A narrative is a constructive format (as a work of speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre) that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled".

The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative". It can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process narration (see also "Narrative Aesthetics" below).

Along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator communicates directly to the reader.

Stories are an important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories. Owen Flanagan of Duke University, a leading consciousness researcher, writes that "Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers."

Edwin Kinji Ushiro (born June 7, 1977) is an illustrator and fine artist.

A native from the island of Maui, Edwin Ushiro traveled to California where he attended the Art Center College of Design and graduated with a BFA in Illustration with honors. From there he ventured onto a film career as an Art Director, Visual Effects Consultant, Storyboard Artist & Concept Designer on projects such as: CSI: Miami, Battlestar Galactica: Caprica, and Angel. Continuing an urge to explore of his own projects, Edwin has recently expanded onto the gallery scene. His clients include: Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, NBC, ABC, CBS, Disney, and the Jim Henson Company.

Solo shows:
2010 "At Night, Lights Fell and Loved Ones Returned Home" at Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY (opens 3.24.2010)
2009 "Softly Encompassing the Womb" at LeBasse Projects, Culver City, CA
2008 "While Tides Guide You Back Home" at Project: Gallery, Culver City, CA
2007 "The Cardboard Symphony" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA

Emily Barker is a guitarist and singer-songwriter born in Bridgetown, Western Australia. With chamber-folk trio The Red Clay Halo, she has recorded three albums: Photos.Fires.Fables. (2006), Despite The Snow (2008) and Almanac (2011). The band is known for its rootsy ensemble playing, four-part harmony vocals and has been described as 'chamber-folk of the highest order'.

Emily travelled to the UK in 2002, and was first based in Cambridge where she collaborated with guitarist Rob Jackson. They formed a band called The Low Country which released two albums, Welcome To The Low Country (2003) and The Dark Road (2004), tracks from which enjoyed plays on John Peel’s BBC radio show.

In October 2005 Emily won Country Song of the Year and Regional Song of the Year awards at the annual West Australian Music Songwriting Awards. Also in 2005, Emily started work on her debut solo album, the critically acclaimed Photos.Fires.Fables. The release of this album saw the birth of The Red Clay Halo, an all-female trio of Anna Jenkins, Jo Silverston and Gill Sandell who collectively provide backing harmony vocals and who respectively play violin, cello and musical saw, and accordion, piano and flute.

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave.

Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently describing his experiences in slavery in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became influential in its support for abolition. He wrote two more autobiographies, with his last, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published in 1881 and covering events through and after the Civil War. After the Civil War, Douglass remained active in the United States' struggle to reach its potential as a "land of the free". Douglass actively supported women's suffrage. Without his approval he became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the impracticable and small Equal Rights Party ticket. Douglass held multiple public offices.