Unbelonging & the Self-Perpetuating Cycle of Shame | Julie Batten | TEDxSalemStateUniversity

We are living in a culture of shame; never before have so many people in America felt such a keen sense of unbelongingness - a sort of literal and figurative homelessness. Professor Julie Batten shares her experience of teaching students to find connection through literature, to tap into the unspoken, the secrets, the source of our individual and collective shame and release it onto the page, to use the art & craft of storytelling to move beyond trauma. Julie Batten is a visiting instructor at Salem State University and founder of the Glass House Shelter Project, a grassroots organization that brings college reading and writing courses into homeless shelters. She is the recipient of the Presidents’ Creative Economies grant from The University of Massachusetts Boston and co-editor of the forthcoming Shame: An Anthology, a collection of stories, essays and poems about shame. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx