Diverse Individuals and Communities

No individual or community consists of a single story. We do great damage to ourselves and others when we respond as if only a single story exists. We will begin this two-week class with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story.” We will then examine two short stories by Sandra Cisneros: “Eleven” and “Little Miracles, Kept Promises.” The voices in these stories remind us that we—as individuals and members of various communities—are shaped by a montage of experiences, struggles and dreams. Consequently, these stories remind us not to settle for the limitations of a single story.