Two Hockaday students spent the summer using the power of storytelling to connect people across divides, teach, and surprise.
Seniors Eres Stone and Helen Flanagan are the first youth apprentices of Our Human Voices, a national youth-led storytelling campaign from the Nest Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and real-world impact.
Following training on active listening and ethical interviewing, the pair started traveling across Dallas with cameras, interviewing people, and learning their stories.
Even before filming began, the project fostered connection and learning between Stone, an extrovert who said she quickly raised her hand when she heard about the project, and Flanagan, who’s more reserved.
“I think we have both now learned how to just talk to anyone, and that everyone has a story, and that everyone has similarities, everyone has differences, and that that’s a beautiful thing,” Stone said.
Flanagan said the experience illustrated for her the capacity of listening and sharing stories to bring people closer together.
“I think taking the time to sit down with people or write handwritten letters can really bring us all closer and really give us a better understanding of the people around you,” she said.
Their more-than-a-dozen interview subjects spanned different backgrounds, professions, and points of view. The interviewees included Daris Lee, health and wellness manager at Bonton Farms, an urban farm with a farmers market, cafe, and coffee house serving the southern Dallas neighborhood of Bonton, Rabbi David Stern of Temple Emanu-El in Preston Hollow, Dallas officer David Luna, and Justin Sokol, a stylist in Bishop Arts.
The film screened Oct. 7 at the Angelika Film Center, followed by a presentation and Q&A with Stone and Flanagan, as well as some of their interview subjects, including Lee and Sokol.
“We’re just sharing the story of Bonton, which is an underserved community, just like a lot of other underserved communities, and a lot of times all they need is this kind of exposure,” Lee said during the Q&A. “It took two young high school students — this is amazing.”
Our Human Voices is slated to launch in 19 more cities, with the goal of building a national archive of community voices.
“Our Human Voices is really about what happens when we stop talking about people and start talking to them,” said Libby Spears, founder and executive director of Nest. “Young people are growing up in a world where they are constantly being told who other people are and what they believe. We want to give them the tools to ask for themselves and, just as importantly, listen to the answer.”
Stone lives in the Park Cities, serves as international section editor of the Youth Political Times, is president of Temple Emanu-El’s teen board of directors, speaks at local schools as a Student-to-Student Ambassador for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, and captains Hockaday’s varsity golf team.
Flanagan also lives in the Park Cities. She is a United to Learn Fellow, a director of the Marcus Mart food pantry, a youth program instructor at the Dallas Equestrian Center, and an award-winning artist.
As for what’s next, the girls say they’re excited to interview Mark Cuban.
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