Opening Doors to Literature: People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos

Abstract

People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos (P&S/GyC) is a non-profit literacy outreach organization with headquarters in the U.S. state of New Jersey (https://peopleandstories.org/). P&S/GyC is guided by a belief in the power of literature to positively impact transitioning populations, such as halfway house residents, immigrants working toward citizenship, and veterans reintegrating into civilian life. Homeless parents and senior citizens are also invited to participate in P&S/GyC’s reading programs, which include oral readings and seminar-style discussions of literary short stories. The stories chosen for P&S/GyC programs typically embody the best qualities of enduring literature: artistic richness, explorations of life complexities, wonders, and ambiguities. Participants learn to connect knowledge synthesized from their own life experiences with stories under discussion in an atmosphere of trust established by trained facilitators. P&S/GyC’s beginnings date back to 1972, when founder Sarah Hirschman invited a group of Puerto Rican women in Cambridge, Massachusetts to engage with their cultural heritage through reading literature in their first language—Spanish. English reading groups were added to P&S/GyC’s design in 1986, and today the program collaborates with social service organizations, such as the Harvard Humanities and Liberal Arts Assessment Lab, and other partner sites in the states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. In 2016, the National Endowment for the Humanities recognized the extraordinary work of P&S/GyC by funding a 30-month expansion program called “Reading Deeply in Community,” partnering with ten public library systems around the country.