The first International Working-Class StoryFest (March 22-24, 2024) was three days of solidarity, joy, and celebration of working-class life showcased and told through working-class storytellers. The StoryFest happened through a Zoom track run from England with performers joining in from Scotland, Australia, Canada, Ireland, the US and elsewhere; and two on-ground events. The latter happened from pubs, one in Leicester, England with the Working-Class Theatre Makers, and one from Placerville, California, of poets, a live art painter, and a musician tributing working-class women at the Green Room bar. The Green Room event was also streamed live. On the whole, presentations included live acts of poetry, theatre, readings of creative nonfiction essays and short stories, recorded lecture/media mash-ups, interview conversations with authors, and scholarly presentations of research, creatively told, by and about working-class arts in various contexts.

Thanks to lead organizer, Lisa McKenzie, with the Working Class Collective and Working-Class Studies Association, for lighting a fire to make it happen and seeing it through. Thanks also to organizers Amber Hall, Orla O’Connor, Lucy Morris, Jen Vernon, Rina Wakefield, Sara Appel, and Sarah Attfield for behind the scenes work building the event, on-ground and online. Watch the videos below for a recap of some of the presentations that happened during the festival, and get inspired to co-organize another one!

(videos forthcoming)