Why are stories important? Humans seek meaning by asking questions. Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? Humans are also storytellers. Asking questions and telling stories in reply are how humans make sense of their experience. As Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live”.
The American Tapestry Project explores Americans; sense making and story-telling as they negotiate the passage to now since 1968, when Smithsonian magazine said “America shattered”. What shattered? The American story, or the consensus that there ever was such a thing. If the story shattered, so too did the culture. The ensuing culture wars so famously declared by Pat Buchanan at the 1992 Republican Convention contest whose story will define the culture, who will define freedom at home and abroad; who will define freedom’s Fault lines; who will define the American dream; who will define the immigrant’s tale; who will decide who is excluded, who is included in “We the People…”

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