Eric Wolf (Brother Wolf) will be presented with the Oracle Award in recognition of his work as producer and host of the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show during the last evening of the National Storytelling Conference on July 31st, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The National Storytelling Network (NSN) gives the Oracle Award for Distinguished National Service to individuals who contribute their time and energy in an exemplary manner on the national level.

The National Storytelling Network is dedicated to advancing the art of storytelling – as a performing art, a literacy tool, a cultural transformation process, and more. NSN is a member-driven organization and it offers direct services, publications and educational opportunities to several thousand individuals, local storytelling guilds and associations. These services are designed to improve storytelling everywhere — in entertainment venues, in classrooms, organizations, medical fields, families, and wherever storytelling can make a contribution to quality of life.

The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show has had over 127, 000 downloads since it began podcasting in 2007. Created by Eric Wolf (Brother Wolf) in the spring of 2007, the show brings the best and brightest of the storytelling community to the world stage. 45% of listeners are from outside the United States from over 100 different countries. In the last six weeks the show has sustained over 7,000 individual downloads.

The Art of Storytelling Show is the world’s sole interview format show dedicated to exploring the art and science of storytelling in all its forms. With over a hundred interviews available for listening to online this podcast has become the premier resource for understanding and learning the art of storytelling worldwide.

To see a complete list of…
Press releases detailing the growth of the Art of Storytelling Show go to:
http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/category/press-release
Guests organized by topic:
http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/topics
NSN Oracle Award for Distinguished National Service:
http://www.storynet.org/programs/awards/distinguishedservice.html
Eric Wolf’s home page:
http://www.ericwolf.org

Contact: Karin Hensley NSN
Phone: 1-800-525-4514 ext 303

###

Press Play to hear Emil Wolfgang speaks on Carrying the Pacific Island Storytelling Culture Forward on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Emil Wolgang spoke at length on the role that storytelling can play in pre-industrial culture in the island culture of the pacific. Using stories as both a way of sharing knowledge of environment and cultural identity.

Emil is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), For his two years of missionary service, he was surprised to be sent to Tonga (his ethnic root, but he had never been there). He was intrigued by the traditional rituals and culture he found there.

He went on to marry a Hawaiian, settled in the small valley of Waihole on Oahu’s Windward side (famous for raising taro), earned a Master’s degree in Physics, which he applied to his many children’s football (soccer) teams (with great success), and eventually retired from Kailua High School. For 30 years he quietly worked to translate the traditional epic tales of Tonga into English. He also traced how the stories spread and morphed as they spread across the Pacific.

That Doctorate thesis has been presented in New Zealand. Since it covers traditional oral narratives, he was asked to do a program. The 500 seat auditorium was packed, standing room only. He spoke for 90 minutes, and then took questions (another hour). The next morning two universities asked him to direct a department (establish courses, hire teachers, etc.) in traditional storytelling. He plans to do this 6 months a year during football season.

Press Play to hear Baba Jamal Koram speak the responsibility of being a storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #085 Baba Jamal Koram for $2.23 Storytelling as Responsibility.

Baba Jamal Koram is a storyteller in the African American Griotic Traditions, he is a dedicated practitioner and teacher of the spoken word traditions and is a respected leader in the world of storytelling. Baba Jamal is a groundbreaking storyteller, educator, folk drummer and organizer. He is a past president of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. and is a 2001 recipient of its prestigious Zora Neale Hurston award. Called a storyteller's storyteller, and a Griot's Griot he continues to travel across the nation sharing his stories and his presence with thousands of school children and their families. Baba Jamal holds the B.A., M.S. and Ed.S. degrees, and is married and the proud father of children, grand children, and godchildren.

This master storyteller uses his stories to inspire, encourage, and to uplift the positive growth of our children and in our communities.

He has said:

"My South Carolina great grandmother Mary would say to her grandchildren, - Bring me a cool glass of water, and I'll tell you a story. Then she would proceed to tell them one of those traditional African American Gullah stories, about Bruh Rabbit or one of the many folkloric characters... I follow in her storytelling footsteps. . .Call me if you have a cool glass of spring water."

For More information on Baba Jamal Koram check out his website: http://www.babajamalkoram.com/

Press Play to hear Tim Tingle speaking about the historical perspective of Native American storytelling. on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Tim Tingles Bio.

