Press Play to hear Ben Nind speaking on how Storytelling is Essential to Community Health and Life on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Storytelling Is Essential to Community Health and Life.

Do we really have to justify why this is so? Are we so removed from ourselves as purveyors of stories that we actually need to rationalize, in some manner or form - why storytelling is essential? This is an odd question because it means that I have to somehow divorce story from the human experience and that is an impossible task.

The glue that holds all of the pieces together is story past, present and future. Birth, marriage, divorce, life, death, addiction, celebration, grief and victory are woven with stories in every window and door that we pass in our day to day existence. Without stories there is no community, there is no activity and the world is just one big cold ball of rock hurling through the blackness of space.

Is storytelling essential to community life? Say no more. Just listen and let me tell you a story..............

Bio

Ben NInd grew up in the theatre community of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. From a young age, his mentors provided him with a passionate love for community theatre. In the end, it was this passion that drove him to drop his cubical world and enroll in the Theatre Studies Program at Red Deer College in Alberta. In 1994, he graduated from the English Acting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal and continued training with Silamiut Theatre of Greenland, through a generous Fox Fellowship grant. Ben returned to Yellowknife in 1995 to found Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre where he wore the hat of actor, director, playwright and mentor working throughout Canada and the circumpolar world.

In the spring of 2004 he became the Executive and Artistic Director of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, a position he still holds. He continues to promote the development of all performing arts in the NWT. His passion lies with the stories of the Canadian North. They are the core material from which his brand of theatre magic is cut. His belief in the stories, and his commitment to the talented men and women who tell those stories, keep this unique and powerful northern theatre movement alive and relevant for contemporary northern audiences.

Press Play to hear Jimmy Neil Smith about the future of the International Storytelling on the Art of Storytelling Center with Brother Wolf.

Photo Courtesy of Fresh Air Photo

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #096 Jimmy Neil Smith for $2.23 The Future of the International Storytelling Center

Jimmy Neil Smith writes...
In the early 1990s, I attended a conference of the Tennessee Arts Commission in nearby Johnson City. During the session, potter Bill Strickland spoke about the arts-based Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center in inner-city Pittsburgh—an institution, founded by Strickland, that teaches low-income, inner-city youths an employment skill.

Strickland spoke eloquently about his institution and its program. His address was stirring and powerful. Then, as a closing, Strickland said, “I challenge each of you to go home and build an institution that confirms and makes real what you know.”

Strickland’s challenge inspired me.

Less than a year later, the National Storytelling Association announced the development of what would become the International Storytelling Center—the organization’s first permanent home in 30 years and a “launching pad” for a series of national and international programs, products, and services.

It was Strickland’s challenge that would give birth to the institution that has become the International Storytelling Center. The Center campus—now composed of the elegant Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall, Historic Center Inn, and the Storytelling Community Park—opened in June of 2002.

Through the work of ISC, we are seeking to confirm and make real what we know about storytelling—the ancient tradition that is as old as humankind yet as modern as this morning’s headlines. Now, in 2010, ISC is launching an expanded vision—a journey to a New Horizon—a better life, a better world, through the power of storytelling.

To achieve this vision, ISC is:
• Building international awareness, appreciation, and audiences for storytelling
• Teaching individuals, organizations, and communities across the globe how to tap into the power of storytelling to build a better life and a better world
• Enhancing the Center’s role in Jonesborough as the worldwide beacon for storytelling—the home of the global storytelling renaissance

It’s a delicious but colossal task, and we can’t do this work alone! The task is too big, and we are too small. If there’s going to be a better world through storytelling, it’s going to take the leadership, contributions, and resources of ISC and the personal and professional involvement of every one—including you—working together.

Our work is being built upon tradition—honoring, respecting, and effectively utilizing as a foundation for our work the existing knowledge, experience, and skills of the national and international storytelling community while, at the same time, tapping into new communities, new fields of knowledge, and new possibilities for storytelling.

Indeed, the reality of our 21st century vision has been slow in coming—but the time has come (it is here) to work together to realize the full potential of storytelling, our storytelling community, and our vision for a New Horizon for our world and the people who live in it.

Jimmy Neil Smith, President of the International Storytelling Center, speaking with Jackie Torrence at National Storytelling Festival.

Bio of Jimmy Neil Smith
Founder and President of the International Storytelling Center

Jimmy Neil Smith’s interest in storytelling began as a child. His life was peopled with talkers—storytellers and liars—and his favorite time was that spent sitting around the dinner table with his family, long after the dishes were washed and put away, sharing stories. He life's work teaching high-school English and journalism.

