Director’s Cut
The discovery of the first cave drawings offers conclusive evidence of at least one thing: the power of story has been with us as long as we’ve been able to communicate. One might suggest these crude but often beautiful images are the earliest examples of what Whitman lovingly christened barbaric yawps: individuals using whatever means were at their disposal to create, warn, instruct, or impress. Mostly impress. And thus, storytelling was invented.
The trajectory we can easily trace from these primordial sketches to social media involves the magic of narrative. 1455 takes its name in commemoration of the year Gutenberg began printing books—arguably the signal most important sociopolitical advancement of the millennium. Without this miracle, the act of storytelling would remain, at worst, an oral tradition; at best, reserved for an elite class controlling both the creation and dissemination of information. As such, knowledge, literacy, and an appreciation of cultural traditions were advanced, practically overnight.
Flash forward several centuries, add the Internet and, circa 2021, it’s never been easier or less expensive to get one’s story into the world. On the other hand, there’s never been more competition—more content—in this ever-crowded space. 1455’s mission is at once humble yet ambitious: we want to promote creativity and build community, and we achieve this by extolling the art of storytelling. This includes interrogating what storytelling is; how we define it, who produces and receives it, what cultural and commercial mechanisms enable (and prevent) it’s distribution, etc. In an important way, storytelling is what connects us with our earliest ancestors: the compulsion to convey what we see, how we feel, what we want. Importantly, the fact that so many stories are overlooked or never have a chance at getting told—because of cultural or economic factors—is itself a story, and one 1455 seeks to ameliorate.
Our annual Summer Festival is, in every sense, a celebration of storytelling, designed to showcase the art and joy of this uniquely human form of expression. This year, our biggest and best event yet, featured a diverse array of more than 200 speakers across 75+ panels all focused on the power of storytelling and the crucial role it plays in the creative and academic fields, as well as the business and political arenas. We welcomed participants from around the country and globe including Africa and the UK, all uniting across three focal tracks of “Inspiration & Advocacy,” “Timely & Topical” and “Craft & Community.”
For this issue of Movable Type, we invited some of these speakers to share a bit more about the stories they told and are telling. The results are at once a distillation and continuation of the festival and what it provides: insights on the craft, recollections from the event, and original poetry. For those who were unable to participate in real time, these pieces should entice you to seek out the original sessions, all of which were recorded and can be viewed, anytime, for free, at 1455’s YouTube channel.
Our story at 1455 is our daily work to seek those storytellers, find them, and whenever possible, provide them a forum. 1455’s Summer Fest (and our year-round, free programming) serve to remind us we can—and should— come together to honor those who entertain, inform, and inspire us. We hope this event serves as a reminder that when we recognize what unites us, we’re capable of anything.
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