Tingle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a sought-after speaker and storyteller, and an award-winning author of Native American fiction and folklore. Choctaw Chief Gregory Pyle has requested a story by Tingle previous to his Annual State of the Nation Address at the Choctaw Labor Day Gathering–a celebration that attracts over thirty thousand people– from 2002 to the present.

Walking the Choctaw Road, Tingle’s first book, was released by Cinco Puntos Press in May of 2003. A collection of stories based on interviews with tribal elders, it was Storytelling World Magazine’s Best Anthology for 2003. Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma selected WTCR as Book of the Year for 2005, as did Alaska Reads!, marking the first time in the history of the one-book-one-state movement that a single book has been selected by two states in the same year. Tingle completed a tour of eighty Oklahoma libraries in 2005, presenting stories from Walking the Choctaw Road and promoting literacy throughout the state.

In a Governor’s Commendation read before the Senate in May of 2005, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry praised Tingle for his “devotion to preserving the Choctaw heritage,” and declared May through November as Walking the Choctaw Road months in Oklahoma.

A powerful conference speaker and festival performer, Tingle was featured at the 2002 National Storytelling Festival. He delivered the keynote address at the 2006 Johnson O’Malley Conference of Oklahoma and in October will perform in Victoria, British Columbia, at The International Artists of Conscience Symposium. In March of 2003, he completed his tenth tour of Germany for the U.S Department of Defense, performing at schools for children of military personnel. He has performed as a featured storyteller in festivals covering a thirty-state area, and in 2004 was a Teller-In-Residence at the International Storytelling Center

As a storyteller, Tingle brings the lore of the Choctaw Nation to life in lively historical, personal, and traditional stories. He plays the Native American flute and often accompanies himself with an assortment of gourd rattles and drums, adding a haunting dimension to a concert. Vocable chants and hymns sung in the Choctaw language also compliment his stories.

Tingle at the Smithsonian

Tim Tingle gave his first performance at the National Museum of the American Indian on Saturday, June 23, in 2008 at the outdoor amphitheater of the Smithsonian complex. An appreciative audience, including dozens of Oklahoma Choctaws, saw Tingle sing “Shilombish Holitopa Ma,” play the native flute, and perform “Crossing Bok Chitto,” “The Choctaw Way,”and “Turtle Grew Feathers,” his latest children’s book.

WHEN TURTLE GREW FEATHERS was released by August House in February of 2007, and has received enthusiastic reviews and great responses from reading audiences. Based on the traditional Choctaw folktale of Rabbit racing Turtle, this early childhood read-aloud book features colorful, whimsical drawings by illustrator Stacey Schuett.

SPIRITS DARK AND LIGHT-Tingle’s first August House title is a collection of twenty-five supernatural and ghost stories from the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws. “The Lady Who Changed,” a haunting Choctaw tale about a shape-shifting owl woman, was selected “Best Short Story of 2006″ by Storytelling Magazine. For educators, introductory essays include relevant historical and cultural material for each tribe represented.

CROSSING BOK CHITTO-This richly illustrated picture book from Cinco Puntos Press received enthusiastic reviews from critics nationwide, including Starred Reviews in Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, and an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times. Paintings by Cherokee artist Jeanne Rorex-Bridges accent this beautiful telling of Tingle’s most requested Choctaw story. Recent awards include the 2006 Teddy Award for Best Children’s Book from the Texas Writer’s League and the Texas Institute of Letters Best Children’s Book of 2006. In winning the 2006 Oklahoma Book Award for both author and illustrator, CROSSING BOK CHITTO became the first book in the history of the award to win both categories. CBC was also selected as a 2007 ALA Notable Book. 
 
Spooky Texas Tales-Available from Texas Tech Press, STT features stories for the younger reader, all set in the bristles and briars of Lone Star state. Graveyard ghosts and creatures from swamps and river banks slink through these ten creepy tales. Highlights include, “Wiley and the Hairy Man,” “Tailybone,” and “The Golden Arm.” Accented with twenty eerie drawings, it’s a fine gift for the third through fifth grade student.

