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Applications due 9/30. Apply now for our award-winning writing program for survivors of gender-based violence. 

An impassioned dialogue in a July, 2025 Center for Story & Witness workshop in Marrakesh Morocco.


The Stories We Tell, a testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence, is heading to Sanctuary for Families in NYC Oct. 25 & 26. Apply today! 

Developed to help those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence or other human rights violations use their voices, faces, and stories to call the public to greater compassion and — more importantly — social action, our Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) testimonial writing program is supporting a new generation of activists seeking to use story to create social change. We're not just training writers. We're creating a global community.


We ground each of our writing workshops in a simple belief: That we are here to be heard. 


During each immersive, two-day Stories We Tell testimonial writing workshop, a cohort of emerging and established artists, writers, activists, and survivors come together to read and discuss culture-changing literature from across history and various social justice movements…take part in a series of innovative, real-time writing exercises…and share creative work in moderated, expert-led workshopping sessions. Over 1300 writers from across the African and North American continents have graduated from our writing program.

 

Media neutral and genre inclusive, with a focus on memoir, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, op ed, and essay writing, our trauma-informed and creatively ambitious program was created to support survivors of injustice who seek to use their personal stories to create political change.


Meet our workshop co-creators, Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo. 



Our testimonial writing program was co-created by novelist R. Clifton Spargo, a lecturer in creative writing at Yale University and graduate of the acclaimed Iowa Writers' Workshop, and activist Anne K. Ream, author of Lived Through This, her memoir of a global journey spent listening to survivors of gender-based violence.


THE STORIES WE TELL:

A testimonial writing workshop for survivors and witnesses to gender-based violence.

 

October 25 & 26, 2025

Sanctuary for Families

New York City, NY

APPLICATIONS DUE SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

R. Clifton Spargo, Ruchira Gupta, and Anne K. Ream.

Changing the World and Transforming Ourselves: Ruchira Gupta, Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo in conversation at Printers Row Lit Fest.

How does the act of sharing the painful truths we've lived or witnessed alter the person doing the truth-telling? What impact can "activist storytelling" have on personal healing? And how do we challenge those who seek to "disappear" stories that speak truth to power?

On September 5th, Emmy Award-winning author and activist Ruchira Gupta, founder of Apne Aap International; and our Center for Story & Witness co-founders Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo explored these and other questions during a mainstage conversation at Printers Row Lit Fest, the Midwest's largest literary and ideas festival.

Thank you Ruchira, Anne, and Clifton for your vital and valuable perspectives. We appreciate you!



R. Clifton Spargo, Co-Founder, Director of Writing Programs, Workshop Instructor.

Get to know our Center for Story & Witness team: Meet R. Clifton Spargo.

A novelist, short story writer, music and cultural critic, and rock 'n' roll enthusiast, Clifton Spargo is an expert in testimony and ethics and a dedicated teacher of creative writing. He is the author of the novel Beautiful Fools, which Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer describes as a "marvel of a book" that reminds us of "what we fight for, what we fail to win, and the beauty that abides between."

The co-creator of our Center for Story & Witness testimonial writing program, Clifton seeks to empower new voices of witness across a range of social justice issues. "Testimony," he says, "brings to light what our political and social systems push aside, ignore, even actively suppress."


UPCOMING EVENTS

FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE & JOY:

How survivors of gender-based violence are changing the world, and themselves, by sharing their stories. A keynote presentation by Anne K. Ream.


September 30, 2025

ICASA Statewide Conference

Springfield, IL

THE STORIES WE TELL: 

A testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence.

Co-led by Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo.


October 3 & 4, 2025

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Washington, DC


October 11 & 12, 2025

The Jackson School at Yale University

New Haven, CT

BEARING WITNESS:

The Art and Ethics of Using Story to Create Social Change.

A public dialogue featuring Janine di Giovanni, David Morse, Mariam El Marakeshy, Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo.


October 13, 2025 | 5P

GM Room at Horchow Hall

Jackson School of Global Affairs

Yale University

THE STORIES WE TELL: 

A testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence.

Co-led by Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo.


October 25 & 26, 2025

Sanctuary for Families

New York City, NY


November 8 & 9, 2025

FreeFrom

Los Angeles, CA





ABOUT CENTER FOR STORY & WITNESS


At Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) our mission is to cultivate and share stories that bear witness to gender-based violence and other social injustices in order to change minds, hearts, and public policies. Through our testimonial writing workshops, our narrative advocacy trainings, and our performances, publications and campaigns, we seek to create measurable social change through the power of narrative.

 

For 16 years, we have been awarded the America’s Best Charities Seal of Excellence, a designation given to organizations that meet the highest standards of public accountability and program/cost effectiveness.



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