“EVERYTHING’S A STORY”


An Interview with Ferene Paris Meyer


BY JESSICA HANDRIK DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION


EVEN IN A CASUAL CHAT OVER COFFEE, Ferene Paris Meyer’s gift for storytelling radiates through. When she recounts her journey from reluctant Flynn class participant to impassioned storytelling teacher, she crafts the arc of the story with a conversational ease, conveying depths of feeling. Ferene created and teaches the Flynn’s Voices of Color through Storytelling affinity class, currently in session again. But she started at the Flynn in a much different place.


Flynn: How did you learn about Flynn’s Moth-style Storytelling class?


FPM: In 2018, I attended a storytelling class performance at the Flynn and had two thoughts: I would love to do this and there’s only one person of color amongst all the storytellers. A year later, I am sitting in my first storytelling class with Sue Schmitt, and I’m like, “Am I going to be the only person of color?” as folx (ed. note: folx, an alternative spelling of the word folks, is a gender-neutral collective noun used to address a group of people) walk in. Living in Vermont, there’s a good chance you are the only person of color in some spaces.


Flynn: What was your first class like?


FPM: Sue starts with “Share a little bit about yourself. What should this room know about you?” She says storytelling is supposed to be vulnerable. I start getting anxious: “What will I say? What won’t sound too black?” At that time, I was still processing an incident from a UVM basketball game where SMC players taking a knee resulted in hateful responses from the community. We want to say we’re open minded. But then you do something folx don’t agree with and the ugliness comes out.


So when it got to me, I said something like, “I’ve just been trying to do some healing around being a woman of color in Vermont. It can take its toll on you.” As the next person speaks, I had this moment like, “Ferene, you’re the only person that talked about anything race-related. You’ve said too much.”


Flynn: Why is it important to have affinity-based classes for POC community?


FPM: After the class I asked Sue, “We have five minutes to tell a story? How do you talk about racism in five minutes to a white audience? How do I get them to understand my narrative? There’s so much explaining that I might have to do at the beginning.” She said, “That’s not your responsibility to hold them. Your story is for you. And that’s all that matters.” I ended up sharing about meeting my partner, who’s white, and what it meant to tell my family that I was dating a white person. I knew I could tell that


4 THE MARQUEE


Photo Credit: Sally McCay


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12