In June of 2004, Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling, co-authored with Doc Moore, was released by Texas Tech Press. Now in its third printing, TGS was also chosen by Storytelling World as the year’s Best Anthology.

For a full list of Tim’s up coming and active schedule go to…
http://www.choctawstoryteller.com

Press Play to hear Jay O'Callahan speak about learning about Stories by telling to my Children on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Jay O'Callahan writes...

I'm at work right now on a story commissioned by NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration to celebrate its 50th anniversary. As I create the NASA story I'm aware I'm using all of the knowledge I gained telling stories to my own children. As I told stories to my children I began using repetition, rhythm, changing my voice, using a gesture here and there and inventing situations that involved struggle or risk, When my son Ted was about nine months old I'd make up little songs and rhythms to make him smile. Just making my voice go up high and then suddenly come down delighted him.
One night Ted was sitting in a soapy bath and I read him some of James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. He laughed at the sounds.

When Ted got older I read books to him like The Gingerbread Man and discovered that he loved the repetition running through the story.

Run, run fast as you can
You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man.

I began reading one of Richard Scary's book in which there was a character called Pierre the Paris Policeman. The line was, "Pierre the Paris Policeman was directing traffic one day." I would sing that line with a French accent and lift up my hand to stop an imaginary car. The voice and accent brought the character alive. That was an important discovery. And if I read it in any other way it wasn't Pierre and Ted would say, "Say it right."

After my daughter Laura Elizabeth was born I told both my children "hand stories." I'd take one of their hands, look at the palm of the hand and let a line, a bump or a curve in the hand suggest an image and I'd begin the story. It might go like this. "Once upon a time Ted saw a pink cloud resting by a tree. The cloud looked sad so Ted went over to cheer it up." I was dreaming aloud and characters and images would spring to mind. I imaged that's always happened to storytellers. I liked telling the hand stories because they were quiet and personal and my children liked being the hero and heroine. Some of those hand stories eventually turned into the Artana stories which take place in a mysterious land where two children, Edward and Elizabeth are the hero and heroine.

As I was telling to my children I learned the importance of a listener, particularly a listener with the sense of wonder and delight. My children listened me into being a storyteller.

Now as I work on this complicated story about NASA I use the knowledge I gained from my children. I ask myself this question: What is wondrous about NASA? And I'm on the alert for compelling characters and the risks they take and the struggles of their lives. I try to incorporate rhythm and repetition; I use a voice to become a character and find that a gesture helps bring the character alive.

As I shape the story and as it grows, I'm using the listeners. The listeners draw out mysteries in the story that I would have missed without them. Here I am back to the beginning.

Biography

Jay O'Callahan grew up in a section of Brookline, Massachusetts which was called "Pill Hill" because so many doctors lived there. The 32-room house and landscaped grounds were a magical atmosphere for a child's imagination to blossom. When Jay was fourteen, he started making up stories to tell to his little brother and sister to entertain them.

After graduating from Holy Cross College, a tour in the Navy took Jay to the Pacific. Returning to Massachusetts, he taught and eventually became Dean at the Wyndham School in Boston, which his parents had founded. "In the summers I'd go off to Vermont or Ireland to write. I also did a lot of acting in amateur theatre, and that's where I met a beautiful woman (Linda McManus) who later became my wife. When we had our first child, I left teaching and became the caretaker of the YWCA in Marshfield, a big old barn on a salt-water marsh. That gave me time to write and to tell stories to my children. When I decided to call myself a storyteller, it was like getting on a rocket." Within three years, Jay was telling stories in hundreds of schools and in addition he was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to create and perform Peer Gynt with the orchestra. His stories were broadcast on National Public Radio's "The Spider's Web," which brought Jay national attention.

Jay was now publicly telling stories he had created for his children. His stories were filled with rhythms, songs and characters as diverse as Herman the Worm, Petrukian, a medieval blacksmith, and the Little Dragon. Orange Cheeks, inspired by a time Jay got in trouble as a little boy, was the first of his personal stories.

One of his most popular stories, Raspberries was born when Jay's son Teddy was four. Teddy banged his shin outside their cottage and was weeping, "I broke my leg." Jay told a story full of rhythms to cheer Teddy up.

