:
· Be honest; tell your true story…not something you invent nor something you appropriate from someone else (seriously, you’re interesting just the way you are!)
· Don’t use any hate speech, racism, violence, sexism, nudity, profanity, etc. (We mean, of course you wouldn’t…that one’s just for the cheap seats in the back.)
· Don’t advertise your brand or your business. Don’t include web links or platforms.
· Lastly, be truthful about your life and your story, but also aim to be respectful of the reality of others…which probably takes us back to not using negative terms or any kinds of hate speech (i.e., speaking negatively or disparagingly about a group of people).
That said, let your reality shine. Be honest. Your portrait puts you and your life in focus and shows how you are America, and it makes you part of this historic project that reveals what it really means to be American. We are proud to be working with PBS-WCTE, gathering a rich collection of American Portrait stories and helping to tell our region’s stories through the voice of its people.
The PBS American Portrait Storytelling Project is an amazing opportunity for everyone to share their stories and their realities. We know that stories make us more empathetic and better human beings; that’s what makes us at The Storyteller Agency so passionate about both being storytellers and helping others discover and share their stories. Visit our website to learn more about who we are and how we can help you grow as a storyteller.
