Story Me, one of Creative Santa Fe’s Skill-Up programs, is a visual storytelling and public-speaking curriculum designed to foster confidence in emerging creative and changemaker voices.

Leveraging the constraints of the PechaKucha 20 x 20 presentation format, we mentor high school and college students in developing public-speaking confidence and presentation-design skills through the art of concise storytelling. This immersive learning experience requires each student to develop the following skills:

• information prioritization
• narrative arc development
• visual and narrative pairing
• layout design
• public presence
• voice technique

Carrying the spirit of PechaKucha into Story Me, we create a learning container which celebrates shared humanity and creativity. Story Me participants are encouraged to develop personalized and connective presentations, highlighting their creative work, perspective, culture, and heritage.

Each Story Me cohort presents their stories at a special “mini PechaKucha” at their own school. Finalists from these events are invited to join the line-up of community presenters in front of sold-out crowds at our PechaKucha Night Santa Fe gatherings at SITE Santa Fe.

Thank you to New Mexico School for the Arts helping us refine our curriculum experience. Our long-term vision for Story Me is to develop a learning toolkit for educators to empower emerging voices everywhere.