Jay was also beginning to tell stories to adults. In 1980, while on vacation in Nova Scotia, he sat on and off for a month in the kitchen of an old man and a blind woman. Out of that kitchen came the story of The Herring Shed. I realized then that part of my gift was to sit down with ordinary people where they were comfortable, listen, and later weave a story together so that others could enjoy it. The process still amazes me: one year I'm in a kitchen in Nova Scotia and a few years later, I'm performing The Herring Shed to a thousand people at Lincoln Center. Time Magazine called The Herring Shed "genius. After the Herring Shed came Jay's Pill Hill stories for which is was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. The Pill Hill stories are loosely based on his boyhood.

Storytelling has brought Jay around the earth. "The storyteller of old got on a horse. I get on a plane, parachute into a community and I'm part of its life for a while before moving on to the next one." Jay has told stories to students at Stonehendge, to adults in the heat of Niger, Africa, to theatergoers in Dublin and London and at storytelling festivals in Scotland, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. His stories have also been heard on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Jay's stories also include commissioned works like The Spirit of the Great Auk, Pouring the Sun, Edna Robinson and Father Joe.

When he isn't on the road, Jay runs a writing workshop at his home. His other interests include reading everything from Walt Whitman to Herman Melville to Flannery O'Connor to Emily Dickinson. And he enjoys listening to jazz, classical music and opera. "I love Maria Callas. Her singing touches a joy that's very deep."

Jay has just finished a political novel called Harry's Our Man, and is creating a story commissioned by NASA for its 50th anniversary.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #069 Charlotte Blake Alston
	for $2.23 Breaking Barriers using Storytelling

Charlotte Blake Alston writes…
My introduction to literature and the planting of seeds that later bloomed into storytelling, came in the 1950’s. In the midst of a social, political and cultural climate that suggested that my family and community were devoid of intellect, history or culture, my father began reading to me the literary diamonds and jewels that came from within our culture. Somewhere around 6 years old, my father read out loud the words of James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. My father relished and touted the genius of these writers. He handed me the Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, selected a poem for me to memorize and launched me, as a child, onto a spoken word path. Numerous church banquets, teas and special community events were staging grounds for “a reading by Miss Charlotte Blake”.

I’ll share some memories of that time and fast-forward to the place where those germinating seeds and my experience in an independent school crossed paths with storytelling and an immediate realization of the power of this art form. On I faculty of 70, I was one of three faculty members of color. One particular event at the school served as a reminder of how invisible we often were, of how a genuinely well-meaning (and I really mean that!) community could unknowingly participate in perpetuating stereotypes and marginalizing members of their community. My concern was the statement those actions made to the children in the community. When I encountered storytelling, I immediately saw it as a window, a bridge, a tool I could use; a way in which initially children, could access, affirm, value and appreciate a cultural perspective that was different from their own.

That two-story repertoire (plus a set of Kiddie Rock& Roll songs!) later expanded to incorporate stories for all ages. I’ve since told at home and abroad in schools, festivals, concert halls, detention centers, a refugee camp; in collaboration with jazz musicians, choreographers and symphony orchestras. One of my most storyteller-reaffirming moments happened in a refugee camp in northern Senegal. So come on in! It’s okay. This will not be psychologically heavy duty! I am not an academician. This will be a chance to peek inside my head, listen to my heart and perhaps hear a perspective, a view that might serve you well in your own work.

“See you” on the pod cast.

Bio

BIOGRAPHY

Charlotte Blake Alston is a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator and singer whose interest in literature, the oral tradition and the arts began in childhood when her father read to her the work of writers and poets and encouraged her to learn and recite the dialect poems of African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After 21 years of teaching from the preschool through graduate levels, Charlotte chose to devote more time to touring and performing.

Today, Charlotte breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from the African and African American oral and cultural traditions. Her solo performances are often enhanced with traditional instruments such as djembe, berimbau, nkoning, mbira, shekere or the 21-stringed kora. In 1999, Charlotte began studying the kora and the West African history-telling traditions of Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Her teacher is the highly respected Senegalese griot (jali), Djimo Kouyate. Her repertoire is wide and programs are adapted to any age audience or grade level.

