About Season 28: On Purpose

What a time to be alive.

As I write this, the air quality in Chicago has been called “the worst in the world”. It is hazardous to go outside because of the heat, because of the smoke, because of the assault on our rights and our bodies being unleashed by the people in power in this nation.

Every year, as we enter into a new season and consider the stories we wish to share, we ask ourselves: What does THIS moment need? What feels the most urgent to us right now? What does art—and specifically the art of storytelling—have to offer the world in this time?

This year, the conclusion we came to is: Stories are one of the things that can ground us in our purpose. They remind us of our why. Stories ensure that we don’t forget the past. They remind us of who we are and where we come from. They help us dig deep as we reimagine our future.

This is not a moment where we can just stick to the status quo, just wait and see. This is a time that we need to make choices with purpose. We need to build community on purpose. We need to seek out stories that challenge our thinking and grow our capacity for empathy on purpose.

And that is the theme that we have selected for 2nd Story’s 28th Season: On Purpose.

On Purpose is a season of storytelling that explores how we can live our lives with intention—from the families we forge to the choices we make to how we stand up for ourselves (and others). We invite you to join us for our storytelling performances, classes, and community events, where we examine what it means to build our lives on purpose in a threshold time like this one.