Everyone has a story to tell, the person you pass on the sidewalk, stand in line with at the grocery store, sit next to on the train or bus —and YOU. However, not everyone has the tools or techniques required to share stories in a compelling and meaningful way.

This June The UpTake offers you the opportunity to become more skilled at the craft of storytelling, whether through writing, audio, video, or photography.

Ways of Seeing/Ways of Telling — A workshop series from The UpTake

You’’ll work with instructors who have years of experience in their field.Sound, Story, Voice and Place: Creating Audio Documentary – This workshop is designed for anyone interested in audio documentary methods but with limited to no experience producing audio projects. You’ll learn how to operate recording equipment, collect captivating sounds, conduct audio interviews, and you’ll be introduced to some of the steps necessary to begin editing your work. This session won’t turn you into an instant professional, but it will provide you with the foundational knowledge necessary to begin your own audio documentary projects, from oral histories to podcasts. Dave Engen (Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Minnesota State University, Mankato) and Robert Jersak (Communication Studies Faculty, Century College) have collaborated on several documentary projects and community-based audio trainings over the last decade. Both together and individually, they’ve produced a number of audio-centered listening projects.

June 2, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Class fee $70, low-income and student rate $40.  Click for registration and details.

Using Live Video to Tell Your Story – The UpTake’s Michael McIntee has been on the cutting edge of live internet video almost since it was invented. In this class he will walk you through how to use the most popular live video platforms such as Facebook and YouTube using just your smart phone, as well as how to use consumer and professional cameras.

June 9, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Class fee $70, low-income and student rate $40. Click for registration and details.

Placing Your Story: Capture a Sense of Place in Your Writing – In this workshop, we will explore using narrative journalism techniques to capture a sense of place and to tell the stories of a community. Characteristics of narrative journalism include immersion reporting, complicated structures, character development, symbolism, voice, a focus on ordinary people . . . and accuracy. Literary journalists recognize the need for a consciousness on the page through which the objects in view are filtered. We will take a look at how to find and develop nonfiction topics that matter to the writer–in ways that make readers care too. Carolyn Holbrook founded More Than a Single Story, a series of panel discussions/public conversations where IPOC writers discuss issues of importance to them in their own voices and in their own words.

June 16, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Class fee $55, low-income and student rate $30. Click for registration and details.

We are the Other: Photographing Urban Communities – UPDATE: This class has been cancelled. We will try to reschedule it for this fall. Good photographs are like life, loaded with suggestion yet open to interpretation. But how much of what we see is shaped by our daily interactions? And how much is shaped by the countless pop culture images we’ve consumed? How we look at photographs shows us how we look at life. What do you see? These questions and more will be addressed as Instructor Wing Huie will show photos from his many projects, demonstrate his expanding photographic toolkit, while facilitating a group discussion that will complicate and challenge initial perceptions, opening up multiple perspectives. Participants will then have an opportunity to get outside their own bubble, go onto the street and put into practice what they’ve learned, photographically engaging others.

June 30 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Class fee $70, low-income and student rate $40. Click for registration and details.

Space is limited, so register today!