The legendary poet, scholar and Sufi mystic Rumi said, “there is a field beyond right doing and wrong doing, and I’ll meet you there.” To me, that field is authentic storytelling.
When you know somebody’s story, hate and “othering” is harder. When you hear details of how someone lost a parent as a child or dreamed of singing on Broadway, you think, “Oh, this happened to me or that was my sisters dream too.” You realize that although we may look quite different, we are much more alike under the skin. We’re all dreaming of the same success and recovering from similar heartbreaks while looking for the same feedback from the world—that we matter, and have a vital contribution to make. We all want love and safety for ourselves, those we love, our community, and the world. Our heartfelt stories reveal this truth.
Five years ago, we launched Together Live, a multigenerational, inclusive storytelling traveling tour that brought thousands of women together in the same room to share stories of personal transformation. The tour’s creation was partially a response to the phenomena created by social media where we compare our insides to other people’s outsides. It has caused an epidemic of depression and anxiety. Gathering together in real life is the antidote.
When COVID-19 happened, we knew we couldn’t be all together safely, so we brought Together Live to a necessary albeit bittersweet conclusion. And the question became, how do we share our stories now?
The natural evolution was @knowmystory on Instagram, a very grassroots effort with SeeHer social media consultant Natalie Guerrero (who posted her story) and Glamour magazine writer and editor Kim Fusaro, who was our media partner with us on Together Live. We pulled in Brandon Biney, who also worked with us at Together Live (and also shared his story on @knowmystory) and set out to give a voice to stories of the Black experience in America that resonate.
As we describe it on the site, we’re “on a mission to share real stories of strength, resilience, and melanin.” We only post two days a week but we are adding 100 new followers a day. Although we are initially focused on Black stories, we hope to continue to amplify all marginalized voices in the fullness of time.
During my two decades at WME (and its predecessor, William Morris) I was blessed to be able to amplify people’s stories through publishing books. I served as a midwife to 2000 publications. Then I had the gift of a lifetime to collaborate with Oprah Winfrey’s LIFE YOU WANT TOUR and everything changed. I love books but people write them in isolation and read them in isolation. My dream has evolved. I want to bring people together to share their stories. I want to encourage brave storytelling and open hearted listening, without judgment. When we do that, we find ourselves magically connected, healed, and even elevated.
That’s what we do at SeeHer: tell stories that show other people’s dreams. And if you see something, you know it’s possible. It’s the greatest gift in the world.
SeeHer will continue to widen the aperture of the stories it tells, keep finding new, underserved voices, and support them on the large and small screen.
As human beings, it’s our collective super power. Let’s use it! Together, we rise.
