Storytelling is a powerful medium for communication. Especially in situations where the message is too painful, too embarrassing, too secret to speak it. Storytelling can then become a journey to the truth. Paul Browde and Murray Nossel have been telling their story on stage to acclaim. They speak of being gay, homophobia, racism and HIV/AIDS, subjects that should be acknowledged and discussed but which are too often avoided or denied.
—Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus
To mark World AIDS Day, the OSI Sexual Health and Rights Project hosted a performance and discussion of Two Men Talking, with Paul Browde and Murray Nossel.
In 1974, in Johannesburg, South Africa, a teacher asked two 12-year-old schoolboys to tell each other a story. Murray Nossel and Paul Browde were the children in that exercise. Three decades later, Murray, an Academy Award–nominated filmmaker, and Paul, a psychiatrist, are partners in Two Men Talking, a performance that demonstrates the healing power of stories.
Two Men Talking is about friendship and listening. It is about apology and forgiveness and hatred and love. It is about fear and death and courage and life. With startling honesty, Paul and Murray talk of growing up white, middle class and privileged under apartheid. Their tale takes us from Johannesburg to New York and London, through their experiences of career struggles, coming out as gay, confronting AIDS, and finally their reunion in America.
Two Men Talking is also about the power of storytelling. For 20 years, Murray Nossel and Paul Browde have devoted their careers to the field of personal and collective storytelling.
Paul is a psychiatrist who uses storytelling in his clinical practice and research. Murray’s specialty in narratives has informed his work as a clinical psychologist, university professor, and documentary filmmaker. Together they have founded a company devoted to developing personal storytelling as a method for generating individual, group, and social evolution.