About | More Than One Story

Who We Are

The International Storytelling Center was founded in 1973 with the explicit mission to build a better world through storytelling.

ISC focused first on local action, leading the revitalization of a flagging Main Street town called Jonesborough, Tennessee. More than 50 years later, Jonesborough is thriving socially, artistically, and economically — and is widely known as the "Storytelling Capital of the World."

International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee

Why Storytelling

Storytelling is a simple but powerful old folk art, with a surprising capacity to help people understand and feel understood.

Stories help people connect with their neighbors, learn about the past, share wisdom and culture, and dream about the future. These are urgent and essential needs in today's world.

The Project

With the dramatic rise of political partisanship and social upheaval, ISC has been compelled to invest more heavily in our efforts to use storytelling to bring people together.

We want to help different people have productive conversations about the issues that matter to them. Recognizing that big change starts with local action, ISC began to deepen this work through a new initiative, made possible through the support of the New Pluralists Collaborative, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Phase One

Research + Listen

We spent time in deep conversation with professional storytellers to learn more about how people with different backgrounds can come together using stories and storytelling-based techniques. We studied the art and science of active listening. And we transformed data gathered through loosely structured longform interviews into five actionable strategies that anyone can use to become better listeners.

Phase Two

Develop + Test

We developed a new storytelling-discussion hybrid format to test in our community in 2025. Informed by the certainty that "what's past is prologue," we led deep dives into difficult stories from our local and state history. These storyteller-led events were developed, staged, and filmed in a series of diverse locations across our area.

A Better Tomorrow

Our nation's discourse — among politicians and between people — is broken. That damage can't be repaired overnight. But it can get better.

ISC created this website to share strategies for how we can productively engage with our neighbors on the issues that matter to all of us, even when we don't agree.

The key, as storyteller Donna Washington told us, is that we have to tell better stories.

But telling stories is just one side of the equation. We also have to do the hard work of listening.

Next: See It In Action

The Community Series

Watch how a storyteller brought difficult histories to life in communities across the region — sparking meaningful conversations about our shared past.

Explore the Community Series →