2018.05.07 Outsider Witnesses

An audience (of outsider witnesses) is invited to listen and reflect on a person’s stories about themselves and their preferred ways of being. Inspired by Barbara Myerhoff’s work with older Jewish people in California, Michael White developed outsider witnessing practices. These practices create opportunities to invite an audience to witness people’s preferred identity stories. In outsider witnessing, one or several people are invited to join a session. The session is a structured interview that seeks to provide an approach to “give witness to” a person’s experience and wisdom around some aspect of their story or journey. The process invites others into a practice of ‘acknowledgment’ and reflection that can enrich the participants’ appreciation and possibilities that lie within the witnessing experience.