The Lawrence branch of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture hosted the first of two events Saturday as part of the nationwide People’s State of the Union.

Lawrence is one of about 170 communities participating in the event, which creates story circles to encourage participants to reflect on their personal experiences of “the state of the union” in the wake of President Obama’s Tuesday address. The goal is to have a group conversation, said Dave Loewenstein, cultural agent of the Lawrence branch.

“It’s for us to talk to each other about what’s important in our community and in our country, so it’s not just a monologue from the president on down, but a back-and-forth conversation,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture is not a government agency but rather a network of people who partner to use art and culture as agents for civic and social change, Loewenstein said.

About 20 people participated in the local event at the Lawrence Percolator, 913 Rhode Island St. Participants broke into three groups, each with a scribe and a facilitator.

“Story circles are a way to share individual stories, but more importantly than that, so that we can listen to each other,” Loewenstein said.

The scribes recorded the stories and will be submitting them to an online portal. Over the next few weeks, a group of poets in New York will read the stories and compose a poem encapsulating themes from around the country, Loewenstein said. The compilation will air in a live broadcast from New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club on Feb. 1.

Eric Hyde, a paraeducator at Cordley Elementary who is also making a film, told his group about how he asked his second-grade students to help him write adventure scenes for the film.

“It’s not just me,” Hyde said. “I can’t tell the story alone; I have to collaborate.”

A second session of the People’s State of the Union will take place at 5 p.m. Sunday at Lawrence Creates Makerspace, 512 E. Ninth St.