SKIP THE SMALL TALK
Directly following the performance, audiences are invited for a chocolate and wine reception in Williams Hall, or go to the Keller Room to participate in a 60-minute facilitated conversation experience in partnership with Skip the Small Talk—an organization founded in Boston to combat loneliness and spark meaningful human connection. Using prompts inspired by the concert (see examples below), participants will rotate through a series of guided, one-on-one conversations—an opportunity to reflect, connect, and meet someone new.
Space for Skip The Small Talk is limited; there will also be wine and desert in the Keller Room for participants.
Devotional Love: When do you feel like you’re a part of something that’s bigger than yourself?
What’s your relationship to spirituality? How has it changed over time, if at all?
Tell me some things about the world that you find magical, awe-inspiring, beautiful, or just really interesting or cool.
Familial Love: In what ways did your mother express her love for you? How is that different or similar to the ways you currently show love to others?
Describe yourself from your mother’s perspective. How did she see you? How did that influence how you see others?
Tell me about a time your mother helped you feel especially understood, appreciated, or loved.
What personality strengths have your childhood caregivers helped you develop, be it intentionally or unintentionally? What strengths have you cultivated on your own?
Romantic Love: What have been some of the “peak” happiest moments you’ve experienced with a loved one in a relationship? Do those moments have anything in common?
What are your greatest hopes for a romantic relationship
How have previous relationships compared to your vision?
What was your ideal vision of romantic love as a kid? What is your ideal vision now?
What ways of being loved do you find yourself needing or wanting the most these days?
What are some of your biggest interpersonal fears that come up for you in romantic relationships?
Destructive Love: What personality traits or behaviors have you fallen for in the past that you *knew* were bad for you, but led you to keep coming back, anyway?
What do you think kept/ keeps you coming back? What qualities in a person do you find magnetic? What qualities in a person do you value the most? How much overlap is there between the two?
Unbreakable Love: What gives you hope?
What gives you hope in humanity?
Skip the Small Talk™ was founded in Boston as a solution to the loneliness faced by a generation. Now active in over 20 cities around the world, Skip the Small Talk™ helps folks meet new people and make friends wherever they go.
Ashley Kirsner is the founder and director of Skip the Small Talk™, a social impact startup focused on combating the loneliness epidemic through nationwide, in-person events. Skip the Small Talk™ events are grounded in Kirsner’s social and clinical psychology research at Cornell University, the Harvard Decision Science Lab, Harvard Business School, the University of Miami, the Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Lab at Boston University, and McLean Hospital. The success of Kirsner’s work has been featured in Forbes and The Boston Globe, and on The Today Show and NPR.
Kirsner has long been fascinated by the ways people connect—or fail to connect—with each other. Seeking a way to bring her psychology research beyond the lab and into everyday life, she partnered with her friend Devin Karbowicz to found communiT Boston. Named after Boston’s public transportation system (“the T”), communiT was a series of free monthly events held at MBTA stations, designed to provide fun and unique ways for strangers to interact.
Kirsner soon began to wonder what might happen if these brief interactions with strangers were extended into longer, more intentional experiences. The first such event was the “Skip the Small Talk Dinner”, a picnic centered around using cards with thought-provoking questions to spark conversation. Though she expected about fifteen attendees, more than five hundred people expressed interest in the Facebook event! The event was such a success that some participants stayed for three hours beyond its scheduled end. From there, Skip the Small Talk™ continued to evolve into its current, widely popular format, now hosted at venues including Aeronaut Brewing Company and Trident Booksellers & Café.
