Published on
Updated on
September 11, 2025
The Cambio Center is excited to share that we have granted eight incredible awards to keep the Cambio Storytelling Festival alive throughout the year! One of them is for a special storytelling event called Raices y Recuerdos, which was awarded to a community-based Latina moms-led support group. Another, called Alomi pa pa pa – Tales by Moonlight Across Oceans, centers on the oral storytelling traditions of the Igala people, a vibrant Nigerian ethnic group whose diaspora thrives in Missouri, particularly in Columbia.
An important focus of the awards is to support interactions between long-time residents of Missouri and newer residents from refugee, Asian-American, Latin American, and African backgrounds.
Please check back often for the exact date and time of these amazing, public storytelling events. So far, our list includes:
- September 12-21 (Welcoming Week), and other dates, Columbia, MO: Story Circle Workshops with Refugee Community Leaders. During the fall, there will be workshops facilitated by Cambio Fellow Dr. Melissa Hauber-Özer held at refugee-serving organizations to engage all community members to learn and listen from refugee stories.
- October 4, 24, & 30, virtual: Expresión Story Circles 2025. These storytelling events, hosted by the Latinx Education Collaborative (Kansas City, MO) and Storytellers for Change, are designed to celebrate and amplify the stories of Latinx educators.
- October 9, Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, MO: Nuestra Comunidad, Nuestras Historias (Our Community, Our Stories). Here, “St. Louisans will share their personal stories in a way that promises to stir emotions, spark laughter, and invite moments of reflection and connection.”
- October 14, Carthage, MO: La Feria Del Taco. As part of the Maple Leaf Festival, this event will include mariachi and stories from bilingual students.
- March 31, St. Louis, MO: Sharing Your Journey: A Storytelling Festival of Change, Empowerment, and Immigration. UMSL plans to welcome back storyteller Nestor Gomez to lead workshops at their culminating celebration for Women’s Month 2026.
- TBA, January-March, St. Louis, MO: Stories of Resilience – An Asian American Legacy. As a companion to the national traveling exhibit, Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy, sponsored by the St. Louis Japanese American Citizens League at the STL Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, this storytelling workshop will develop greater access and interactions between storytelling experts and Asian American residents, focusing on the theme of resilience.
The Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) awarded a grant of $25,000 to the Cambio Center in support of this storytelling project titled “Migration and Missouri: Sharing Stories to Connect to Each Other and Our Ever-Changing Communities.” The MHC is the only statewide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. It has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1971. Read our press release here.
