Civic Knowledge Project
Events Archive

Using Narratives for Organizational Development: Outreach,
Promotion and Fundraising
A Workshop by the Neighborhood Writing Alliance/Journal of Ordinary Thought (NWA/JOT)
Date and Location TBA--Please contact Joanie Friedman (joaniefriedman@uchicago.edu) for
more information.
Course Objectives: This participatory workshop will help small arts and humanities organizations
identify ways to use narratives to publicize and promote their work. Participants will then develop
a strategy for collecting and using narratives to highlight and further their mission.
Course Description: Narratives and personal accounts can be powerful tools in conducting
community outreach, fundraising, building community support, and evaluating program impact.
This course will explore and develop models for story/narrative collection and discuss ways in
which these narratives can be used to extend the mission and outreach of specific arts and
humanities organizations, and to enhance programs and projects.
Course Layout: Participants will explore the idea of collecting stories as a means for
documentation and examine the various ways in which narratives have been used by non-profit
organizations as a tool for outreach, promotion, and fundraising. After evaluating the
organization’s needs and interests, each participant will formulate an individual plan for collecting
narratives. We will discuss and practice different techniques in collecting narratives and consider
how collected narratives can illuminate one’s current work. By the end of the course each
participant will finalize an effective strategy for his or her own collected narratives.
Instructors: Annie Knepler and Rupal Soni
Course Length: 2 sessions
Annie Knepler is Editor of the Journal of Ordinary Thought (JOT), a quarterly journal that
publishes the works of writers who participate in writing workshops in libraries and social service
agencies in Chicago, and Associate Director of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, which
publishes JOT and sponsors the writing workshops. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate in Language,
Literacy, and Rhetoric at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-editor of Crossing Cultures:
Readings for Composition, a multicultural anthology of essays, stories, and poems.
Rupal Soni is the Program Director of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance and the Associate
Publisher of the Alliance’s award-winning quarterly journal, Journal of Ordinary Thought. She
recently returned from an Indicorps fellowship in India, where she helped establish a Rural Design
School, and has since been leading writing and performance workshops with After School
Matters, Young Asians with Power, and the Chinese Mutual Aid Association. Rupal also writes
and performs issue-based sketch comedy as an active member of the Asian American Artists
Collective.

Graham School of General Studies/Civic Knowledge Project
Course: What Is Civic Knowledge? Theater/Premier Playwrights
(Winter 2007)
Course Number: LAEPPK The Civic Knowledge Project (CKP) at the University of Chicago is
devoted to developing innovative programs that foster the circulation of knowledge across racial,
class, and social boundaries. Now the CKP and Graham School are advancing this vision in
collaboration with the Silk Road Theatre Project. Our Premier Playwrights courses will feature
dynamic conversations with leading playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean
backgrounds. We will begin with a performance of Golden Child, followed by a discussion with
Obie Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang; the SRTP's Artistic Director Jamil Khoury
will introduce the evening's events with a discussion of theater's role in advancing civic
knowledge.
$50 Early registration $60 Regular registration (after February Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 4
For further information contact Bart Schultz at rschultz@uchicago.edu or 773/702-8821, or the
Silk Road Theatre Project, at www.srtp.org or 312/236-6881.
This course will be held at the Silk Road Theatre, located in the historic Chicago Temple
Building, 77 W. Washington St., Pierce Hall, Chicago, IL 60602. Discounted ($6) parking is
available at System Parking, 230 W. Washington St., three blocks west of the theater.
Section 1 (07W1 ): Thursday, March 8, 6-10 pm The course is taught by David Henry Hwang and
Jamil Khoury. David Henry Hwang is the preeminent Asian American dramatist; he is also the
author of such works as Fresh Off the Boat, Rich Relations, and M. Butterfly. Jamil Khoury is the
artistic director of the Silk Road Theatre Project and the author of such works as Precious Stones
and At Last Atonement.