But Jimmy Neil's ultimate calling came when he, with the help of some Jonesborough townsfolk, staged the first National Storytelling Festival in October, 1973 — an annual event, now going into its 38th year, that has spawned a revival of appreciation for the ancient art of storytelling. Two years after the first festival, Jimmy Neil founded the International Storytelling Center—then known as the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling—to help spearhead America's storytelling revival. Since its founding in 1975, ISC became the premier institution promoting this cultural renaissance.

The International Storytelling Center (ISC) is dedicated to promoting the creative applications of storytelling to produce positive change in our society—healthier communities, more effective workplaces, and enriched human lives—through a program of public awareness, knowledge, and learning. ISC continues to produce the annual National Storytelling Festival, and Jimmy Neil serves as the Center's president and vision keeper.

Jimmy Neil's inspiration for founding the festival actually grew out of his love for Jonesborough, his hometown and the oldest town in Tennessee. The Jonesborough native created the festival to celebrate the town's cultural traditions and to help ignite the community's infant tourism-development program. Today, the festival and the town's role as the "birthplace of America's storytelling revival" have brought national, even international, acclaim to Jonesborough and the entire state of Tennessee.

Jimmy Neil Smith meeting with Barbra Bush.

To honor Jonesborough's role in America's storytelling renaissance, a new facility, ISC’s Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall, opened in June of 2002 to serve as the organization’s headquarters, a beacon for storytelling worldwide, and a "launching pad" for an expanded array of national and international storytelling outreach programs. The facility is part of ISC’s campus in downtown Jonesborough.

Vice President Al Gore, who launched the Center's construction at the 1995 National Storytelling Festival, called the facility "the epicenter of American storytelling." U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, who was on hand for the grand opening of the Center, wrote that “The story of how the International Storytelling Center came to be has been told and will be retold because it is the American story. It teaches and reminds us that given a mixture of inventiveness, entrepreneurship, leadership and hope in a free world, anything is possible.”

Since the Center’s opening, approximately 300,000 people have visited the new facility, which includes a state-of-the-art theater built especially for showcasing storytelling. The Center is also now home for the Teller-in-Residence program, beginning its ninth season in May of 2010, which includes twenty-six consecutive weeks of live storytelling featuring nationally- known storytellers. Through the formation of partnerships with the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and others, Jimmy Neil Smith continues to expand the work of storytelling throughout the world.

Please read more about the ISC and Jimmy Neil Smiths Legacy on the International Storytelling Centers website http://www.storytellingcenter.com/

Press Play to hear Michal Malinowski speaking on the Storytelling Museum of Poland on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

A storyteller – shaman from Altay in Siberia at the festival of Intangible Heritage organized by the Storytelling Museum.

Interview #094 Michal Malinowski for $2.23 The Storytelling Museum of Poland

Michal Malinowski writes…
The Storyteller Museum is a unique institution devoted to the collection, preservation and promotion of oral heritage from all over the world. Our mission is to save the vanishing examples of intangible treasures, acquaint new generations with the oral tradition of a variety of cultures and revive the custom of storytelling. Nonetheless, our attention is also devoted not only to tribal storytelling but also to contemporary trends in oral expression. The Museum has been the leading place in Poland to developed the storytelling revival movement. We have organized Storytelling Festivals and workshops in our location and other places in the country

The Storyteller Museum has an innovative approach to collecting and exhibiting different cultural artifacts by applying the latest achievements of digital technology. Our interests pertain not only to narrative texts but also to other indirect elements, such as gesture, movement, dance, sound, music, costume and body coverings. We have been engaged in work on various exhibitions, elaborating unexplored topics, such as African Griots: Local Knowledge -Global Polish Oral Tradition, A Panorama of European Oral Tradition, The Storyteller Museum supports all initiatives of transcribing oral traditions into tangible platforms. For such an end it has initiated a special program called Indigenous Writers, aiming to give the opportunity to tribal people to enunciate their oral art, so that it can be preserved in various forms, such as books, audio-visual recordings and museum digital displays. We are currently working on the book “Folktales from Burkina Faso”

Michal Malinowski – biography
Folklorist, writer, storyteller, computer graphic artist, born in 1966 in Warszaw, graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Lausanne – Switzerland diploma in painting and computer graphics, started his carier as multimedia artist designing animation movies in Switzerland and Japan. Simultaneously discovered his passion for writting which he has realised as animation script writter and free lance journalist for various magazines in Europe and Asia. In 1997 traveled to Papua New Guinea where discovered traditional storytellers and decided to create the new type of museum based on interactive technology presenting oral traditions and intangible heritage. In 1999 quit Japan in the goal to extend his knowledge in cultural studies and went for one year to Folklore and Mythology Department at Harvard University. After retourned to Poland and opened in 2002 the Storyteller Museum in the house he built himself.

