COLUMBIA — Storyteller Laura Simms
adopted Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, Africa, after they met at a
UN conference on children affected by war more than a decade ago. Beah, now a best-selling author, and his mother will bring their story to
Columbia as a part of the program "Telling Stories,
Changing Lives" this week.
Beah's story is "about how art affects life and how finding his voice
helped him reclaim some of what was taken from him. That's remarkable for anyone," said Milbre Burch, Columbia storyteller and founder of Kind Crone Productions, which launched the effort to bring Beah to the community.
The aim of "Telling Stories, Changing Lives" is to show how
storytelling can be used as a vehicle for healing those who have
experienced the traumas of war and violence. Beah and Simms will
discuss their experiences and how telling
stories helped Beah heal from the horrors he lived through.
"We have children in this city who grow up experiencing
violence that comes into their lives without their asking," Burch said. "They need to
hear the story of a boy who lost everything, came through hell and
found a way to come out intact on the other side."
Beah, 28, wrote "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," about his journey from his bleak life as a
child soldier with the Sierra Leone government army, taking drugs,
watching "Rambo" movies and performing his duties in the killing
fields. Beah was eventually released and
rehabilitated at a UNICEF center.
"The struggles of any human
in a wartime situation are important to share," said Kim Coke, director of student development at Columbia College, the lead institution on the grant that is bringing Beah and Simms to Columbia. More than a dozen groups are supporting the visit.
Coke and Laura Ford-Brown, who teaches speech and communication at the college, spearheaded the effort, which is holding several of the events associated with "Telling Stories, Changing Lives." The events, a majority of which are free and public, start Wednesday and include lectures, workshops, lunches and a storytelling concert by Simms. "Telling Stories, Changing Lives" will also serve as the National Storytelling Network South Central Regional Conference.
"We need to know that we can help one another by opening our hearts to one another's stories," Burch said. "('Telling Stories, Changing Lives') is an opportunity to shine a light on applied storytelling that the community might not know."