What's Your Story? Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone knows how to tell a story... yet.
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"I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart."

- Anne Frank

What We've Done
What's Your Story? has worked with various groups and organizations nationally and internationally. Below is a selected list of some of our recent work.

Teaching, Trainings & Workshops


    Tanya Aranda photographs life in San Xavier for the youth magazine, 110 Degrees. Courtesy of Voices, Inc.
    Looking Forward/Looking Back Digital Story Project. Tucson, AZ. Sept. 2005-April 2006. We are the primary guest artists for this collaboration between Voices, Inc. and the San Xavier Education Center of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Working with community educators from the SX District, we mentor Tohono O'odham youth in writing, interviewing, photographing stories about their community and culture. We will also guide youth participants in the production of digital stories (combining text, photographs, and sound) based on their documentary work through a collaboration with the Seattle-based Bridges to Understanding.

    City High Santa Cruz River Project. Tucson, AZ. Sept. 2005-May 2006. In this collaboration between City High School and the Tucson Audubon Society, we are mentoring students in writing, interviewing, and photography. The work is part of an innovative and experiential high school class in which the students work with community partners to study the history, ecology, and restoration of the West Branch of the Santa Cruz River. With our guidance, their efforts will culminate in an exhibit of photographs and interviews.

    Fine Arts Summer Institute, UA Presents, Tucson, AZ. June 2005. In this annual week-long institute, Tucson-area and Arizona educators are immersed in arts experiences, learning from local artists about their work and how to use it in the classroom. We taught courses in photography and visual storytelling and writing about the arts to elementary, middle school and high school teachers.

    Bridges To Understanding, Seattle, WA. March 2005. Josh taught teachers and amateur photographers the basics of photography and visual storytelling for this nonprofit group (http://www.bridgesweb.org/).

    Arizona Heritage Project Grant Recipient Training. Phoenix, Arizona. June 2004. In this day-long workshop, Josh taught photography and storytelling through images to teachers who'd received grants to undertake community documentary projects.


    Educators learn to tell stories with photographs at the Arizona State Museum's Sense of Place Teacher Training. Jannelle Weakly, Arizona State Museum
    Sense of Place Teacher Training, Arizona State Museum. Tucson, Arizona. June 2004. For this training we worked with Arizona educators. Kimi taught a two-hour workshop in place-based writing and Josh taught a two-hour workshop in storytelling through photography. The goal of the workshops was to share with teachers useful classroom activities for teaching community storytelling through the documentary arts.

    Mexicayotl Academy & La Vida en Artes. Nogales, Arizona. Spring 2004. In this 6-session residency, we taught place-based writing and photography to 8th graders in conjunction with class preparation for field trip to the Grand Canyon. Project culminated in an exhibit of personal writing and photographs of students' experiences in the Grand Canyon.

    Mexicayotl Adademy & Border Action Network. Nogales, Arizona. Fall 2003. In this 4-session residency we taught basic photography to 8th graders so they could document their community. These workshops were held in conjunction with Border Action Network research to understand the impact of U.S. Border Patrol activity in border communities. Project culminated in an exhibit of the students' photographs which showed in Nogales, AZ, and Oakland, CA.

    Abriendo Puertas, Women's Oral History Project. Tucson, AZ. 1999-2000. For this yearlong project, we trained women in basic interviewing and photography. We then helped them conceptualize and plan a publication about the experiences and achievements of local Mexican-American woman and Mexican immigrant women.

Documentary Work

    The Trust for Public Land (TPL)
    Photographing land protected by TPL for publications Writing/researching articles for Arizona edition of TPL newsletter.

    Tucson Botanical Gardens (TBG), Tucson, AZ
    Photographing TBG events for publications.

    Community Food Security Center, Community Food Bank, Tucson, AZ
    Photographing food systems and food security issues in Southern Arizona.

    Metropolitan Housing Corporation, Tucson, AZ
    Photographed and interviewed residents of affordable housing in Tucson for posters exhibited at annual affordable housing conference.

    Urban Resources Initiative
    Photographed URI's community gardening program for exhibits, newsletters, postcards, volunteer recruitment flyers.

    Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
    Photograph museum grounds, activities, and events for publication in newsletters, books, and website.

Josh's Photography

Kimi's Writing

©2004 What's Your Story?