Bud Werner Memorial Library and the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council present GROUNDED, an evening of multimedia storytelling to honor Colorado Public Lands Day. This live event will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 16 in Library Hall. We are now seeking your story submissions for this community performance in Library Hall.

What exactly is GROUNDED?

It's a free community storytelling event! GROUNDED will be constructed like a glossy magazine, but instead of printing it on dead trees, we’ll be performing it live before an audience. The program is designed to be filled with short impressions, longer lessons, catchy illustration and a poignant message. Art, essay, literary review, short story or even an imaginative advertisement are all fair game – as long as the message relates to public lands.

What do you mean by storytelling?

Individual stories can be relayed in a variety of creative ways: spoken word as poetry, prose or essay accompanied by imagery; song; dance; short film; animation; or an installation of visual art from sculpture to graphic design. The culmination of these stories performed together will be GROUNDED, an edited and curated magazine performed before the community – a celebration of our connection with public lands that surround us locally and globally.

The sole requirement is that original multimedia story must be sourced and inspired by the ideas, environment and institution of our public lands. Your piece may share a story about the land itself, species that rely on it, ecosystems, air and water, recreation, hunting, resource extraction, a perspective on policies that govern the landscape, or personal experiences that have shaped a relationship with it.

We encourage humor, vulnerability, education, inspiration, activism and a reflection on the Yampa Valley community’s deep emotional response to public lands, both generally and around the world.

Want to participate?

Here are the guidelines for submitting your GROUNDED story for consideration in the May 16 event:

1. The Library and YVSC are soliciting diverse submissions from the community, including all ages and forms of expressive media. Multimedia presentations, such as those that incorporate imagery or sound with spoken word, are strongly encouraged.

2. GROUNDED will be a free evening performance in Library Hall on Thursday, May 16. There will be ample time for individual rehearsal in Library Hall in the weeks leading up to the event, and a mandatory dress rehearsal on Wednesday, May 15.

3. All audio and projection technology available in Library Hall will be available for use during GROUNDED – plus the piano.

4. No single story may exceed 10 minutes. Shorter pieces can and will be powerful, and are strongly encouraged. In other words, yes, we want your 30-second animation, your 2-minute film, your 3-minute essay, your single powerful photo or a flash of protest as graphic design.

5. Your electronic submission must fully represent your finished proposal. It is understood that there may be final edits and polishing to come with your piece if it is selected for the final performance, but submissions should reflect a nearly-final representation of the piece you intend to present to the community.

• Poetry, prose, essay, etc. should submitted as an attachment in an email. If there are images to go with your spoken word, submit those as well, whether it’s a PowerPoint or a link to a slideshow.
• Submit photographs of proposed visual art.
• Film, dance, animation or song can be submitted by a link to private video.

6. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on Monday, April 1.

7. Make your electronic submission of words, photos, attachments and/or video links to jlay@steamboatlibrary.org.

8. Each submission must include a bio of the presenter(s), and a short statement about what public lands mean to you.

9. A panel of volunteer community judges from the library and YVSC will select the winning stories.

10. Finalists for the 2019 GROUNDED program will be notified by Sunday, April 14.

Questions? 

Contact Adult Programs Coordinator Jennie Lay at jlay@steamboatlibrary.org.