Explore the Projects


Stories for All brings together over forty community and University of Kansas partner projects. This page enables you to identify partner projects that interest you and takes you to their websites.

You can search and filter projects by topic, partner, or digital genre. Please contact storiesforall@ku.edu if you have any difficulties.
male reciting poem from book in mic on stage

beautiful ashe: memoirs of a sweet black boy & other poems

This audiobook project will make available a poetic memoir that speaks to the difficulties of growing up as a Black male on the East Coast of the United States. It addresses the homophobia, sexism, and classism that runs rampant in this country in brutal and vulnerable realism. This poetry is meant to bolster the resolve to continue towards (r)evolution, and addresses the contradictions and counterrevolutionary aspects of the self.
a bench in garden

Bench by the Road Stories: The Stories of the Bench by the Road Project

Carolyn Denard


Carolyn Denard

Founder and Board Chair, The Toni Morrison Society The Toni Morrison Society

Craig Stutman


Craig Stutman

Associate Professor of History and Public Policy, Delaware Valley University Delaware Valley University
The Toni Morrison Society’s Bench by the Road Project has placed benches and accompanying plaques at 32 sites around the world memorializing people and events from African American and African diasporic history.  The Society plans to create a digital archive documenting the histories of each of these sites, including audio and video recordings with individuals in the communities where each Bench was placed.
a group of people of BLACKLawrence Project

BLINK!

This documentary storytelling project shows how classical music in urban communities inspires intuitive movement and value. It describes how classical music creates instantaneously powerful movements and leaders through interdisciplinary dialogue around the arts, history and sciences. Interviews and storytelling will illustrate the influence of classical music and fine arts upon past, present and modern movements.
4 people looking at the paintings on wall and discussing

Building Interdisciplinary Stories with the Integrated Arts Research Initiative at the Spencer Museum of Art

Joey Orr


Joey Orr

The Andrew W. Mellon Curator for Research, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas University of Kansas

Ryan Waggoner


Ryan Waggoner

Director of Creative Services, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas University of Kansas
Each academic year, the Arts Research Integration (ARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art organizes an inquiry that encompasses a large spectrum of practitioners across the arts, sciences, and humanities.

Free State Story Slam

Margaret Morris


Margaret Morris

Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Arts Center Lawrence Arts Center

David Hollond


David Hollond

Founder, Free State Story Slam; Lawrence Arts Center Lawrence Arts Center

Elizabeth Sullivan


Elizabeth Sullivan

Director of Performing Arts, Lawrence Arts Center Lawrence Arts Center
For 11 years, the Free State Story Slam storytelling series has had a home at the Lawrence Arts Center. The monthly Story Slam provides storytellers an opportunity to tell true stories in front of a live audience.

Heartland Makers Collective: Digitizing the Wak’o Mujeres Phu Nu Womxn Mural Project: Stories of Kansas Women of Color

Imani Wadud


Imani Wadud

Heartland Makers Collective Community Project Facilitator and Program Coordinator Heartland Makers Collective
The Wak'o Mujeres Phu Nu Womxn Mural Project: Stories of Kansas Women of Color, nearly eight feet tall and half a city block in length, is a project for women of color, by women of color, to empower women of color. The mural was based on over twenty oral histories conducted by the Women of Color Makers Collective. These oral histories will now be transcribed, digitized, and shared with the public in the form of podcasts and an online digital…
text about BLACK Lawrence.

Police Brutality Song

This music video will tell regional stories of police brutality. The song describes the beautiful life and dreams of a young Black man whose life is taken too soon by police in his neighborhood. It speaks to the resilience, fear, and loss deeply felt by Black people each time a new hashtag is birthed. The content is gentle and sensitive, so that audiences of various ages (3rd grade and up) have enjoyed and understood it.
group of people holding posters.

The Queer Narratives Festival

Stacy Busch


Stacy Busch

co-founder and executive director No Divide KC
The Queer Narratives Festival is an annual performing and visual arts festival highlighting the Kansas City LGBTQ+ community. By prioritizing the LGBTQ+ community, it offers a safe space for artists and audiences to express themselves fully. The Queer Narratives Festival is one of its kind in presenting the highest quality of LGBTQ+ artists while showcasing art forms that are not often invited in traditional art spaces.

Trading Fours: An Oral Exchange on Jazz Musical Influence and Biography

James McGee


James McGee

Senior Manager of Visitor and Virtual Experience American Jazz Museum
The American Jazz Museum’s permanent exhibition features four prominent icons, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. Each of these icons center jazz as an American experience born of creativity, innovation, and black culture.