More About Stories from Deep in the Heart

“Stories from Deep in the Heart” is an award-winning in depth folklore and audio documentary training for Austin and Central Texas high public school students and teachers.  Participants create short, broadcast quality audio documentaries on the stories, folklore, arts and traditions of their families and communities. Participants are teachers and students from schools identified by AISD and other districts as undergoing critical population changes, schools with a high percentage of at-risk youth, and schools that have pressing need of cultural diversity training. 

The program includes a “Summer Institute”, a 5-day workshop training for teachers and students selected by an application process to work with professional folklorists, journalists and radio producers.  The series concludes with a free public reception and presentation of the finished audio stories created during the workshop.  For at-risk student participants in particular, the Summer Institute offers a meaningful and engaging summer activity and the potential opportunity to become a “Stories” intern throughout the following school year.

Project goals are to inspire teachers to integrate workshop concepts into classroom teaching; to create regional and national outlets for folklore programming; and to effect positive improvements in attitudes and behavior among participants.
 

Our "Stories" project team is available for introductory presentations at your school:

• Teacher in-service program presentations
• Student presentations
• Introduction to Digital Storytelling presentations
• One-day or multi-session "Podcasting" workshops for teachers and students

Generous funding for “Stories from Deep in the Heart” is provided by the City of Austin's Cultural Arts Division and Telecommunications & Regulatory Affairs Grant for Technology Opportunities (GTOPS), Texas Commission on the Arts, Humanities Texas, the Still Water Foundation, and major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art. 

Audio pieces from this program are available on our Soundcloud page and to public radio stations via our Public Radio Exchange channel.