Semester-long storytelling program takes root in the Student Commons

A new storytelling showcase is in the works at the Student Commons. Participants are invited to write, refine, practice and eventually perform monologues, with no previous experience required. 

The Common Voices Student Storytelling Program was started by Sophia Bielsky, the director of the Student Commons, and Lindsey Appell, the assistant director of the Writing Center. Bielsky said the Common Voices program allows students to share their lives and experiences in a supportive space. 

“The goal of our program is really an entry point for students who are interested in this sort of craft,” Bielsky said. 

Bielsky and Appell said that one of the program’s main goals is to create a sense of community through the writing process. 

“Storytelling like this functions not just as like a writing class or a performance class, but as forging some kind of community or connections, or a space where you can develop your voice in a way that makes you feel like your experience is valid,” Appell said. 

Bielsky said those who had their high school experience cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic missed out on many community engagement opportunities.

“We want to bring [in-person experiences] back to our students and provide them with the opportunity to develop a writing group and create group accountability,” they said.

Students who participate in the program will craft five-to-seven-minute-long monologues that will be staged and performed on April 17. They will spend the semester workshopping their monologues with faculty mentors and student tutors in the Writing Center. 

“The idea is to meet weekly, and these [will] be more structured workshops. We [will] have faculty come in and talk about things like performance," Appell said. 

These meetings will be held on Tuesday with an optional Sunday meeting.

“[Sunday meetings] would look like students coming together and working on the writing of their own monologue,” Appell said. “That will overlap with when we have Writing Center tutors at our library location.”

Students will be able to write their monologues on any major life event, no matter how vulnerable it may be to share, Bielsky said. 

“We want to make sure that the participants have as much support as they can,” they said. “The Writing Center tutors will have a holistic or trauma-based approach to how they’re going to address these very personal stories.”

Bielsky said Common Voices will be classified as a “Speak Out Event.” According to MSU’s Mandatory Reporting Tools website, this designation means that Campus Civil Rights will not require mandatory reporting for any sensitive disclosures made during these events.

“It's really an extra layer of confidentiality and protection for the student,” Bielsky said. “It creates a space where students can speak honestly about their lived experiences as a part of the storytelling process, without automatic escalation into a formal report."

Students are invited to attend the upcoming information sessions at 4:00 p.m. on Feb. 3 and 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 4. Both sessions will be held in the Student Commons, located in Strand Union Building 185. 

For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/StudentCommonsMSU.