Why We Tell Stories: Deepening Connection w/ Jitesh Jaggi

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What do your own stories help you learn about yourself?

I brought on Jitesh Jaggi, an award-winning, veteran storytelling coach currently based in Chicago who immigrated from India, to explore the events in his life that shaped his storytelling and how he works with the South Asian communities to share their oral history and stories. We get into the challenges in the Chicago storytelling scene and how inaccessible it remains for people of color. We go into depth about what it takes to become an authentic storyteller.

Bio:

Jitesh Jaggi is an immigrant storyteller, educator, and oral historian from India. A five-time The Moth Story Slam winner, his stories were recently played on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour and on WGN TV’s Day Time Chicago Show. As a storytelling coach, he has taught workshops for the World Health Organization and the University of Chicago, among others. Jitesh’s one-man show “Suitcase Stories” played at the Steppenwolf Theatre and The Second City. Jitesh was a keynote speaker at the International Educators’ Conference- NAFSA and a panelist at the AWP (American Writers’ Program). As an Oral Historian, he collects the stories of the South Asian diaspora living in Illinois since the 1950s and often weaves his own personal tales with those of his immigrant ancestors in his performances. He will share these amalgamated stories as an Illinois Road Scholar for 2026-27.

https://ilhumanities.org/speakers/jitesh-jaggi

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