She brings her stories and songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums, libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as local and national radio and television. Charlotte is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on both their Children’s and Youth concert series. Since 1994, she has been the host of “Sound All Around”; the orchestra’s pre-school concert series and continues to appear as a guest host and narrator on family concerts. Charlotte also hosts “Carnegie Kids”, Carnegie Hall’s Preschool concert series and has been a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured teller at The National Storytelling Festival, The National Festival of Black Storytelling, and at regional festivals throughout North America. She has been a featured artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children’s Inaugural Celebrations in Harrisburg, PA.

In addition to her solo performances, Charlotte performs with her brother, world-renowned jazz violinist, John Blake, Jr. and his band in Tellin’ On The Downbeat: A Program Of Storytelling And Jazz. In Fiddlin’ With Stories, Charlotte and John perform as a duo featuring violin and kora, in a program that celebrates the role of stringed instruments in African and African American culture. Charlotte also performs in American Storyfeast with nationally known storytellers Gayle Ross (Native American) and Jon Spelman (European American). This unique concert celebrates each teller’s respective cultures through traditional and contemporary stories. She has collaborated with numerous instrumental ensembles as well as dance companies. She has been a featured narrator for several orchestras and conductors including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

Charlotte’s narrative voice can be heard on documentaries including Plenty Of Good Women Dancers, The Peddie School, and Crosstown. She herself was featured in the award-winning documentary Family Name that aired around the country on PBS. Kinocraft Media Productions converted her “Martin Luther King Storypoem” to video format for educational distribution. The video is entitled A Closer Look: Martin Luther King. She is a regular guest reader on WNYC New York’s Prime time with PJ.

Charlotte has received numerous honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship In The Arts in 1994. She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best Of Philly”® 1995. She is the recipient of the 1997 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania Artist Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award). The award recognizes individual artists “for…excellence in the Commonwealth.” She holds two honorary PhD’s from Seton Hill and LaRoche colleges respectively and was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana in August of 1999. She was the Director of “In the Tradition” 14th National Festival Of Black Storytelling in 1996

Learn more about storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston at her website: http://www.charlotteblakealston.com

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #065 Lopaka Kapanui
	for $2.23 Memoirs of being a Honolulu Ghost Tour Guide.

I will not share or give away your email address.

And don’t forget to subscribe by iTunes or your browser to the Art of Storytelling Podcast so you can get bi-weekly inspirations from Brother Wolf direct to your desktop.

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on March 4th at 8PM ET when I spoke with Mark Morey on the Art of Mentoring.

For more information on Mark Morey Checkout his website and the Institute for Natural Learning that he runs. Also be sure to attend the Art of Mentoring class in Vermont that he helps put on every year.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #037 Michael Caduto
	for $2.23 Stories about giving and receiving.

Michael J. Caduto writes…

I always start my storytelling performances by focusing on the circles and cycles that we share. Storytelling is a circle: a story needs someone to speak the words and a listener to imagine the story into being. This vital exchange breathes life into stories as they become animated in our mind’s eye. So the gift of storytelling is a mutual experience – an exchange of wisdom and a mindful act of creation.

There is also the circle of our gathering; of giving and receiving; in which everyone is arranged in a shape which symbolizes reciprocity and reminds us that we are all in balance. Whatever we share goes around between us all.

The circle is also a symbol our relationship of giving and receiving with the natural world. Everything in nature works in cycles. The basic principles of ecology and sustainable natural processes are based on exchanges of minerals, carbohydrates, genes, gases and other life-sustaining elements. Without this essential mutuality, ecosystems, and the life therein, could not survive. These are the cycles that we must live within in order to endure and preserve the environment for future generations.

During this season of gifts and giving, as the days grow shorter, we are offered the opportunity of long periods of time to spend with other people in our immediate spheres of daily interaction: family members, co-workers, fellow teacher and students, members of our secular and faith communities. Now is the time to focus on how traditional family stories, folk tales and the often-told stories from the annual cycles of our spiritual traditions and holidays can enrich and empower these long nights. Storytelling can bring us together as participants in a sharing that can be traced back through the millennia, to a time when the first story was told around a cooking fire as humans of long-ago listened in wonder beneath the sky dome.

