Hi there,
314 Day is approaching, so it feels like a good time to give thanks to a city and region full of beautiful stories. A quick aside if you aren’t from the area: 314 day (aka March 14th aka Pi Day) is a day to celebrate the St. Louis area (whose primary area code is 314).

When I moved to St. Louis in July 2012, I knew very little about this city. I told myself I could live anywhere for two years and would enjoy this new adventure. This July I will have lived in St. Louis for 12 years. I built a life here. I met some of my best friends here. I met my wife here. And I started Campfire here.

It’s hard to imagine starting Campfire anywhere else. St. Louis Design Week gave us a spot on their calendar to try this new storytelling thing we were experimenting with. Chris Daming of Legal GPS, helped get our LLC set up through a services barter to test out his new startup’s tool. Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts helped us protect Campfire and the storytellers. The Central Library hosted our first run of events under the Campfire banner. That list doesn’t even include all the individual efforts and other organizations who’ve so graciously supported our work along the way.

Not to mention the four wonderful St. Louisans who make up our newest class of Fellows who will share their stories and lead the upcoming 14th season of Campfire. More on that further down this email.

So here’s to St. Louis, to the 314, to the gateway to the West. We couldn’t have done it with you.

Until next time,
Steven

Announcing our Campfire Fellows

Our 2024 Campfire Fellows are (from left to right) Marissa Brooks, Jessica Gazzola, Jude Hagene, and Chris Santillan! We just had our first ever Campfire Fellows retreat, and feel privileged to continue building this cohort and illuminating their journey of wisdom discovery and storytelling. Keep an eye out for more information about their upcoming events soon.

Stand out stories

Our Program Manager Jessica is reading Anne of Green Gables for the first time through Audible! It is such a delight, the characters are really quirky and endearing. Lucy Maud Montgomery is an expert at painting a mental picture. This is one of her favorite parts so far: “Matthew dreaded all women except Marilla and Mrs. Rachel; he had an uncomfortable feeling that the mysterious creatures were secretly laughing at him. He may have been quite right in thinking so[…] in fact, he had looked at twenty very much as he looked at sixty, lacking a little of the grayness.”

Our Content Designer (aka resident writer) Amma is finding herself continually blown away by the beauty, the thoughtfulness, and creativity of form in Ava DuVernay’s new film Origin. It’s based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 meditation on injustice and inequality Caste, a book said by many to be “unadaptable.” The final result is a fantastic example of what film can do – a powerful reminder of how we can and should relate to one another, and how we can take important lessons from the past in doing so.

Our Operations and Engagement lead Mariah recently finished the novella A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. It’s short enough to read in a day, especially if you are as captivated by it as Mariah was. Think science fiction but optimistic! In fact, one of Mariah’s friends described it as “a warm hug.”

Our Executive Director Steven has been on a tear with GQ’s “[Insert performers name] Breaks Down Their Most Iconic Characters.” As he is writing this, he has Donald Glover/Childish Gambino’s episode on in the background. He loves hearing the story behind the story.