Showcase, storytelling, and youth experience

By Jacob Halper

Fall is a time of reflection and transition. In my work as a 4-H educator, the county fair is over, many youth went on to state-level showcases, and we begin planning for the new year. As we reflect on the past year, many focus on the county fair and how to improve it. The article The County Fair as Celebration and Cultural Text captures the beauty of the chaos so simply as, "Periods of intense excitement alternate with periods of intense calm." Intensity is something I believe resonates with all youth development professionals. For many the hard part is the calm, but it is important to stop and intentionally explore the story that was told amidst that intensity.

The county fair is a time of connection, reconnection, and public display. In Minnesota 4-H we often use the language of “showcase”. These youth showcases represent another concept I am familiar with: youth storytelling. Stories and storytelling come in as much variety in their definition as their actual content. Storytelling could be about literacy, but I prefer a larger definition that captures the human experience. In defining storytelling I am careful to make sure it is inclusive, with room for further development, rather than rigid in structure. 

Storytelling here is exploring one’s identity, of progression, and then somehow sharing that experience with others. At the fair, this may be the story of a youth showing a dairy steer, or perhaps they share their story through a photograph taken. Youth storytelling is also in the conversations held before meetings or in icebreakers at summer camps. Youth storytelling is more than literacy, it is an act of expression. Youth development programs become a place that encourages youth to develop as storytellers.

If youth development is truly the focus of our program then we need to be active listeners to the youth as they share their stories. Professionals can encourage youth to share their story and support them as they continue through the progression of their own story. Creating opportunities not just for youth to share their stories, but for other youth and adults to engage with them is an essential but often implicit part of an event like the county fair.

The county fair is an example of stories becoming shared, but also becoming interconnected. This occurs in every youth development program across the nation; youth develop their individual stories, and sharing those stories presents an opportunity for one new story to be told. This story becomes the story of our program. 

So many youth development professionals can resonate with this idea because we often get a chance to explain it in the question, "What do you do?" Professionals know what makes their program’s story special, however, public events like a county fair are when the program’s story intersects with the community we reside in. What story are the youth in your program telling, and to whom are they telling that story?

-- Jacob Halper, Extension educator

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