2024
Annual Report
This Will [Not] Be Your Year
The Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year” is one of the catchiest tunes to come out in the last decade. I love its plunky piano riffs; the simple, earnest lyrics. It rather reminds me of some of the best Beatles classics.
This was quantifiably not my year. Most annual reports gloss over the downturns, the dips, the decidedly undesirable. It would be inauthentic (read: not on brand), nor within my dedication to appropriate vulnerability in our storytelling if I swept it all under the rug. I’ve had personal, ongoing, slow-motion heartbreaks; business has not been a-flowing. Projects were unceremoniously canceled. Proposals were received seemingly with the sound of crickets chirping.
It felt especially challenging to watch the presidential election unfold the way it did, with so much vitriol. Storytelling was put to work in the most divisive fashion. As you may recall, I founded my practice in the wake of the 2016 election with the explicit desire to help people hear each other across lines of difference. I’ve sat with a lot of questions about my work since November 5th because the context feels even harder now than eight years ago.
That said, it does seem strange to admit I’ve been riding the struggle bus, given some of the amazing opportunities and new, high profile clients I had the opportunity to serve in 2024. I continue to have really deep, rich connections with people from all walks of life through the lens of helping them tell their stories. Most especially, I must celebrate having made bold, substantial moves in my own storytelling that will continue to pay off as the Teapot project unfolds and with even more ideas flourishing!
Life, like years, is both long and short. It comes in seasons. While this has not been my favorite one, I can still appreciate it for its beautiful complexity, what it’s teaching me.
I felt some responsibility to be real with you in this moment because I hear from a lot of people out there–artists, consultants, and contractors especially–are being hit hard by the collective holding of breath we’re experiencing. As always, I love how creating and sending the Annual Report (and my newsletters) inspires conversations with my audiences and colleagues. Please talk back, ask questions, share feedback, tell me what you’re seeing in the work.
What do you need to be a little more real about?
Onward…to the great big next,
Shannon
Contents
I’m A Little Teapot
Residencies, Workshops, & Coaching
Community
in the News
Meet Shannon Turner, Storyteller & Story Coach
ShoutOut Atlanta
I’m a Little Teapot
In past years, I would have buried my own performances way down at the bottom of the Annual Report. I seem to always position myself as a story coach first, storyteller second. That is something I’m trying to reckon with, especially as I begin promoting my new show, I’m a Little Teapot: Existential Angst and the Search for Purpose at the Dawn of the Millennium.
In August, I had. the opportunity to perform a work-in-progress showing at ROOTS Week. I worked for the better part of the summer with a small cadre of fellow artists who helped to coach, er coax, er midwife! this new material out of me.
Before I quite knew what I was doing, I was working to make a very cheeky dance as part of the introduction, which was quite possibly one of the most fun and exciting, certainly most creative, things I’ve done since launching StoryMuse. If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to watch this video my very wonderful intern, Bibby, made for previous GoFundMe backers of the project.
Purpose, passion, possibility, and power are the themes or pillars that continue to infuse the project. (Although sometimes I think about other words like “play” and “productivity” as well.)
For a little more than a year now, I’ve been hosting conversations with other creatives via YouTube called “Tea & Jam with Me.” These conversations are what I call my “public research” for the project. I highly recommend checking out a few episodes as they have been profoundly informative and transformative for me. Bibby (again, superb intern!) has gone back and made a series of snack-sized shorts that make them even easier to digest. Here are just a few:
Residencies. Workshops. Coaching.
Park Pride
In September, I had the pleasure to work with the fine folx at Park Pride, specifically their Park Stewards Academy. We spent the better part of a quintessential fall Saturday together as participants got better at how they tell stories so they can be better ambassadors for their individual parks–from fundraising to advocating with government representatives to event leadership. We worked on storytelling basics, deep listening, and life maps. The story share at the end was one of the best I’ve ever hosted.
“…From the opening ice-breakers to the closing share-outs, the session was absolutely engaging, fun, helpful and challenging (in the best ways). Shannon is skilled at gently nudging folks out of their comfort zone. Participants left the course with concrete techniques as they push for improvements in their parks—be it in 30-second elevator speeches with elected officials, in neighborhood meetings, or with nonprofit partners or funders. I highly recommend StoryMuse for anyone looking to add storytelling to your next curriculum, event, training or team building!”
Eli Dickerson
Director of Education
Park Pride
JPMorgan Chase
When Racheal Ricketts called me up from JPMorgan Chase, I was so excited to work with a new client in such an interesting, different way. I cultivated and coached stories with some of their local branch and corporate staff on the theme of “COURAGE” that they then presented on a special day as a part of JPMC’s Employee Appreciation Week. I also provided a short, interactive talk during the event about storytelling for leadership / team building and navigating vulnerability in public spaces.
Racheal Ricketts
Business Support Management
JPMorgan Chase
Disability Alliance at Yale
Over the course of the spring semester, I had the distinct pleasure to coach a cohort of staff at Yale University involved in their Disability Alliance to prepare for Disability Community Stories, an event that took place in May. This event was hybrid, available to both in-person and online audiences simultaneously. The stories were an eclectic collage of experiences of being a working professional with a disability in their academic community.
Coaching
Overall, my coaching hours are down this year. I think that budgets were tight, especially as we moved closer to the unknown quantity of the election. However, I had some really delightful experiences with people, including working with a veteran / real estate / investment mogul to help him develop new stories for two upcoming presentations. I also got to work with an Emory professor who wanted to tell a story about her journey toward becoming a community activist.
Storytelling in Community
GCDD Storytelling Project
After six amazing years–over 150 stories in writing and photos, a podcast, a documentary, several short films and pop-up, interactive, outdoor roadshows during the pandemic–we said goodbye to the GCDD Storytelling Project this year.
But not before one final, gorgeous, highly successful event, A Seat at the Table, in partnership with Equitable Dinners and Georgia Public Broadcasting. On February 6, we gathered in person with about a hundred people to watch three more original films we’d made, and then on February 27, we gathered with many more people for a statewide virtual advocacy event.
Read more on my case study pages here and here.
This project was the heart & soul of StoryMuse for such a long time. The best part? I’ve already been commissioned for a new project with the Georgia Advocacy Office about Supported Decision Making, so more advocacy to come next year.
Read this recap / celebration in the GCDD Making a Difference magazine.
“I was told since preschool that it was important for me to use my voice, because it is not something everyone can do. There have been times in my life when people have made it clear they would rather not hear it. For a while I forgot how important it was…” ~Jessica Winnowich
Storytelling Project Celebration Video
A Seat at the Table
Carapace
Getting to produce/direct Carapace, the long-running personal storytelling show in Atlanta is just an honor and a privilege. The show gets its title after the hard, outer shell of animals like crustaceans and our emblematic turtles, Carapace a foundational part of why I wound up choosing to become a professional storyteller & coach. These days, we use movie and song titles as our themes. Some of our most popular nights included Islands in the Stream, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, and Joy Ride.
In 2025, we’re moving to the 2nd Tuesdays of the month. Exciting! We continue to be in love with our venue, Atlanta’s historic watering hole, Manuel’s Tavern. Next year, we’ll be celebrating our fifteenth anniversary, and well, that’s just pretty special.
If you’re interested to follow along, and maybe come out to throw your name in the hat!, please find us on our website, newsletter, Facebook, and/or Instagram page!
Photo credit: Andrew Huang, New Logo: Bibby Agbabiaka