He has contributed to the beginning of Polish storytelling revival mouvment , organizing since 2002 various storytelling events ( storytelling evenings, workshops and Festivals in the Museum venue and all over Poland). He performed his storytelling programs life on stage, libraries, schools or since December 2007 regularly on the III Chanel of the Polish National Radio. Recently performed in the storytelling festivals and events in England, Spain, France, Italy and Canada ( He can perform in Polish, French and English).

Since opening of the Museum conducts folklore collecting works in Poland or abroad. His collection of the oral tradition from the Mazovia region contributed to the creation of the book

” Bajki znad Bugu, Narwi i Wis ł y” “Folktales from Bug, Narwia and Wisla rivers”.

In 2006 his contribution for the preservation and development of culture was awarded a special prize by the Polish Minister of Culture. He is a co-author with Anne Pellowski of the book “Polish Folktales and Folklore” published by the end of 2008 in the USA ( the book recived the Aesop Accolade (an honorable mention) of American Folklore Association ) In the end of 2007 received the UNESCO grant to realize the exhibition about the Heritage of Amadou Hampate Ba and West African Oral Tradition. In the exhibition he hopes to demonstrate some of the ideas of future ethnographical museum display.

Press Play to hear Gail Herman speaks on building a student storytelling festival on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Interview #093 Gail Herman for $2.23 Building a Student Storytelling Festival.

Written by Gail N. Herman, Ph.D. © 2009
I have loved working with students on storytelling in the schools for over 30 years. One of the events that students love is to share their stories with younger audiences. The older students feel like they are giving a gift to them. Students enjoy entertaining and “helping the little ones.” However, after some in-depth exploration, training and practice telling to an audience, some students want to share their stories with wider audiences of all ages. Below are types of festivals I have found to be very successful.

Here is a list of ideas for starting a storytelling festival in your school or your community.

Ways to get it started. (You pick which one you want to start with.)
• Find a few teachers and/or parents and offer to tell a story in the teachers’ classrooms. Start suggesting the idea that students can also retell or tell stories to share with younger students. This is the short “festival” version. This year Broad Ford School second grades did this after my performance on tall tales. They all told their original tall stories (alone or in duos and trios) about Johnny Appleseed. The teachers made it part of their curriculum with the help of their enrichment teacher.

• Or write a press release in the school paper(s) or community newspaper about a new enrichment opportunity to be held in the community. “Tellers wanted, grades ___ to ____ to share their retelling of a folktale, tall tale, legend, or an original story of their own.” Over and over I have found “If you build it, they will come.”

• Find an auditorium or a venue with a stage and/or 10 classrooms or spaces. The spaces are for student story sharing circles in small groups of 10 stories with parents/friends as audience; the auditorium with a microphone is for a main stage sharing by a portion of the group (picked at random or by the sharing circles). I have directed and held over 25 festivals in three states (CT, WV, and MD) in schools, in church fellowship halls, state parks, and at colleges. Smaller “festivals” for, let’s say three classes of grade two, can just be held on the school stage/ “cafetorium.”

• If possible find businesses and/or an organization that will support the event. Gifts for each student teller are so appreciated. Finding gas money (or a grant for an honorarium) for you is also great! Our local American Association for University Women, Garrett County Branch in Maryland has been very supportive. We also have a used book sale there.

• When the session is in school, the audience comes free, unless it is a fundraiser for the school, usually at night. When it is on a Saturday or a Friday after school and in another location, you can charge admission and a fee to participate. This can be for such things such as pizza (or refreshments), certificates of exaggeration, gifts, or for purposes of donating to a charity. I have found the later to be a very attractive reason for students, parents, and teachers to desire participation. Give the proceeds, or part, to the charity.

• If you have the time and can afford it, offer to help the students once they bring back or send in their permission slips. I have found that some teachers and parents help their students but most would like you to help their child during school, after school, or during special times on the weekends. One-on-one and small groups work best.

