Episode 92: Stories of the 'SOL': Kitchen Table to Center Stage
In this episode of “Gathering Ground,” Mary sits down with four women of the SOL Collective, a Chicago storytelling group built to put Black women and women of color at the center of the stage: co-founder Shelley A. Davis, Karin Norington-Reaves, Terri A. Johnson, and Rev. Michelle Hughes. Shelley traces SOL back to a kitchen table and a year of Thai food dinners, dreamed up after a 2019 show finally gave her an audience that could hear her. Terri, Michelle, and Karin each share the story that turned them into tellers, from facing chemo with humor to a memorial that became a celebration to grieving a daughter's death in front of an audience, and what it took to tell those stories off book.
Episode Highlights:
- Shelley A. Davis on how SOL began around her kitchen table in 2019, and what makes the collective's “high polish” personal essay storytelling different from Chicago's open mic and spoken word scene
- Terri A. Johnson on choosing to tell her breast cancer story with humor instead of avoiding it altogether, and the audience members who always come up afterward with their own
- Rev. Michelle Hughes on becoming a storyteller after decades as a “manuscript preacher,” and the memorial service that turned into a party
- Karin Norington-Reaves on the sisterhood that carried her through her daughter's death, and how storytelling shapes her work leading the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership
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