By CASSIE SLANA
Senior Writer

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies is organizing a story slam to allow people to share their personal stories about facing adversity.

“I Wanna B Me 2” is scheduled to take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the Elliott Student Union, Room 237A.

“The popularity of Meghan Trainor’s Song, ‘Me Too,’ sparked the idea to ask participants to share the stories of themselves,” said Melody Niesen, UCM instructor of English.

Niesen said Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies hosted a successful TransForum last year. So, this year they wanted to host another event with student stories as the main focus.

Jobin Davis, graduate assistant for the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, said the TransForum last was hosted by speakers the program invited to UCM, but this year the event will be all student speakers.   

“We were interested to hear what challenges (students) face in their lives and how they overcome adversity and diversity,” Davis said.

Niesen said she hopes the slam becomes an annual event.

The slam was organized through collaboration of the WGS program; the department of sociology, gerontology and cross disciplinary studies; Africana studies; and the Center for Multiculturalism and Inclusion.

“You look at somebody and you make judgments and you may not know anything at all about what they’re really going through,” Davis said. “(Narratives) put a human face on a situation. It’s a lot harder to judge someone when you hear their story and know who they are.”

Niesen said that a future goal would to diversify the campus community as well as the community of Warrensburg.

“We have a vast wealth of richness and diversity that deserves to be celebrated,” Niesen said. “We are all complex, and highlighting the interconnected nature of diverse social categories helps us create more inclusive, less judgmental spaces in which we can learn, live and thrive.”

A drop-in Story Slam workshop is scheduled for 3:30-5 p.m. Nov. 14, in Martin 334 for practicing and receiving constructive feedback. For registration and more information and prompts regarding stories, visit http://sites.google.com/a/ucmo.edu/wgs-story-slam/.