For more information, see the article I wrote on Eric Wolf’s website or listen to his interview with me here.

An additional venue for experienced students is the National Youth Storytelling Showcase (NYSS) to be held in 2011 in February in Pigeon Forge, TN. One of our students, Joanna Guy, won the Grand Torchbearer’s title there in 2008. I am the Maryland representative for NYSS. Visit the site on the web to see and hear expert student storytellers!

Gail N. Herman, Ph.D.
The Organic Storyteller
166 Lodge Circle
Swanton, MD 21561

Bio on Gail Herman, Ph.D.
Creative storyteller and arts consultant, Dr. Gail N. Herman has performed and taught storytelling extensively throughout the United States, as well as in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Jamaica, Germany, India, Ghana, and St. Thomas. Besides performing for students in schools and libraries, Dr. Herman works with teachers and helping professionals to infuse storytelling and the kinesthetic, musical, and spatial aspects of learning into reading, science and other curriculum areas. She teaches for Lesley University, MA; Garrett College, MD; and The University of Connecticut (CONFRATUTE) in CT. Gail has directed the Tall Tale Liar’s Festival in MD for 17 years.

Read more about Gail Herman, Ph.D. Storyteller on her website.

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And don’t forget to subscribe by iTunes or your browser to The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf so you can get bi-weekly inspirations from Bother Wolf direct to your desktop. Read the info on the right to find out how. It’s free and it’s super simple.

Press Play to hear Catherine Burns who is Artistic Director of The Moth speaking on diamonds in the rough, coaching new storytellers on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

The Moth is America's #1 storytelling podcast with over 600,000 downloads a month and at least 100,000 listeners. Catherine Burns is one of the minds behind the curtain at The Moth storytelling main stage in NYC and LA.

The Moth storytelling website.

If you’re a storyteller with a webcam, you can record your stories and post them on-line. It’s remarkably easy. Since July I have been busily recording stories and songs, making up for years of talking myself out of it because of the expense, the time commitment and my nervousness in front of the camera. Now the videographer is me, the venue is my own home, and telling to the webcam is as natural telling in front of a mirror.

Videos are a way to reach a far, far wider audience than you ever dreamed. Through my presence on storyteller.net, ProfessionalStoryteller.ning, Facebook and, most of all, YouTube, I have told to people in unexpected places such as Qatar, Croatia, Argentina and Indonesia. I have also forged new friendships with other storytellers. I absolutely love it.

My camera is the iSight, built into my iMac. I can’t speak knowledgeably about other webcams, but I’ve been told they work in a similar manner. The iSight is used in a program called “Photo Booth,” which takes pictures and videos with the click of a mouse. Don’t like the result? Delete!

On YouTube, where I post all my work, I’ve been seeking out videos from other storytellers. I’m a member of the YouTube group “The Ancient Art of Storytelling” at http://www.youtube.com/group/oralstorytelling. Most storytelling videos are shot with a videocamera during a live performance. Some are shot by professionals in a studio or at a live performance. Hardly any tellers use a webcam (although a lot of non-storytelling YouTube videos are made that way). Paradoxically, webcam videos come across more like a live performance than a video of an actual live performance does, probably because the teller actually seems as though he or she is making direct contact with you, the audience. Also, there are no distracting coughs, chair squeaks or heads in the way.

Here’s what I have learned about filming videos on my computer:

1. Choose a short story. YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes. Shorter is better, because some people are too impatient to wait for a longer video to load. You can split a long story into two parts, but there’s no guarantee viewers will watch both parts.

2. Use a tale you have told many times before, or rehearse your new one well. This is not the time to wing it.

3. Conjure up an audience in your mind. If you’ve ever told on the radio, you know how to do this. It’s one of the reasons I suggest using tales you’ve told often, because you’re not so dependent on the audible audience reaction to get in the zone.

4. Make eye contact with the camera.

5. Lighting: Because all my telling is in front of my computer, my lighting options are limited. I experiment and pick what feels best. I achieved a campfire effect for “Bloody Finger” with two candles under my face just out of camera range. I suggest using more light than you think you need, because my videos appear darker on PCs.

6. Sound: My computer has a built-in microphone but I’ve been told that my quieter stories are too faint on a PC (they’re fine on a Mac). I boosted the input volume and I’ve set up some sound equipment of camera range. I’m looking for a good microphone with a USB plug.

7. As soon as I have it in the can, I watch it all the way through, and if I like it I upload it to YouTube. It takes several minutes to upload, so go make yourself a cup of tea.