In many indigenous cultures, the gift always keeps moving it does not stop with any one person. Possession is an honor and is one aspect of the trust between people in that community. Leaders of many indigenous cultures are not respected for their material wealth, they are considered wise, just and generous as evidenced by how little they own. This is a sign that they are putting the well being of the entire community before their own personal gain or the interests of their family.

Now is the perfect time of year to rediscover the stories of wisdom that will carry us beyond the narrow perspectives that pervade our particular period of history, and into the light of a new day. The darkness is illuminated by the rays of hope that streak across our hearts and minds whenever we share in the circle of wisdom that is kept alive for each new generation by the art and the joy of storytelling.
©2007 Michael J. Caduto

Bio
Michael J. Caduto is an author, educator, ecologist, storyteller and musician who once used CPR to save a chipmunk’s life. In 1984 he founded P.E.A.C.E. “Programs for Environmental Awareness & Cultural Exchange” to promote Earth stewardship and cultural understanding. Michael has traveled throughout North America, Europe and in the Middle East to present performances, workshops and keynotes to more than 250,000 people of all ages. He is known for his mix of poignant and humorous tales as well as his well-rendered characterizations and variety expressive voices. His unique mix of programs on storytelling, science and cultures has captivated audiences of all ages for nearly 30 years.

Michael has written and co-authored sixteen books, including the Keepers of theEarth series; Earth Tales from Around the World; The Crimson Elf: Italian Tales of Wisdom; Native American Gardening; Everyday Herbs in Spiritual Life: A Guide to Many Practices; Pond and Brook: A Guide to Nature in Freshwater Environments and A Time Before New Hampshire: The Story of a Land and Native Peoples. Michael’s picture/activity books include In the Beginning: The Story of Genesis and Earth Activities for Children and A Child of God: Stories of Jesus and Stewardship Activities for Children. His awards include the Aesop Prize from the American Folklore Society, NAPPA Gold and Silver Awards, a Storytelling World Award and numerous ASCAP popular awards. He has also received awards for outstanding environmental educator from both the New England Environmental Education Association and the New York State Outdoor Education Association. His CD of music is called All One Earth: Songs for the Generations (ASCAP Popular Award). Michael, who is of Italian and Swiss ancestry, has worked closely with many indigenous cultures.

For more information please visit his website at Michael J. Caduto: http:www.p-e-a-c-e.net

Fill out the form and press play to hear storytellers Tim Sheppard and Brother Wolf discuss the Art of holding a storytelling space in front of an audience on the Art of Storytelling Show.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #033 Tim Sheppard
	for $2.23 The moment of impact – the timeless art of inspiration and presence.

Tim Sheppard talks about how various traditions hold the responsibility of an audience differently. What is the moment of impact that storytellers can create and hold for there audiences?

Tim Sheppard website:
http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #018 Rev Victoria Burdick M Div Chaplin
	for $2.23 Storytelling in Ceremony.

She writes on her website…
Inter-faith ceremony is an opportunity to merge the richness of our traditions and deepen our understanding and faith through the open doors of diversity. Beyond my accredited Masters of Divinity from a Christian University, I have been blessed with a vast exposure to great teachers; the greatest teachers of all being the beautiful souls beside in Hospice. My ordination promise is to serve God’s love in it’s infinite spectrum. That is why my commitment to your love-story is a necessity to your authentic ceremony.

Love is the most important choice in any given moment. The moment of your marriage is the most sacred of all. You become family, growing the new branch of your merged family trees. When I build a ceremony with you, the elements of your personal story are an essential to what becomes the “living-truth” of that collective moment. Every precious soul in attendance is valued, participating, honored, most especially your families. I do not do the old classic “Dearly Beloved” format. The beauty present is too valuable.

Certainly I have my own style of officiating, but the ceremony is uniquely yours. It has to be. This requires a long meeting together;¦ lots of fun; no pressure on you! All ideas are welcome to the table. I have great resources to assist and inspire your choices;once again, no pressure! I tell my couples; “Your ceremony is already written on your hearts. It’s up to me to pull the threads of your story, and go home to weave the tapestry of what your ceremony will become. Only the actual moment itself, will truly define the divine living-truth of your love.” Personally, I believe there are no coincidences when we connect. It is a great honor to serve your love, and a privilege to stand with you on that sacred threshold as you become family; it is the greatest thing we do in our human walk!

