Written by Kiara Chavez, Community Development & Marketing Coordinator at Motus Theater.
Edited by Kirsten Wilson and Ava Kalhoefer.
The Arts in Society grant in support of the UndocuAmerica Performance & Media Project has been a tremendous catalyst for Motus Theater.
From this project, the Shoebox Stories podcast was born and the first three episodes of season one, the UndocuAmerica Series, are now live!
Shoebox Stories is a story-holding project where you gather together and stand in another person’s shoes by reading aloud their story, saying their words, and holding, for a moment, the weight that they carry. Through respectfully holding a story different from your own, listeners expand their understanding of what it means to be human.
In the first season, we invite prominent Americans to reading aloud the stories of undocumented immigrants living in Colorado. The featured episodes explore each individual’s story, respectively: esteemed news anchor Jorge Ramos of Univision, women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, are currently available through any streaming podcast service.
Other readers of the Shoebox Stories: UndocuAmerica Series include Maria Hinojosa, anchor of Latino USA, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, award-winning actor John Lithgow, evangelical leader Jo Anne Lyon and chef and humanitarian José Andrés. Award-winning musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and Arturo O’Farrill offer musical responses.
How did the stories in the podcast come to be?
Motus Theater collaborated with Northern Colorado Immigrants United (NCIU) and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition in successfully recruiting 10 undocumented leaders from Boulder and Denver to participate in a 16-week Motus Monologue Workshop to develop autobiographical monologues.
The undocumented leaders who choose to collaborate with Motus are part of key immigrant rights organizations, including NCIU, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and United Leaders in Higher Education.
For 16 weeks, participants met and shared thoughtful reflections inspired by writing exercises. Through the process, there was much laughing, crying, yelling, and pizza!
By the end, each participant landed on a single story that encapsulated the impact of living undocumented in the United States during a dangerous political era.
Story themes include the threat of deportation; the injustice of being sent into exile from the country in which you were raised; border patrol; the current human and civil rights threats to immigrants; racial profiling.
To give an idea of what this meant, here is an excerpt from our own Alejandro Fuentes Mena’s monologue:
“Moving beyond math to ethics - Paying an undocumented person half of their value for their life’s work; extracting all the value you can get from them to build your homes and take care of your families and then deporting them, is not just mathematically flawed, it is also an American story problem gone wrong. It is criminal to treat us as subservient and less desirable.”
Motus monologists meeting for a monologue workshop.
Participants collaborate with Motus Theater’s artistic director, Kirsten Wilson to create a monologue with dramatic power. And she equips monologists with tools to successfully deliver a monologue that is interwoven with traumatic memories.
In addition to the podcast, Shoebox Stories and UndocuMonologues are often performed live in Denver and Boulder counties.
“Immigration is such a big part of my life, but I rarely take the time to look into my past given that the present always has politics that draw my attention. So it was very helpful to look into pieces of my life that I often push aside. More importantly, we were able to build a community which is always helpful for my well being.”
Prominent Americans Step into the Shoes of Undocumented Monologists
When Motus began developing Shoebox Stories, the idea was to amplify the voices of marginalized community members, inviting influencers and prominent Americans to step into their shoes and read aloud their stories.
For each recording session, Director Wilson and one of Motus’ undocumonologist travel to meet the reader at a location of their choice. In preparation for the final podcast, the monologist reads their story to the reader. The reader then reads the story back to the monologist. After the reading, Wilson facilitates a shared reflection with the reader and monologist about the impact of intimately sharing this personal story.
Actor and writer John Lithgow had this to say following his reading of Irving Reza’s story, recorded in Los Angeles this fall: “We’re in a moment of crisis, a crisis of empathy in this country. And it seems to me that the whole thrust of this project is to address that crisis... I think it’s a wonderful thing to partner you and me and to make my reading of your story a companion piece to yours. It’s my way of walking in your shoes.”
John Lithgow, Actor and Writer meeting with Irving Reza, Motus Monologist
Following the reading of his story by Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos in Miami, Cristian Solano-Córdova commented, “I’d never heard anyone else read it before… it made me realize I wasn’t even scared as a kid walking in the middle of the desert with my mom. Like, I never mentioned that I was scared at that point. And I think it speaks to how much like a child trusts their parent, that they’re willing to go out into the wilderness, and not be scared because they trust their parents so damn much.”
Jorge Ramos reading Cristain Solano-Córdova’s story at Univision Headquarters in Miami.
The Launch of Shoebox Stories Podcast
On October 24, 2019, the Shoebox Stories Podcast launched the first episode featuring Jorge Ramos, lead anchor for Univision reading the story of Cristian Solano-Cordova.
With the support of the California Community Foundation, Motus presented a launch event at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles which is dedicated to sharing the stories of the Holocaust and human rights struggles. The space for the event was of great relevance, speaking to the strong social justice mission of the podcast and to the history of displacement and immigration.
We invite you to listen to the first 3 episodes and subscribe today at shoeboxstories.org or wherever you stream your podcasts! Then be sure to rate, review, and share it with your friends so that Motus work can continue to impact new audiences in Colorado and across the country.
Motus staff pictured in front of undocumonologists and Jazz great Robert Johnson.
About Arts in Society
Since 2016, Arts in Society has been funding individuals, grants, schools and government entities, with two-year grant awards of up to $50,000 per project.
In addition to funding, grantees receive training, professional development, and marketing/social media support. Funding is offered to projects in Colorado that are working collaboratively and utilizing the arts as an integral element for promoting social justice and community welfare.
Arts in Society is funded through a cohort of Colorado funders. 2019 funding partners include Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, Hemera Foundation, and Colorado Creative Industries . Funds and support are administered via RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver.
