The Power of Storytelling | Robert Ordway | TEDxGary

Quick Overview

Robert Ordway's TEDxGary talk, "The Power of Storytelling," argues that storytelling is uniquely human and crucial for motivating, inspiring, and shaping the narrative of communities like Gary, Indiana, drawing lessons from his family's Southern agrarian tradition and their migration north to the industrial city.

Key Points: Storytelling is uniquely human, capable of motivating, inspiring, seducing, or causing anger, and it dictates the outcome of a community's narrative. Gary, IN, was the 1993 "Murder Capital of the Nation," a statistic that has carried a stain, though the city's demographic story changed significantly after the 1950s. Ordway's family narrative is rooted in the Southern agrarian tradition (faith, family, community), contrasting with the industrial North where his father worked at US Steel. The Great Migration saw many Southern whites, like Ordway's family, move north, sharing cultural traits like an 'honor culture' despite racial differences with Black migrants. The decline of industry (deindustrialization) and the rise of nihilistic algorithms challenge the need for genuine human connection and narrative control. Ordway emphasizes the need for residents to actively tell Gary's story to shape its future, citing examples like Mayor Eddie Melton and the city's current population stabilization.

Context: Robert Ordway delivers a TEDxGary talk focusing on the enduring power of storytelling, contrasting his own family's background rooted in the Southern agrarian tradition of Kentucky with the industrial reality of Gary, Indiana, where his family migrated for work. He uses this personal history, alongside historical data on the Great Migration, to illustrate how narratives—both personal and civic—shape perception and drive outcomes, particularly for cities like Gary that face negative stereotypes.

Detailed Analysis

Robert Ordway begins by asserting the unique power of storytelling to motivate, inspire, and even control a community's narrative, noting that this power was evident in his own life, starting with his family's Southern agrarian upbringing in Kentucky, where oral narrative was central. He contrasts this with his father working at US Steel in Gary, Indiana, a city once deemed the "Murder Capital of the Nation" in 1993. Ordway highlights the Great Migration, noting that Southern whites, like his family who moved in 1956, shared cultural similarities with Southern Black migrants, despite racial lines, and both groups struggled with the shift to Northern industrial life. He points to the statistical decline of Gary post-deindustrialization in the 1980s and the rise of impersonal, "nihilistic algorithms" online, which threaten authentic human storytelling. Ordway argues that the challenge today is for residents to actively reclaim and promote a positive narrative for Gary—a "Greater Gary"—by embracing its authentic story of faith, family, and community, rather than letting external, negative narratives persist. He cites his own political involvement and the work of local figures like Mayor Eddie Melton as examples of taking control of the city's story.