Story Stitchers erase real and perceived divisions through cultural exploration and arts practice — by stitching together our city.
ABOUT SAINT LOUIS STORY STITCHERS ARTISTS COLLECTIVE
Saint Louis Story Stitchers is a nationally recognized Artists Collective known for high quality art and innovative youth violence prevention programs.
Story Stitchers is committed to placing youth at the center of the work both in identifying topics for exploration as well as the methods for engagement. This approach builds a community of youth and professional artists who respect one another. Gun violence continues to be a pressing public health crisis that consumes the attention of the engaged youth, and artistic expression helps youth work through the pain and loss they have experienced.
Stitchers collect stories, reframe and retell them through art, writing and performance to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships and literacy. Projects create a platform for community engagement through an artistic lens and with it the Saint Louis Story Stitchers work to shift perceptions and realities and bring hope to the Saint Louis community. Our goal is to promote a better educated, more peaceful and caring region through storytelling.
History
Once upon a time there was a stitcher who liked to embroider stories from the newspaper. One day she was stitching about two sisters who were shot on their porch in University City. One sister died. Two brothers were arrested for the crime. The stitcher reflected on the power of stitching throughout history; of the Aids quilt and quilts on the Underground Railroad. She determined to join with others to create change. In August 2013 eight artists gathered in Old North St. Louis and founded the Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective — to make change.
Board of Directors
Susan Colangelo, President and Executive Director – susanc@storystitchers.org
Breona Butler, Vice President – Tausha Dirks, Secretary – Maggie Wu, CPA, Treasurer – Members At Large – Keisa M. Johnson, Esq. – Ben Kesler – Amanda Shields – Cassandria White – John A Wright, Jr.
We are here to #StandStrongStandTogether so every youth has a place for solace. Support. Contemplation. A place for self-expression.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers has Missouri State Tax Credits available!
THE CENTER IS OPEN!!!
New Center for Underserved Youth by Saint Louis Story Stitchers will support holistic music and arts education programs
16-24 years old livin’ in the St. Louis region? Wanna podcast with us?
Join Stitchers Youth Council! Earn $! Apply today!
Well, Friday night Hang Outs, podcasting, krump dance, auditions, performances, making music and a new music video complete with a tour bus trip! We’re creating, learning, growing, coming together to serve our City and create the change we want to see!!
Stitchers Youth Council has performed over 350 times since 2014 throughout St. Louis in cultural venues, parks and at block parties. Members are 16-24 years old social justice artists who work with adult mentors to generate high quality art that is aimed at moving the region to a healthier and happier future for all. Working on numerous awards including the prestigious Lewis Prize For Music, which has helped them drive towards the new larger social justice arts center, a CDC Foundation grant to create art to boost vaccine confidence amongst their peers, the SAFE! Team campaign created to bring awareness to unintentional shootings, and the City of St. Louis Youth at Risk Crime Prevention grant in 2021, 2022, and 2023, they are certain to have an important impact.
Story Stitchers has opened The Center, a space for creative youth development in Grand Center at the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s 3701 Grandel Square facility in Studio 1A (4,550 square feet) to expand youth services, partnerships, and community reach, helping to prevent community violence by intervening before it begins. Youth are heavily involved in the development of the nonprofit organization and feel strong ownership of it; it is the youth who determined the need for The Center and have championed for it to become a reality. The Center is supported in part by the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, where Saint Louis Story Stitchers is a resident arts organization.
Youth who have experienced support from Story Stitchers creative youth development programs have determined that creating a pilot facility, called The Center, will provide underserved teens and young adults with needed resources, including safe spaces to gather, friends that are anti-violence, culturally relevant mentors, youth stipends, and opportunities to speak out and serve as community leaders while gaining skills in organizing, listening, public speaking and leadership, thus aiding youth in lifting themselves up into productive employment and healthier adulthood, proactively reducing crime with community violence intervention.
The Center is supported in part by a 2021 $500,000 Accelerator Award to Saint Louis Story Stitchers from The Lewis Prize for Music, a philanthropic music arts organization advancing systems change through creative youth development. Funding gives young people access to music education, strengthens the well-being of their communities and puts music at the center of efforts to establish equity. Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective is using funds from The Lewis Prize for Music award to establish The Center and to grow its administrative and fundraising capacity.
UPCOMING
StitchCast Studio
StitchCast Studio is Story Stitchers’ award-winning youth-led podcast program.
Youth, 16-24 years old who join Stitchers Youth Council may apply for a New Podcaster 4-week introductory course, Alumni Podcasts, and ultimately live podcasting on stage through StitchCast Studio LIVE! Apply today!
Available on Podbean, Google Podcasts, apple podcasts, Spotify and Youtube.
DATES and PROGRAM TOPICS:
Tuesday, February 28, 2023, StitchCast will focus on Police Violence with Captain Edward Pierre Benoist, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023, StitchCast will focus on Youth and Sadness with guest Nicholas Wren, LPC, who specializes in working with boys and adolescent males.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, StitchCast will focus on Violence in Music.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023, StitchCast will focus on Youth Violence.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023, StitchCast Studio will focus on The Great Outdoors with Jean Ponzi, Green Resources Manager at EarthWays Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers StitchCast Studio LIVE! is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. On the web at arts dot gov.
Additional support is provided by The Lewis Prize For Music, Spirit oof St. Louis Women’s Fund, and Kranzberg Arts Foundation.