8. Include your name in the title of your video so when people are Googling you, they’ll find your work. Example: “Leslie Slape, storyteller – The Tale-Teller.”

9. Tag your video with words that will make it come up as “related videos” to other storytelling videos (whenever you finish watching a video on YouTube, you’ll see a list of related videos). Suggestions: oral tradition folktale spoken word storyteller storytelling.

10. Add your video to “The Ancient Art of Storytelling” (you’ll have to join the group first).

11. If you have a Web site, Blog or any other Internet presence, embed your videos there (YouTube gives you the embed code). E-mail the link to everyone in your storytelling database. And put your YouTube site on your business cards.

Happy videotelling!

Leslie Slape’s videos are at www.YouTube.com/LeslieSlape

Press Play to hear Andy Offutt Irwin who was interviewed by Eric Wolf on entertaining children with out boring the grownups out of their skull on the Art of Storytelling on Tuesday, Dec. 16th at 8pm.

Bio

A native of Covington, GA, Andy started out in comedy, but added music and storytelling because he had a lot more to say. In storytelling circles,he is especially known for relating the adventures of his eighty-five-year-old aunt,Marguerite Van Camp, M.D. He’s always on the go, performing at festivals, theatres and schools throughout the United States, including two gigs as a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival, where in 2008 he will perform a solo concert at the Midnight Cabaret.

He has been a Teller in Residence at International Storytelling Center; a Guest Artist at La Guardia High School of Art, Music, and Performing Arts in New York (The “FAME!” School); and he has been a Keynote Speaker/Performer at the Library of Congress-Virburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy. He is an award winning recording artist with five titles and growing.

Andy used to have real jobs: from 1991 to 2007 he was Artist-In-Residence in Theatre at Oxford College of Emory University. He spent five years writing, directing and performing with the comedy improv troupe, SAK Theatre at Walt Disney World. But he’s had lots of more interesting life experience-type employment, including – but not limited to – actor, camp counselor, political satirist, youth director, janitor, deputy voter registrar, theatre orchestra conductor, garbage man, teacher, carpenter’s flunky, and bullfrog tadpole catcher (Honest).

Press Play to hear Connie Regan-Blake who was interviewed by Eric Wolf on a history of the National Storytelling Festival on the Art of Storytelling on Tuesday, Dec. 17th at 8pm.

Connie writes…
It was October 7, 1973, in Jonesborough, Tennessee – an afternoon that changed my life . . . and the course of storytelling in the United States. The setting was the first National Storytelling Festival.

I had been hired two years earlier by the Public Library in Chattanooga, TN, as a full time storyteller – another life changing event for me. So when I heard about a festival devoted to storytelling, I was thrilled – and knew I had to go. My cousin, Barbara Freeman, who was also a teller, was up for the adventure so we jumped in her little yellow truck and headed off on an adventure.

There I met and heard Ray Hicks, who was to become the patriarch of Southern Traditional Storytelling. He was perched on a flatbed truck, telling Jack Tales to a group of 35 of us, sitting on folding chairs in front of the County Courthouse, hanging onto his every word. When they asked if anyone in the audience wanted to tell, I jumped at the chance and have been involved ever since.

That day, I also met Jimmy Neil Smith, who had the brilliant idea to have a storytelling festival. His vision included an organization to promote the art of storytelling and two years later “NAPPS” came to life – the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling. With the town’s support for seed money, a Board of Directors and lots of volunteers, the word began spreading.

And now, over three decades later, storytelling is thriving. That first intimate gathering inspired many to go home and start their own events. Now hundreds of storytelling festivals take place in almost every state in America and around the world from New Zealand to Austria. Today Jonesborough is home to the International Storytelling Center. The National Festival continues to be the premiere storytelling event in the country with an audience that has grown from the original 35 listeners to over 10,000 people who make the journey every year to listen to and tell stories. For many, it is a transformative experience; reawakening the comfort, joy, and pathos that is storytelling. Elizabeth Ellis sums it up best – “The festival is more fun than you can stand!”

For my own professional path, storytelling has taken me across the world. As a partner with Barbara Freeman, we were known as The Folktellers for 20 years and trail-blazed the art of tandem telling. During the past decade I have continued telling stories as a solo performer and workshop leader, as well as collaborating on a unique blend of storytelling and chamber music with the Kandinsky Trio.

