Dear World, a national portrait project, brought their group to UW-Madison Tuesday to ask all members of campus one question: “If you had one story to share with the world, what would you say?”
Students, faculty and staff were invited to Gordon Commons to write these messages somewhere on their bodies and have their photo taken by executive producer Jonah Evans. Individuals could not write their messages on themselves?participants told their stories while having others write on them. That is how Dear World attempts to bring people together at a deep level, according field producer and post-production supervisor Tori McCarthy.
“The idea is that we all have stories of losses, joys, triumphs and things like that,” McCarthy said. “We feel that all those stories should be heard, and believe people have more stories in common than we have different.”
The photo gallery collected throughout the day premiered later in the evening at a storytelling event. The Dear World team shared the story behind their organization, and five UW-Madison students chosen by the group throughout the day explained the meaning behind their body messages.
Special Assistant to the Vice President of Student Life and Chair of the Bias Response Team Joshua Moon Johnson was inspired to bring Dear World to UW-Madison after experiencing it in New Orleans, where the project started. He worked with Dean of Students Lori Berquam and various student organizations, including Wisconsin Union Directorate Society and Politics, to bring the project to campus.
“I hear a lot of negative things from students who do not feel included in the community,” Johnson said. “I thought this would be a positive thing to start the school year off with, where students can learn from one another and find ways that we can connect on a human level.”
Omar Jandal, a UW-Madison junior and Director of WUD Society and Politics, said that their group was eager to be involved in putting together Dear World’s appearance.
“The goal of our group is to recognize that everyone has a story,” Jandal said. “Our role on campus is to bring that outside of the classroom learning and get those stories out there so that while people may not necessarily agree with each other they should at least honor each other’s story. There are so many different views and expressions on this huge campus that we want to show through this event.”
Dear World has taken photos all over the world, including residents of a refugee camp in Syria and former child slaves in India. Now, they are starting a tour of colleges around the country and hope to continue expanding until they have international team members. The photos from the UW-Madison event will be posted on all their social media accounts in two weeks. Johnson believes that this will inspire students to get to know one another and keep that going for months into this school year.
“[Students] will meet people who are different from them in some way,” Johnson said. “They’ll learn a deeper story because sometimes you can’t just look at someone and know their story. This is going to spark a conversation with people … I think this will help students make deeper connections quicker.”
