Wearing Their Stories

Sunny Odogwu, an imposing figure at 6 feet 8 inches and 325 pounds, steps to the podium at the University of Miami’s Shalala Student Center ballroom.

The microphone disappears into his hand as the Hurricanes football player tilts it upward before addressing the crowd of students, faculty, and staff attending the Dear World storytelling presentation on campus, the culmination of a photo shoot that drew almost 200 members of the UM community.

“No matter how bad of a day I am having,” says Odogwu, one of five UM students selected to share the story behind his photo, “I always try to remind myself of where I have been. I grew up in a 10-foot-by-10-foot room with my six siblings, my mom, and my dad.”

In keeping with Nigerian tradition, his parents and youngest siblings shared the room’s lone twin bed. The eldest took the couch (more “like a little chair,” he says), while the rest of the family slept on the floor. But Odogwu, fast outgrowing the small space, opted to sleep outside.

His parents helped get him to the United States, where he eventually played basketball and attended high school in Maryland. During his senior year, his friends convinced him to try football.

Projected onto the screen behind Odogwu is his recent Dear World Portrait. In it, his massive palms are spread to reveal in black marker his chosen message of truth: “Came from a dungeon. Now I’m here.”

Since its 2009 launch in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, the Dear World organization has collected nearly 50,000 distinct message-on-body portraits of individuals around the globe—from war-torn South Sudan to Boston in the wake of the marathon bombing. Participants are encouraged to share on their skin one thing they want to tell the world.

Colleges and universities also bring Dear World to campus to encourage students, faculty, and staff to open up as a community.

“This program, like the many programs hosted and supported by the Division of Student Affairs, asks students to be a bit vulnerable, to step outside their comfort zone and to exhibit resiliency,” explains Michael Baumhardt, associate director of Student Activities and Student Organizations, who, along with Patricia A. Whitely, Ed.D. ’94, vice president for Student Affairs, and Gail Cole-Avent, executive director of Student Life, was instrumental in bringing Dear World to the U this past September.

When the photographer arrived, nearly 200 subjects, most of them students, elected to face the camera, words of hope and loss, strength and longing, pain and inspiration inked bravely across their faces, forearms, and chests.

UM President Julio Frenk was among the participants, writing the message “Fall down seven, get up eight” on his hands.

Initiatives like this, notes Baumhardt, serve to reinforce Frenk’s vision for the University as a global and hemispheric institution that promotes a “culture of belonging” in which all members of the community feel important and believe they have an opportunity to add value.

“Dear World gave our students the opportunity to express themselves and share their stories with fellow students,” Baumhardt says. “Our campus community learned many life-changing and impactful stories about our peers and colleagues—stories that would not have been shared if this open and engaging environment had not been provided.”

The Division of Student Affairs and University Athletics sponsored the event. View more photos from Dear World at UM and video from the storytelling presentation at miami.edu/magazine. On Twitter, #DearUM.