Storytelling Through the Arts and Reflection (STAR)

Welcome to STAR: Storytelling through the Arts and Reflection. At the cosmic crossroads of dreaming/becoming, social and planetary healing, we are looking for your submissions!

At UNCSA, we live in the practices of the creative and performing arts, the humanities and crafts. We are uniquely prepared to tell our stories. Share your narratives in all mediums, your self-reflections and your explorations of identity and cultural social transformations.

What began as a class project for students in Dr. Ellen Rosenberg’s Narrative Medicine and Creativity and the Artist classes, STAR now accepts submissions from UNCSA students, faculty and staff.

SUBMIT YOUR WORK

Below, explore a series of student responses to the personal challenges they experience as artists, craftspeople, master technicians and performers while attending a conservatory.

Poetry Chapbook 2022

Collection of poems from students in Ellen Rosenberg's Spring 2022 Poetry Workshop course in the Division of Liberal Arts.

Anonymous: Something I'm Insecure About

Something I'm insecure about, figure it out.

Taylor Pinney: Letter from Brain to Body

My submission is centered around the topic of body dysmorphia and the affects the brain has on the body. I choose to do this in the form of a letter from the body to the brain.

Murphy Applin: Scarves

I used to wear scarves on my head everyday of first year, as I was exploring my own femininity then. And then, I stopped wearing them for a long time. Today, I am working to get my confidence in them back.

Julia Shoffner: Inside the Mask

The personal aspect of how outside influences and internal feelings affect mentality and different ways that makes people perceive themselves.

Mahalet Andargachew: Roses

Encapsulating, the sickly sweet smell of roses awakens my senses, but my piercing branches trap me inside.

Isabel Rodriguez: Rebirth of a Mask

An abstract personal reflection on trauma and life through the lens of a dreamlike environment and faceless protagonist.

Kennedy Jackson: The strife of a black girl's life

A poem reflecting on how society treats black women from a black woman's personal point of view.

May Kawashima: Togetherness

"Bittersweet yet contended / Simple yet complicated / Always giving and never expect / Now is the time for self respect"

Kenzie Sawyer: What Lies Beneath

Sometimes what we see on the outside isn't always what lies beneath. Even as beautiful as the people in our lives see us what we are inside still is always there.