Click this link to find Reverend Victoria Burdick, M. Div Hospice Chaplain’s website http://www.authenticceremony.com

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #003 Medicine Story
	for $2.23 The power of Mythology with Children.

Selections from the book RETURN TO CREATION, by Manitonquat (Medicine Story):
(Reprinted with permission.)

What we need to investigate and learn together is healing. In a time of great sickness nothing else should concern us. Healing the earth, healing society, healing our communities, healing ourselves. To paraphrase a saying, if we are not part of the medicine, we are part of the disease.

You have come to the circle which this book represents to hear me speak. Perhaps you wish to learn something about Native American healing from a medicine man. Maybe you wish to experience a healing yourself. Well, I hope you do learn something, and I hope you get in touch with the spirit of healing. I must tell you, however, that the healing power for you is only within you. A medicine person’s real job, whether it be with a ritual, with herbs, with steam or water, with song or dance or with story – whatever the medicine, the real work is to convince you of your own healing power. That is the healing power of Creation which is within each of us.

Sickness of any kind is a dissonance in the harmony of nature, a noisy intrusion into the Song of Creation. A certain amount of dissonance and conflict is expected and desirable. They are a spur to consciousness. Our most essential teachers are Pain and Beauty. Without pain, which guides and corrects the course of awareness, there would be neither rapture nor ecstasy.

There is a rhythm to the universe. Part of sickness is losing the beat, falling out of time. That is why we use drums and rattles to heal. That is why we bring all of the universe into the medicine lodge. We sing the song that comes from within and without, the Song of Creation.

We must also be quiet. That way we can hear the music and the rhythm of the universe in the great silence.

As a teacher, a medicine person is a guide. This is the one who knows the back country of the mind and the pathways of the heart, who has taken the journeys of the spirit in other worlds. The one who knows where these trails connect in the body, in the world of physical matter. One who can show you the routes, explain the safety precautions, and be a companion in your quest. But not take your trip for you. A medicine person cannot see for you or hear for you or learn for you. In a sense a medicine person does not really teach or heal. A medicine person can only describe the territory, be with you and encourage you. You must learn for yourself. You must open yourself to your own healing.

Too many of us feel trapped and helpless, at the mercy of forces we cannot contend with or comprehend. Part of my work as a medicine man is to reveal people’s own healing powers to them, to help them understand the nature of the sicknesses that have befallen the world until they now permeate all aspects of our lives. To indicate the healing ways that are available to every one of us.

At the deepest level the disease is spiritual. Spirituality, as I conceive it, is simply the relationship of all things in the universe. Instead of thinking only of ourselves, we must consider our families, our children, our unborn generations, our planet and all the beings who share it with us, all the stars and beings throughout the cosmos, and the connections among all of these.

Where it must begin is with trust. Unless we trust that the Creation is good, that it works, that we are good, and that we can learn to live in a good way in this Creation, we give ourselves over to force or to despair. When we do not trust we resort to force for protection, to police and armies, we set up the counter force. But once we have this trust, we need only to discover the way that Creation works, find the path and follow it. It is the way of harmony, of cooperation with natural law. Fortunately we have many guides who have followed that path before us and many who are following it now. And we have the guide of the heart within us.

There is an old native saying that every step we take upon the Earth Mother should be as a prayer. Now, a prayer is just a way of becoming really conscious, really tuning in to all the relationships of everything in existence. To make every step a prayer is simply to be totally conscious in every act we do. Most of us spend most of our waking hours half asleep, only dimly aware of our feelings, to say nothing of what is going on in the world and of the connections between things.

Whatever we do has a meaning and an effect. We can ask ourselves, if I am really conscious, what effect will this action have upon Creation? How will it affect me, affect my family and my community? How will it affect the planet? How will it affect the future and the generations to come?

Our elders have passed down to us a guide for doing this. Our people call this the Original Instructions. Let us consider those instructions next. Let us begin to retrace our steps and find the Sacred Path again. As we go, let us walk in a sacred manner by letting each step be as a prayer. In this way we will find the Path of Beauty, the Path of the Heart, and return to Creation once more.

