NewGround hosted an annual Spotlight Storytelling evening for more than a decade, bringing together community members, alumni, newcomers, and friends of friends for an evening of personal stories and connection, linked together by a shared theme.

After a brief hiatus, NewGround’s Spotlight is back this year, and will be presenting stories from Muslims and Jews about experiences that address, in one way or another, racism, bigotry, and ignorance.

We are all so aware of our own fragility and lack of safety, in these times. 

It’s no accident that NewGround Spotlight takes place during the festival of Sukkot, when observant Jews who are fortunate enough to have homes are asked to leave their solid walls and spend seven or eight days in a rickety three-walled hut, wide open to the harshness of the elements. As the wind howls, and rains pelt through the woven branches that make up the roof, individuals and communities are asked to contemplate the existential fragility of human life.

In that decision to make ourselves and our bodies, vulnerable, we are asked to wonder where safety and power and strength might lie. Our experience at NewGround is that safety and power and strength are what we find in one another. If you would like to be considered for sharing a story at Spotlight, you can submit your story by following this link.

The event will be held online, with stories being presented on September 23, 2021.