FYS: Storytelling, Identity, and Social Change - Capturing & Telling Your Community's Cancer Story by Dina lyrics

Currently, in today's society, it almost seems as though nobody can escape the disease of cancer. The battles of individuals impact their larger communities, and Capturing and Telling Your Community's Cancer Story portrays just that. Roadside Theater began this 10-month project to support cancer education with their sponsor, the Mountain Empire Older Citizens. It is “a collaboration with survivors in North Carolina and West Virginia to create plays for their communities' cancer stories and perform them at cancer detection and prevention events.” Norton, Virginia, is Roadside's primary location where stories are not only performed but also filmed and recorded. Survivors who chose to participate travelled to Norton to prepare. The Roadside Theater's two-day Story to Performance Workshop is “an oral process that matches one Roadside trainer for every 5-10 participants.” And, the “company has developed a specific and enjoyable methodology for uncovering the wealth of stories that every human being holds – the Story Circle. One has to feel comfortable and provided with the right setting to share his or her story. The Story Circle encourages “deep listening, verbal expression, respect for every participant's story, and an appreciation for the cultural gifts and talents of diverse groups of people.” After multiple activities, “the group is guided through an oral process through which they produce their simple script as a performance.” In addition to their performances, they recorded their stories. The audio “Our Neverending Stories,” is a compilation of cancer survivors' and their families' stories of detection. Hearing these women's raw and true emotions allows for the listeners to feel and hear their fear. For example, a daughter explains how her family has had a long history of cancer, but through caring for her sick family members, she neglected being examined herself thinking “it could never happen to me.” And, another woman lost 40 lbs. but through her weight loss journey she began to feel a lump and realized it was cancer. Lastly, below is just a portion of yet another woman's experience with cancer. "The doctor was concerned because the knot was so large. And, I had just had a mammogram 7 months ago. Because that mammogram hadn't shown anything he was very alarmed. He did a lumpectomy and told me I would have the results in a week." "When my husband and I went to see the doctor, we went in and sat down. I was hearing him like he was telling someone else “you have breast cancer.” The doctor was crying, my husband was crying and I was feeling sorry for somebody that had breast cancer. It didn't register that I was the one with the breast cancer." "I believe God gave me cancer for a reason. Every year my daughter and her friends walk in Relay for Life. I at times almost felt guilty for surviving, but have learned that having had cancer made me a far better person and a far better mother." The purpose of developing such scripts is because the company “wanted to raise awareness in our community for cancer prevention and diagnosis.” The project has stretched throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. And the success of these projects “led MEOC to obtain funding for "You and Your Community's Cancer Story" from East Tennessee State University's Office of Rural and Community Health and Community Partnerships program. The program funded five projects with the purpose of addressing the unusually high rates of cancer d**hs in central Appalachia.” Roadside Theater's project was deemed the most successful and even continued by its participants when funding ended. The project can be viewed in its entirety to the public since Roadside Theater wanted this to be educational and to engage with an even larger audience than they actually performed for. Roadside Theater conducts a multitude of projects to stress cultural development. In conclusion, the drive and purpose for performing and conducing the "Capturing & Telling Your Community's Cancer Story" project is to emphasize the importance of early cancer detection and prevention. Each individual diagnosed with cancer impacts their family and community, and the number of individuals diagnosed continues to grow, so imagine the population of people whose lives are struck with cancer. The performances and audio recordings of these survivor's stories also provides comfort and relief for those who may have to embark on such a journey and share a similar diagnosis.