Q&A: Folklorist Kiran Singh Sirah

Kiran Singh Sirah, a public folklorist and former president of the International Storytelling Center, discusses his background as the grandson of Indian freedom fighters and son of Ugandan refugees, and how that shaped a career using storytelling to bridge divides.

He recounts organizing an interfaith folk festival in Scotland after attacks on a synagogue and mosque, working in Northern Ireland on sectarian divides, and training troops at Fort Benning, framing storytelling as a tool for empathy and civic healing.

He closes by describing Appalachia as a living repository of oral tradition, arguing that rural communities already model the kind of listening the wider country needs.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.