Around 115 people attended Point Loma Nazarene University’s first “Sojourner Stories” event on March 26, an evening of storytelling, poetry and music exploring faith, pilgrimage and personal journeys.
“Sojourn Stories” are accounts told about staying in a place temporarily through various creative methods.
The event was hosted by the Pilgrimage Innovation Hub, a grant-funded initiative focused on making pilgrimage more accessible and meaningful for youth and young adult ministry in Christian communities across North America. The initiative was founded and is led by Montague Williams, PLNU professor of church, culture and society.
This event took place at the Ellipse Chapel on PLNU’s campus from 6-8:45 p.m. This is the inaugural event, where participants shared stories through creative nonfiction stories and poems.
Violinist Danny Kim and Derek Rice performed. The night concluded with two nationally known Christian artists, Micah Bournes and Propaganda, who closed the night with performances of their poetry. The audience included students, faculty and community members.
The program began with appetizers, including crackers, cheese, cookies and chocolate-covered strawberries, along with ginger ale and sparkling water mocktails. Ohmega Watts, an American hip hop producer and vocalist, was hired to DJ for the event.
Five storytellers, two musicians and two Christian poets and artists presented a mix of creative works, including poetry, nonfiction, personal narratives and musical performances. Participants touched on themes of pilgrimage, community, belonging and faith.
Kate Williams, a fourth-year English major, said the variety of storytelling styles made the event engaging.
“The creative mediums that the storytellers told their tales in was so diverse and really added to the event,” Williams said. “There were poems, creative nonfiction — such great rhetoric.”
Micah Bournes, one of two nationally known poets invited to perform, is also an artist and musician who has performed at Voices In Power in New York as well as at Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, Calif. At the event, he shared a personal narrative tracing his journey through faith, illness and artistic discovery. He said his performance felt vulnerable.
“You never know what part of what you share is going to resonate with someone,” Bournes said. “It is just showing up with vulnerability and giving it as a gift.”
Bournes emphasized the broader message of his story about following God’s calling even when life does not have a clear direction.
Out of the first six stories, Aliah Fabros, a first-year Master’s in Writing student at PLNU, drew the loudest applause of the night. She spoke about the relationship between the body, disability and faith, explaining how her work resonated with audience members who face chronic illness or other health challenges. She highlighted the importance of sharing personal experiences to make others feel recognized.
“For a long time, I felt like I had to put words to emotions,” Fabros said. “Now I feel it first, then create the art. This event gave me a chance to work through my experiences and share that with others.”
Fabros also explained how her storytelling connects faith, embodiment and the human experience, emphasizing the takeaways she hopes audience members gain from her work.
“I hope that people take away the idea that our bodies are places, and that regardless of your health, you are called to and have to learn to live with them,” she said.
Sylvia Cortez Masyuk, PLNU’s graduate chaplain and director of Accelerated Undergraduate Spiritual Care, said the event was an invitation to witness the storytellers’ journeys. She noted that the performances combined beauty, vulnerability and artistry.
“We were invited to sojourn with these people as they shared their stories, and I felt like we were invited on that journey for just two hours,” Masyuk said.
She added that the storytellers’ openness allowed the audience to connect deeply with the material.
“It is always beautiful to hear somebody be so vulnerable in telling their story,” she said. “It takes a lot of courage, and to do it so beautifully, in such an artistic way, it’s really something special.”
Wanda Gailey, operations coordinator of Pilgrimage Innovation Hub, described the evening as a meaningful experience.
“It was a beautiful evening, and hopefully this is a recurring event,” Gailey said. “We hope to have it every year or every semester.”
Adee Tulcan