Reserve your seat today!
Youth bring raw experiences and are supported by regionally and nationally recognized black artists and scholars who work alongside the young activists through collaborative learning experiences inviting dialogue and generating raw, authentic works of art. Story Stitchers use music, spoken word, photography, videography, and dialogue to highlight stories related to trauma such as gun violence, life transitions, and mental health. The work promotes mutual respect for diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, and fosters understanding across the racial, socioeconomic, and age divisions of our region.
16-24 years old? Join Stitchers Youth Council! Learn more…and apply here
The WHY of MY City is a multi-year signature program that captures and documents pieces of black history through written word and art while training the next generation to become active, engaged citizens. Our goal is that programs become a force multiplier, rippling into families, schools, and neighborhoods, offering solutions to common urban problems.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers has commissioned playwright Mario Farwell to write a new script for The WHY of MY City, centering on St. Louis’s Black neighborhoods and historic figures. The new play will be presented to the public June 15 and 16, 2023, as part of Juneteenth celebration.
To learn more about opportunities to get involoved or to register to audition or interview, visit The WHY of MY City landing page HERE
Story Stitchers works throughout St. Louis and practices placekeeping – recognizing the value of place for the people who live and work in that space and working with residents and community members to enhance and respect the inherent values of that place.
The Shelter Project created a new mural and bus shelter for the Wellston Loop Community Development Corporation. Drive by and check it out on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. at Hodiamont. Map it at 1514 Hodiamont.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers is a 501(c)(3) public charity.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers has Missouri State Tax Credits available!
Through the Youth Opportunities Program (YOP), Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri state tax credits are available for monetary donations made to Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective. All donors would be eligible for a 50% Missouri state tax credit claimable against their Missouri state tax liability, however, there is a $500 minimum donation. For example, if you donate $1,000 you can claim a $500 credit off of your Missouri state income tax and control where your tax dollars go!
Donations must clear your bank by December 31st for tax credits.
Donations are greatly appreciated and support Story Stitchers youth programs. Please contact Susan Colangelo, Executive Director, at susanc@storystitchers.org to learn more.
Additional support for StitchCast Studio and Story Stitchers youth arts and humanities programs was provided by the Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund, The Lewis Prize for Music Accelerator Award, City of St. Louis Youth at Risk Crime Prevention grant of 2021, Lush Corporation’s The Charity Pot, St. Louis Violence Prevention Commission, ReCast, Kranzberg Arts Foundation, Regional Arts Commission, March for Our Lives Aid & Alliance, and The Equity Impact Award from the Bezos Family Foundation and Creative Reaction Lab, and the Arts & Education Council.
The Lewis Prize for Music announced Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective as a 2021 Awardee for the $500,000 Accelerator Award for youth music programs! We are proud to bring this home to #STL. Learn more…
Let the Saint Louis Story Stitchers Stitch YOUR STORY!
Thank you for your support!
We are here to #StandStrongStandTogether so every youth has a place for solace. Support. Contemplation. A place for self-expression.
The Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective is artists and urban youth ages 16-24, working together to create positive social change. Stitchers collect local stories and reframe and retell them through art, writing and performance to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships and literacy. Story Stitchers are honored to be a Resident Organization at Kranzberg Arts Foundation in the vibrant Grand Center Arts District.
Projects create a platform for community engagement through an artistic lens and with it the Saint Louis Story Stitchers work to shift perceptions and realities and bring hope to the Saint Louis community.
A social enterprise based on publishing supports the mission. The content is the stories of St. Louis. Content collectors are youth and artists. Partners are cultural and educational institutions across the city. Products are indigenous stories retold through performances and publications. Customers are the public, youth, educators, and tourists. The Story Stitchers message is peaceful co-existence and mutual respect.
Board of Directors
Susan Colangelo, President and Executive Director – susanc@storystitchers.org
Breona Butler, Vice President – Tausha Dirks, Secretary – Maggie Wu, CPA, Treasurer – Members At Large – Keisa M. Johnson, Esq. – Ben Kessler – Amanda Shields – Cassandria White – John A Wright, Jr.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or national guard status, handicap status, or any other factor prohibited by law in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in its programs and/or activities.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers is committed to ADA compliance. The Collective welcomes people with disabilities and subscribes to the goal of providing access to programs, services and facilities. The Collective’s goal is to integrate this philosophy into all activities: policies, guidelines, plans, budgets, funding proposals, meetings and outreach.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers wishes to make programming accessible to all. In-person events are held in ADA compliant facilities allowing those with mobility issues to participate. Please contact the executive director, Susan Colangelo at susanc@storystitchers.org if you have any additional requests to accommodate visual, hearing or other accessibility issues.
COVID POLICIES:
(Subject to change)
Approved by the Board of Directors March 4, 2022
- Masks are recommended but not required.
- If you are ill, feverish, have a runny nose or cough you are not permitted to attend.
- If someone appears ill, is coughing, sniffling, they may be asked to leave or to take a test.
- At home or free testing will be available if exposure to Covid has occurred or is suspected or if symptoms occur or are suspected.
- If Covid exposure occurs, City of St. Louis Department of Health guidelines for quarantines will be followed.
Free Covid Testing Next Door (16 year olds and up) at 3526 Washington Ave. Results in 15 mins.
Covid Policies Landing Page: https://storystitchers.org/covid-19-safety-policies-and-procedures/
