2014 UPEI International Development Week Fundraising Reception and Silent Auction

Join Laura Simms, an award-winning performer, writer, and educator for an evening of storytelling. Laura received the Brimstone Award for Engaged Storytelling, CHOICE award for best story collection, and Sesame Street’s SUNNY DAYS award for work with children worldwide. Laura is the mother of Ishmael Beah, former child solider in Sierra Leone, and author of A Long Way Gone, an international best-seller.

Whether we share our own experience, the story of another, or tell a traditional tale, engaged storytelling has profound effect. The most difficult memories become story and in the process give us access to resources of intelligence and empathy that uncover inherent joy. The meaning of a story reaches beyond the surface of hearing or intellectual discourse - into the heart. Storytelling can be the cause of wars or the impetus for liberation and healing communication. Laura will explore how the alchemy of engagement, bringing story to life between people in the present, repairs the devastating dissconnection at the root of conflicts, intolerance, isolation, and unnecessary suffering today. Through a riveting sharing of stories, personal and ancient, Laura will bring us into a deeper understanding of the power of story.