Story Lab: Storytelling Workshops and Gatherings
liveA 90-minute workshop that teaches people to write a 5-minute story from their own lived experience, paired with gatherings where those stories are told and witnessed. Grew from Pride Tales, a queer storytelling event series.
I want inOpportunity
People carry stories that matter to them but have no method to shape them for telling and no space where they will be genuinely heard. Performance venues reward polish. Social media rewards brevity. Neither creates the conditions for someone to stand up, tell something true, and be witnessed by people who are actually listening. The gap is both craft (how do I make my experience into a tellable story?) and space (where can I tell it safely?).
Approach
We built two connected surfaces. The workshop teaches a method called Task x Zoom: Task is what you were doing when it happened, Zoom is what you were feeling in that moment. That combination helps people find the real story inside their experience. The gathering (Pride Tales) creates the coordination field where those stories are told and witnessed. Improv hangouts in shared home space extend the practice into ongoing community. The teller and the witness are both active roles. The gathering is not a performance venue. It is a coordination field where people recognize themselves in each other.
How we built it
Jobs to Be Done
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Teller: "I have a story that matters to me. I want to tell it in a space where I am heard and held, so I can transform my own understanding by speaking it aloud to people who listen."
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Witness: "Someone is sharing something true. I want to hold space for that truth and signal back what I received, so the teller knows they were heard and I can feel my own connection to their experience."
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Workshop participant: "I know I have a story but I do not know how to shape it. Teach me the craft so I can stand up and tell it without freezing or rambling."
Sample from full framework
Desired Outcomes
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The teller tells their story fully, stays present through the vulnerable moment, and hears themselves say something they understand differently now
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At least one witness reflects back what they received, not judgment or advice, just what landed
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40%+ of participants return for a second gathering, signaling that something real happened
Sample from full framework
Opportunity Solution Tree
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Top opportunity: people want to tell stories that matter but have no method to shape them and no space that holds them safely
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Existing solutions fail: open mics reward performance, therapy is private, social media collapses stories into content. None create the conditions for genuine witnessing
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Solution path: Task x Zoom method for story craft, small group practice before the gathering, ritual opening and closing to set the container, facilitator training for quality
Sample from full framework
OOUX Object Mapping
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Story, Gathering, Theme, Witness, Coordination Field as core objects. Each is a container for what is real, not what is performed
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A Story has a lifecycle: Lived, Discovered, Crafted, Practiced, Told, Witnessed, Integrated. The workshop moves people from Lived to Practiced. The gathering moves them from Told to Integrated
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The Coordination Field is not a feature. It emerges when tellers and witnesses are both fully present. It cannot be designed directly, only supported through structure and safety
Sample from full framework
Design Principles
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When polish and presence conflict, choose presence: a story told with vulnerability, even imperfectly, changes people. A smooth story told without presence does not
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Witnessing is reflection, not correction: the witness says what they received, never what the teller should do or what the teller meant
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The workshop is the bridge: always offer Story Craft before the gathering. Preparation is the difference between performance and truth
Sample from full framework
What comes next
Expanding the three-tier structure: community events (Pride Tales gatherings), EDU partnerships (Story Craft in schools and universities), and geographic expansion (Pride Tales chapters in multiple cities with trained local facilitators). Improv hangouts in shared home space continue building the community layer between formal events.
Bigger vision
Story Lab starts with queer storytelling but the method is universal. Task x Zoom, the vulnerability gate, and genuine witnessing apply anywhere people carry stories that matter and lack a space to tell them. The larger vision is a practice that spreads through trained facilitators running their own gatherings in their own communities, each one a coordination field where people recognize themselves in each other. The platform becomes a practitioner network, not a content platform.