Every autumn since 1973, I continue to be drawn to Jonesborough, and welcomed onstage with the distinct honor of being either a featured teller or an emcee. Now, after almost 40 years as a fulltime, professional storyteller, my life’s work continues to be a privilege and a blessing. And I always remember, as the storyteller I have the best seat on the house!

Bio

Connie Regan-Blake is one of America’s most celebrated storytellers. She has captivated the hearts and imaginations of people around the globe with her powerful performances and workshops. Entertaining audiences in 47 states and 16 countries, she brings the wisdom, humor and drama of stories to main stage concert halls, libraries and into the corporate world.

Both as a solo artist and a member of the acclaimed Folktellers duo, Connie has been featured on seven award-winning recordings – five audio and two videos produced by PBS. New Age Magazine, School Library Journal, and Southern Living have praised her work. She has been a guest on NPR’s All Things Considered, ABC Good Morning America and CNN.

When Connie takes the stage she generates a brightness and warmth, drawing in listeners with her engaging humor and Southern charm. Her stories range from hilarious traditional Appalachian Mountain tales to poignant true-life drama. A consummate professional, Connie’s rare talent can transform a convention hall into a wondrous landscape and turn a packed theater into an intimate circle of friends.

Connie has performed at the nation’s top folk music and storytelling festivals in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Her groundbreaking collaboration with the Kandinsky Trio – an innovative blend of storytelling and chamber music – has been hailed as a “new art form.”

As a founding board member of the National Storytelling Association (formerly NAPPS), and a frequent host and featured performer at the National Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Connie helped ignite and shape the American storytelling revival.

Connie resides with her husband, two dogs and a frisky cat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. For more info, see www.storywindow.com

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on Tuesday June 3rd at 8 p.m. SWC #057 with storyteller, Dovie Thomason – Building Young Adult Audiences.

Dovie Thomason writes…

I enjoy listening… I enjoy dialogue…I hope to learn something from every group of listeners or every chance conversation. SO….join me/us for this podcast, which isn’t about “The Answer”, but a collaborative search for alternatives and new visions that speak to a question many of us are asking: Where are the Young Adults in our Audiences?

There is considerable conversation going on about the “graying” (I prefer silvering…) of the storytelling community. Yet, these conversations seem to deal primarily with the age of the Storytellers, not the age of the Listeners…. How can we issue an invitation and create a sense of inclusion and an appreciation for the vital role of stories at all ages, but particularly with the extraordinarily responsive and interactive and “plugged-in” 15-30 year olds (more or less…).

Overseas, particularly (in my experience) in Europe, it is not unusual to have strong representation from this age group at concerts, festivals and story clubs…but NOT because they are aspiring to become professional storytellers. It seems, rather, that the curiosity and examination of the world and alternative ways of thinking/viewing reality is drawing in these most thoughtful and critical listeners. Telling to this “audience”—I prefer to say interacting with these “listeners”— continually enriches my work and thinking and future dreams for my lifework.

In part, this is perhaps a cultural, indigenous perspective—as an elder-becoming, I think a great deal of my responsibility to these young adult members of our society. In all honesty, I think very seldom about creating a new generation of youthful tellers…but am troubled by the absence of youthful listeners, with strong critical tastes and perspectives, in the larger storytelling world.

So, I have a world of questions and thoughts I’d love to bounce around with participants on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Podcast…hope you will listen in as a storyteller or story lover and be a part of this open-ended conversation.
(Leave a comment to continue the conversation…)

About…
Dovie Thomason is an award-winning storyteller, recording artist and author, recognized internationally for her ability to take her listeners back to the “timeless place” that she first “visited” as a child, hearing old Indian stories from her Kiowa Apache and Lakota relatives, especially her Grandma Dovie and her Dad. From their voices, she first heard the voices of the Animal People and began to learn the lessons they had to teach her. For these were teaching stories that took the place of punishment or scolding, showing her the values that her people respect and wanted to pass on to her.

Her love of stories and culture set her on a path to listen and learn and share the stories—to give people a clearer understanding of the often misunderstood, often invisible, cultures of the First Nations of North America. The product of a “mixed” background that is urban Chicago and rural Texas, Internet and ancient teachers, elders’ teachings and university classrooms —Dovie began telling stories “publicly” while teaching literature and writing at an urban high school in Cleveland. So, she began telling those first-heard old Indian stories—stories about making choices—stories that could become a blueprint for a personal value system.
More about her…
http://www.doviethomason.com/