Rabbit Box

Hey Folks!

You’ve waited patiently and now the time is here to lay out our ground rules for our Nesting storytelling continuum – with the classic evocative questions of “what, when, where, how, and why”:

WHAT: A project that will chronicle the tales, experiences, and lives of Athens area and surrounding community members during this time of crisis. Stories don’t need to pertain directly to this time – maybe you’d like to tell us about what your favourite thing to do before was, where you made your first “nest”, the “nest” you lost, or something you can’t bring home anymore. Whatever comes to mind, as long as it fits our “nesting” theme. Stories can be in the form of a video, an audio recording, written work, photographs, visual art, or anything else that illustrates your story of “nesting”.

WHEN: This project spans from now until further notice. We’ll be posting stories as we get them on our social media – so make sure you follow us and turn your notifications on for new posts!

WHERE: The digital realm. We have created a drive for you to upload your stories and they’ll be posted on our blog and social media.

HOW: Send us your 3-5 minute stories on Facebook messenger, through email at rabbitboxstories@gmail.com, or upload them to our Google Drive folder that we have created just for this project (as long as you promise not to peak at the other stories in there) which we have linked at the end of this post. Stories can be any medium of your choosing, as long as they are, in fact, a story. No rants, essays, or lobbying at this time please (thems the breaks, folks). When you submit your work, you’ll be sent a quick consent form saying that you do agree to have this posted on social media and you won’t sue us etc. etc. etc. If you can please let us know when you send them if they are child/teen appropriate or not, we’ll make sure and tag them accordingly. We’d like to have some things the wee folks can interact with considering so many of us now have them at home full time – and kids do say the darndest things.

WHO: The person reading this! Or someone you know! Anyone can submit any story going along with the theme. Please let us know if you’d like to share anonymously. Otherwise, we will make sure to give you full storytelling credit.

WHY: Rabbit Box Storytelling provides a forum for the Athens Area to share and hear stories in order to strengthen and celebrate our diverse community. This doesn’t end when we cannot meet in person. And rather than stop everything we had been doing, we decided to make a new thing- and we are excited to work with you to craft it!

So that is it! Please, send us your stories and let us share in this moment of community with each other. And just so you know our board also has skin in the game – we will be posting our own stories throughout the project. So be on the lookout Sunday night when our first example comes out!

Here is the link to the google drive folder for uploads (email is also fine!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OYuPHMfLDW4y5qGTObNcSRcNGkiz7Tgf

Dear Rabbit Box family,

When our board met remotely this week to discuss the next few months, we realized that the upcoming theme — Nesting — applies to all of us right now and others in our beloved community. We have faced the hard decision to cancel our upcoming April show. But we will not despair in this time of crisis – in fact, we have come up with a plan that we think will help bring us together in this time of separation.

We’ve decided to experiment with Rabbit Box in a new form until the risk of getting together subsides.

We want to capture this historic period of life in Athens and surrounding areas and stay connected while we all hunker down and stay safe. Perhaps you have a story about something new you’re trying or how you’re adjusting to work or schooling online or how you’re helping others during this time.

Our mission statement holds in the digital realm: Rabbit Box Storytelling provides a forum for the Athens area to hear and share stories in order to celebrate and strengthen our diverse community.

Soon we’ll be asking for 3-5 minute story submissions in any way you’d like to share with us – be it your audio recording, video or written stories. You can share photos and artwork, too, so that we can all chronicle our lives while we’re nesting to keep others and our families safe.

We’ll be getting back to you on Saturday the 29th at noon about how and where to submit. We just wanted to let you know we’re all in this together and that Rabbit Box will — like all of Athens and our nation — be stronger than ever before too long! So be on the lookout for our next update!

Stay safe!

Always,
The Rabbit Box Engineers

Rabbit Box kicked off the new year and new decade with a fitting theme: Hindsight is 2020. Emcee Chris Shupe of WUGA, with his resonant radio voice and outgoing personality, wore an outfit fit for a king, an homage to his former 30-year career as an Elvis Presley tribute artist.

The first storyteller of the night, Michelle, described a stint in Portland, a place that had appeared to be the promised land when she and her husband shopped around for a new place to live. But those long months of rain and a baby wracked with croup were tough. She got through the darkest part, but later, news of an associate’s suicide served as catalyt for her to make a phone call she had postponed.

Jeff shared a perfectly polished reflection on his 20th high school reunion. A transformative mountain hike gave him a long perspective on the turns his life had taken. He said that at some point you have to get busy living or busy dying. When he reached the mountain peak, he saw the many obstacles he had been able to surmount and decided to get busy doing something.

Christy Lin opened with the song lyrics “Que sera, sera . . .whatever will be, will be” and encouraged the audience to sing along. She credits behavioral and stress therapy for helping her heal from a traumatic childhood. She chooses to be a survivor shining light on the darkness instead of remaining a victim to the darkness.

Hannah Angel admitted in a story about one of her dating “hiccups” that a guy who had seemed like the long-awaited perfect match for her did exhibit some red flags early on. He sure was hyper-focused on her weight and waistline.

Crackerjack Katie McDourmout is a newlywed. Her husband chose Vietnam as their honeymoon spot. While some aspects of the trip were taxing, the sweet part is that even in hindsight, she would still choose to go there.

Entomologist Paul G tucked a little science into his story as he described a couple of experiments gone awry. In hindsight he realized he could have more effectively managed the studies’ cast of characters that included 10,000 lady beetles and 100,000 aphids.

After his first encounter with overt racism at eight years old as one of the few African-American students in a mostly Caucasian school, Stevie King began a personal journey of cultural identity, navigating the racial dichotomy of black and white. Now as an adult he prides himself in being able to fit in regardless of where he is or who he is with and encouraged the audience to have some diversity in their friendship groups.

Robin ended the night saying that hindsight can be both a blessing and a curse. When her child brought up an embarrassing ordeal from her past in front of everyone at a church fellowship meal, she turned it into a teachable moment. In hindsight, her son gave her the gift of redeeming her story in the same way she feels church redeems her soul.