Cross­-Cultural Community
Engagement Festival

The Cross­Cultural Community Engagement Festival Los Angeles: The Next Stage was the culmination of a series of playreadings presented in conjunction with the UCLA Beloved Community Initiative (BCI), the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center (LAICCC), and other sponsors and supporters.

Three plays, OUR TOWN by Thorton Wilder; HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED BY August Wilson; and HAVING OUR SAY by Emily Mann adapted from the book, ”Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years” by Sarah L. Delaney and Elizbeth Delaney, produced on Broadway were staged on three locations, the UCLA MacGowan Hall Little Theatre; the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown LA, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

The first staged reading was OUR TOWN. It represented Jackson’s vision and philosophy reflective from his perspective of what the Los Angeles community reflected, i.e., what “our town” and its story told. As Certified Trainers of the True Storytelling Institute® versed in the 7-Principals of True Storytelling, we introduced the ATS™ Methodology to the audience and engaged them in a post-show discussion.  We followed each playreading with an immediate post-show discussion but extended the “Having Our Say” post-show discussion to culminate with staging “The Cross­-Cultural Community Engagement Festival Los Angeles: The Next Stage – Having Our Say” at Arizona State University (ASU).

Three staged play readings, i.e., stories, arts, and cultural artifacts were represented the three legs in our storytelling journey and the three legs of the ATS™ Methodology, Answerability, Togethertelling, and Sensemaking (ATS™). This journey helped inform the underpinning, foundation, development, and delivery of ATS™ Methodology. Demonstrated in full effect at Arizona State University (ASU), DEI G is ready to engage you on True Storytelling journey.