Join Rae Garringer of Country Queers and Out in the Open staff members for a five-day audio storytelling retreat with other rural LGBTQ+ people living in eastern Wabanaki territory//Maine! A group of 10 participants will spend time getting to know one another through story circles and writing prompts. We’ll explore hands-on audio recording techniques and listen to a variety of audio-storytelling styles (from oral history to audio diaries). And we’ll work together to produce 2-5 minute audio shorts. Built into the week will be plenty of time to relax, laugh, and rest together in a beautiful setting.

This is a five-day retreat Monday-Friday, November 11-15, 2024.

There will be an optional zoom meet-up for participants to get to know each other before November as well.

Participants will receive a $400 stipend for completing the five-day retreat. Additionally, we can offer transportation support, a childcare stipend, and all meals and lodging will be provided.

We will share more location details with participants when the group is confirmed. For now, we’re happy to share that we’ll be on a rural property in a Washington County, Maine town within 30 minutes of Machias.

Rae Garringer (they/them) is a writer, oral historian, and audio producer who grew up on a sheep farm in southeastern West Virginia, and now lives a few counties away on S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) and Šaawanwaki (Shawnee) lands. They are the founder of Country Queers, a multimedia oral history project documenting rural and small town LGBTQIA2S+ experiences since 2013, and the author and editor of Country Queers: A Love Letter (forthcoming October 8, 2024 from Haymarket Books). When not working with stories, Rae spends a lot of time failing at keeping goats in fences, swimming in the river, and two-stepping around their trailer. They are a hermit introvert who is resolutely committed to rural people and places, most especially the central Appalachian region.

Both our Power & Belonging Program Director, Grace, and our Executive Director, HB, will be there! Other OITO staff may join as well. Learn more about them here.

Staff will be joined for the week with Michele Christle.

Michele writes about culture, ecology, and place. Her work has been published in Eater, Down East, Insider, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. She served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon, received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMass Amherst, and has worked extensively in nonprofit storytelling and communications. Michele is a producer and facilitator for StoryCorps’ One Small Step program through WERU Community Radio and a founding member of Torchlight Media, a community-based multimedia studio. In 2024, Michele was awarded a Bodwell Fellowship and a residency at Hewnoaks. She lives in midcoast Maine and is currently working on a book and an experimental documentary (with filmmaker Eli Kao) about elvers/glass eels.

Yes! We held an similar audio retreat in western Wabanaki territory//Southern Vermont in 2023. And we have held many similar gatherings before that, too. In 2021, Out in the Open & Country Queers collaborated on a 6-month audio project with community members (many working in audio for the first time) that was 100% virtual and resulted in the second season of the Country Queers podcast.

Out in the Open has similarly held 9 overnight, multi-day Summits for Rural LGBTQ+ people since 2015 ranging in group size from 35-100. Including a day-long community oral history workshop facilitated by Rae.

This iteration of the Audio Retreat is supported by funding from the New Pluralists and their Healing Starts Here grant. It is additionally supported by Out in the Open’s general budget made up of donations from our fabulous community.

This gathering is for 2SLGBTQIA+ people currently living in Maine who are 18 years old or older.

We encourage applicants from the immediate local area in an around Washington County, Maine //Passamaquoddy territory

If that’s not you, please join us for a different upcoming gathering.

[UPDATE: Submissions will be accepted until 11:59pm on Wednesday September 25] Complete and submit this form by 11:59PM (Eastern time) on September 23, 2024. OITO Staff will notify you of your acceptance by September 30, 2024.

If you prefer or if it's more accessible to you, applications may be completed via verbal/audio submission. The ways we are asking for verbal submissions are by applicants recording responses to the application questions on Zoom (your camera does not need to be on) or recording audio responses via phone voice memo app, and then emailing the files to info@weareoutintheopen.org. 

No! We’ll have equipment you can use available.

Reach out to us and we’ll be happy to discuss! Info@WeAreOutintheOpen.org.