3.2 Story Mapping: Story Lines, Story Circles, and ESRI Story Maps

more. Residents also shared concerns about park improvements and maintenance, sidewalks that are too small to use, poorly equipped bus stops, traffic safety, and both violent and non-violent crime – all issues that make them hesitant to walk, bike, and spend time in their neighborhood’s public spaces. In general, participants shared hope that neighborhood spaces would continue to improve, and that community assets in the parks and neighborhood schools could be improved to create more opportunities for young people, in particular. Findings from the activity are represented in two story maps – one focused on VMF, and one that integrates participatory mapping results with secondary GIS data. vi

3.2 STORY MAPPING: STORY LINES, STORY CIRCLES, AND ESRI STORY MAPS Embracing the power of stories in cultivating community and building social movements, Valverde Movement Fest included two key storytelling activities: the Story Line and Story Circles.

Figure 4. Story Telling Activities: The Story Line and Story Circles

In the Story Line activity, neighbors could complete one or more story cards sharing a memory reflecting on the who, what, when, and where of Valverde. They could then add their card(s) to the collective Valverde Story Line, a clothesline-timeline upon which photos of landmark events were also hung, both to name harm and center community vitality. These timeline markers helped set the stage for neighbors’ stories of resilience, resistance, and regeneration.

Forty-one story cards were completed at the event. Some cards captured brief anecdotes about people and places of importance, like the insights recorded through the mapping activity. Other cards reflected rich and revealing stories from the more distant past, like this one from a man remembering his teenage years living in Valverde in the 1960s and 1970s, when his parents, Fred and Elaine Ullibari, were active community-builders and activists in the Chicano Movement:

“We would ride around the neighborhood often times making friends, building up our community and looking out for those in harm’s way. In fact, it was common place for us to stop and help the senior citizens, rake a lawn, or throw their trash. … We were teachers of sorts, and bike mechanics – bikers were being served each day, all teaching each other whenever wrenching on our bikes, working to add a seat, and even building bikes from the ground up. If we did not know how to do something we would engage my father or our neighbor George next door. We had so much fun, sometimes riding through the alleys picking apples and from overgrown gardens that grew into the alleys. The backyard alleys in Valverde are so cool, always common place for us to hang out when we were kids.” Midway through the event, all participants were invited to join “Story Circles” a small-group, one-hour, facilitated story sharing activity to explore memories and hopes for Valverde while building connections to fellow neighbors. Through this process we gathered 26 oral histories from neighbors, ranging from stories about the 1965 flood, Florence Crittenton High School (for teenage mothers), a favorite restaurant, and a long walk through the neighborhood to the park.

The “Valverde’s Past” online story map integrates some of the personal narratives (both text and audio clips) with archival research and other historical accounts of West Denver, including recognition of the original inhabitants and caretakers of the “Green Valley” for which Valverde is named. This story map includes stories of displacement – from stories of settler colonialism to gentrification – as well as stories of resistance, resilience, and socio-ecological regeneration.

Figure 5. Valverde’s Past: Origin stories of a Green Valley