December 1, 2020
Storytelling Workshop: Racism in Healthcare
Ngozi Oparah, StoryCenter Community Programs Director. Photo from StoryCenter.StoryCenter
Hosted by Ngozi Oparah of Storycenter, in partnership with Nurstory and UW School of Nursing faculty Dr. Josephine Ensign, our first series of Storytelling Workshops focused on the all too-relevant issue of racism within healthcare.
This workshop series was incorporated into the current Health Sciences Common Book platform, where students across the health professions are encouraged to engage with Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist. Each session incorporated exercises in mindfulness and meditation, prompted written reflection, opportunities to share individual experiences with the group, space for support and feedback, as well as the opportunity to work further with Storycenter staff to produce a digital story.
Josephine Ensign, Professor, University of Washington School of Nursing and Adjunct Professor, UW School of Arts and Sciences Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. Photo by Stephen Brashear.Stephen Brashear
Participants indicated that the workshops facilitated by Ngozi Oparah have helped them to process and express the ways in which internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism impact themselves and the communities that they are a part of or serve. The series reinforced reflection as an act of healing and storytelling as an act of connection.
To learn more about the work of collective and digital storytelling and to get involved in upcoming events, please visit Storycenter’s website or reach out to our interprofessional education team.
