Representation Matters – Humans of St. Louis: The Story Behind the Stories

How do we tell stories about our community? What do these stories tell us about local needs, issues, and experiences? Join us for a conversation with Humans of St. Louis (HOSTL) co-founder, lead storyteller, and book author, Lindy Drew, who documents the people of her city through photography and first-person stories. Her work highlights the human experience and shines a light on broader topics, from health and education to racial equity. Drew will share details about approaching, interviewing, and photographing strangers on the street, and what crafting original and local content in the HOSTL style has meant for her audience. She’ll talk about professional and personal experiences storytelling since Ferguson and through the pandemic up until now, and how social work, public health, and documentary portraiture play crucial roles in her body of work. Finally, through published examples, she’ll teach how to approach and invite people to tell their own stories, how to ask better questions, and how to be a better listener.

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This program is part of the Representation Matters Series hosted by Arizona Humanities and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

After studying at the University of Arizona and the International Center of Photography, Lindy traveled for three years in Latin America to share people’s stories in the spirit of documentary photography. Upon returning to the U.S., she worked with Casa de Sueños in Phoenix to help care for unaccompanied undocumented minors and reunify them with their family in the states. Lindy graduated in May 2016 from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis with a Masters of Social Work and Public Health. During her education, she co-founded Humans of St. Louis to have a creative break from classes while getting to better know St. Louis from meeting people on the street. By engaging strangers in insightful personal interviews, the HOSTL team and her produce visual stories that represent part of the larger community conversations and regional development taking place in St. Louis. Lindy produces new content for HOSTL’s online presence, presents about the art of storytelling, and manages the book project’s local creative content team.