Where I'm Coming From
What if we took a walk in other people's words?
Where I’m Coming From is an experience designed to build empathy by speaking other people’s perspectives in first-person.
Inspired by South Africa’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission and commissioned by San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, participants first write testimonies about a specific issue. Then they’re invited to speak each other’s testimonies aloud, as if they are their own.
Where I’m Coming From has been facilitated in diverse settings on diverse issues — from a small Monterey diner immediately after the 2016 election, to Facebook HQ between members of its social science team and outside social scientists.
This short video illustrates the first installation of Where I’m Coming From — at the Yerba Buena Center in 2016: