This story originally appeared in DNA Chicago

By Chloe Riley

PILSEN — Migration, and the effect it has on those who experience it, is the topic of a storytelling event Thursday, part of “Living in Color,” a larger citywide free series covering topics of food, migration, radical love and identity.

Sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council and Chicago Community Trust, Thursday’s event will feature two speakers — Willa J. Taylor, director of education and community engagement at the Goodman Theatre, and Stephanie “Soultree” Camba, a writer, poet and community organizer. 

Taylor and Camba will speak about their experiences with migration; Taylor as a gay woman who moved from Texas to New York, and Camba, who came to America from the Marshall Islands and is now living as an undocumented immigrant.

Thursday’s event will be curated by Bobby Biedrzycki, a writer and performer with 2nd Story, a storytelling collaborative in the city.

Biedrzycki said the two stories will be performed 2nd Story style — which means a rehearsed personal narrative to sound and music.

“We tend to think of it as a passive experience, but really any kind of storytelling can’t exist without the listener,” said Biedrzycki, who emphasized there would also be a dialog with the audience after the performance.

Living in Color will be held at the Chicago Urban Art Society, 600 W. Cermak Road, from 6-8 p.m. Thursday.