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Ending Human Trafficking in India, One Story at a Time: A Performative Approach to Digital Storytelling

STORYCENTER Blog

We are pleased to present posts by StoryCenter staff, storytellers, colleagues from partnering organizations, and thought leaders in Storywork and related fields.

Ending Human Trafficking in India, One Story at a Time: A Performative Approach to Digital Storytelling

Amy Hill

Editor’s Note: In March of 2019, StoryCenter’s Silence Speaks initiative traveled for the second time to Kolkata, India,* this time to collaborate with Raymond Caldwell of Theater Alliance in Washington, D.C. This unique project integrated the digital storytelling process with Raymond’s performative storytelling techniques. Led by the Kolkata American Center and the Delhi-based NGO Shakti Vahini, the effort spotlights the impact of human trafficking on girls and young women. In this interview, as a way of bringing visibility to the powerful stories on trafficking created in Kolkata leading up to World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (July 30), Silence Speaks co-founder and Kolkata anti-trafficking workshop facilitator Amy Hill talks with Sohini Das of the American Center, whose unique vision for using story and performance to address gender-based violence make the project possible.

 * In 2018, Silence Speaks led a digital storytelling workshop in Kolkata focused on gender-based violence, with young people from India and Bangladesh. Read about this project on our web site.

Amy: Sohini, you’ve been doing such amazing work with storytelling and performance to address issues like gender-based violence. What drew you to storytelling work in terms of your vision for how it can create change?

Sohini: The projects are really rooted in my personal experiences. As a dancer and performing artist, I was always led by my mentor to believe in my identity and take pride in it. When this was challenged by violence and abuse in a bad marriage, I had the strength to walk out and rebuild my life. In the process I also learned to deeply value the role of performative arts in the healing process. Participating in arts activities not only reconstructs your own self-esteem and identity but offers you the tools to inspire many others. Every story is special, and every story helps build community, compassion, and empathy, transforming not only the storyteller’s life, but the lives of those around her.

Amy: That’s really inspiring to hear, and it resonates really deeply for me, as someone who grew up in a home where there was a lot of violence. Storytelling and arts practices have been key to my healing as well. So you’ve been collaborating with Raymond Caldwell for several years now. I had a fantastic time with him during the trafficking workshop, but can you talk about his work and what drew you?

Sohini: Raymond uses theater and performance activities to engage people and build community. He has this incredible ability to make people feel safe and inspire their creativity as they work in collaboration with each other. I was drawn specifically to his honesty and raw energy. He believes in the power of the human mind, and gives his all. He believes in creating change, and leads by example. Above all, Raymond is a great collaborator who makes each of us feel like a powerful artist. Not to mention his impeccable sense of humor, which is a perfect foil for my dry one!

Amy: How have you seen the performative storytelling work evolve and expand in West Bengal state and beyond now that Raymond has done multiple trainings?

Sohini: It has changed lives. Now I see performative storytelling methods being practiced by elite schools in Kolkata, English Access students, and tribal kids in remote villages, alike. And when they do it, they engage meaningful audiences. In a recent performance, trafficked girls in a shelter home performed for government officials. In turn, the government officials have asked for similar training to increase their levels of empathy and understanding.

Amy: Raymond’s work is very physically based and plays out in particular moments in time rather than being preserved over time, like video. I’m curious about what inspired you to take storytelling into the digital realm, and what led you to our work at StoryCenter?

Sohini: For me as a performing artist, the project in digital storytelling with you last year was a first. But I understood the limitations of physical performances. In the performative workshops I often witnessed brief, powerful tableaus or touching stories that I thought could be shared with wider audiences. Shorter pieces have a deeper effect, as they linger on and offer the mind powerful content to play with. I also want to add that you taught me to delve into myself, and I know by discussing with some of the storytellers from your workshop last year, that your method has had a cleansing effect. Often the hurt goes on after violence occurs, but people are able to reconcile beautifully through your story circle process.

M’s story, created in the Performative Digital Storytelling workshop in Kolkata.

Amy: Having worked with both Raymond and me, how did you envision a collaboration between us—a blending of our methods? 

Sohini: You both are so different and brilliant in your own ways, but also so sincere and hardworking, that I knew it would be a perfect match. You have taught us to plan and plan and plan. Your calm, systematic implementation is a perfect foil to Raymond’s passion and energy and sometimes impromptu sessions. And, in the end, together with the trafficking storytellers and with the support of the young mentors you had each already worked with, you created deep and powerful pieces. You also respect each other as artists, and that is important.

Amy: For my part, I was really quite astounded by how complementary our approaches are. Raymond’s energy and emphasis on embodied physical presence really created the sense of intimacy and community necessary for delving into difficult personal stories. Weaving movement and performance across the workshop allowed everyone to express the waves of emotion that were arising in sharing and witnessing experiences of trafficking. In my work on trauma issues, there can be a component of catharsis, as people give voice to what they have perhaps previously kept silent. With the addition of the theater activities, I felt that the sense of agency that can result from narrating a story was amplified, as though each trafficking storyteller was reclaiming her entire being—her right to take up space and occupy her body. It was completely brilliant.

Amy: So now that the stories are ready, can you give an overview of how they are being shared, and the hopes for how they can create change?

Sohini: We are rolling out our strategy to release the stories in partnership with Shakti Vahini, you all at StoryCenter, and other NGOs, leading up to July 30. We’re also sharing them with other U.S. Embassies and American Spaces. These are stories of resilience and triumph. We will continue to share them with judiciary, law enforcement, and government officers to influence policy and increase people’s understanding of the complex issues surrounding human trafficking. Altogether the experience of supporting the creation of these stories has changed me, and has made me realize that even within bureaucratic systems, we have opportunities to feel, share, and evolve—and, above all, to change lives and contribute positively towards society.

View the Anti-Trafficking stories now. These videos were created in an intensive, five-day workshop that supported a group of courageous women impacted by human trafficking in sharing personal stories from their lives, and, with the help of mentors in performative and digital storytelling, transforming their experiences into art. While some of the videos may be difficult to watch, as a collection, they show not only the harsh realities of trafficking in India, but how people are taking action against it, and how women are rebuilding their lives in its aftermath.

This project valued process as much as end product. The storytellers and their production mentors were guided through activities to build community together, and found a sense of empathy and shared purpose in creating the videos. The goal was to enhance the well-being and agency of the storytellers, and continue to build skills among the mentors for using performance and video to address sensitive human rights issues.

Learn more about Silence Speaks projects around the world, and contact StoryCenter for information on partnerships to support your organization in creating stories.