When we do not follow the Original Instructions we will feel the effects. When we clear-cut the forests and plow up the prairies and strip-mine the hills we create erosion and lose our soil. The loss of topsoil is a major catastrophe in civilized countries, and the loss of water in the water tables below the surface is the beginning of another catastrophe. When we manufacture more and more things we create more and more garbage and pollution and cancer. A hundred years ago cancer was a rare disease, and in many non-industrial areas it is still unknown. The most dense industrial areas, such as New Jersey, are the areas of highest cancer among the general public. Considering that radioactive waste has destructive power for hundreds of thousands of years and that we are dumping this poison in our Mother Earth for our unborn generations to have to deal with, we are certainly flouting our Original Instructions to our peril.

The people on this continent at one time tried to live their lives according to these Original Instructions. They did not always succeed. They were human beings and were not perfect, but growing and learning, like the rest of us. But their lives were encompassed by these Original Instructions: individual consciousness, family life, social organizations, educational and political and spiritual ways were all in harmony. Despite the notoriety of a handful of warlike nations, most of the over five hundred nations of this continent were among the most pacific people that ever inhabited the earth. They created the first United Nations in the world and a peace that has lasted among them for a thousand years. But the Great Law of Peace was not written down. It was kept in the hearts of the People of the Longhouse, so that the spirit, which was attuned to the spirit of Creation, would never be lost.

The First People were in harmony with themselves and all Creation because theirs was not written law, no Ten Commandments to be broken, no statutes for police to enforce and lawyers to find loopholes in. An ancient Chinese sage once said “Where there is no law, there will be no criminals.” Human laws create criminals, because they create opposition – they are based on fear and not love. The more laws the lower the level of trust, and human community functions best on trust. Natural Law enforces itself, there are no loopholes in it. Four hundred years ago on this continent there was no need for a legal profession, and there was no such thing as a criminal profession. No one lived by hurting others. The Original Instructions are to be found in no book for the scholars to dispute. They are in our hearts, all the time. We all know what is right. You know what is right. You know when you are doing wrong. And when people point out to someone that he has made a mistake and hurt someone, if they are not condemning but helpful that person will do anything to repay the hurt he has caused in order to feel good about himself again.

There is no cruelty in the wilderness, in nature, without human beings. Animals are never cruel, do not act out of spite or revenge, and do not carry anger or fear beyond the appropriate moment. Only human beings think and understand with their minds that they must die. But with this understanding comes the knowledge of the Original Instructions. For we are the only beings on this earth that can feel and know Beauty in our hearts. When through our acts we create ugliness and imbalance and bad feelings we know this is not the Way of Creation. When we create Beauty and Joy and Love we feel good. Our hearts tell us that we are in harmony and in good balance.

The basic elements of tribal life are spiritual. To understand the tribe you must first know that Creation is a circle made of circles. You must know that humankind is a circle made of all the circles of all the nations, the nation a circle of the circles of its tribes, and the tribe a circle of the circles of its families. And our circles connect through time, so that we not only have a place in the family and the tribe, but also in the spiral that connects our ancestors with the unborn generations to come.

The deepest, strongest, best feelings of my life are the ones I get when I regard my children. Watching them learn, play, hurt, laugh, or just sleep, I am overwhelmed by the deepest awe. At that moment I know my Original Instructions clearly. I hear the Creator whisper in my ear to do my utmost for these, and teach them to do the same for their children, and that where all this love and all this learning is going is what the Creation is all about. Our children are the growing edge of the conscious evolution of life on this planet.

My Original Instructions tell me to be a tribal being, since it is in the warm, loving, accepting, appreciating environment of the tribe that my children are going to flourish the best. Whether I am biologically a parent or not, in the tribe I am a parent of all the children. To the extent that I forget or lose that feeling, that nourishing and caring for the growth of all our little ones, to that extent the work of my life will lose contact with the sacred path that is the way of Creation.

Do you see how it all fits together? The Original Instructions are the Circle. I am a circle, but not isolated, not separate. I join with a woman, and we have children. Now our individual circles are together in another circle – the family – which includes the grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins – and these join in another circle – the tribe. The tribe draws its circle upon the Earth Mother and says so much will we protect and care for, and she will provide for us. Then our tribal circle looks to the neighboring tribes and comes to one mind with them to protect and care for that region of the earth. And now in our modern era of technology we can extend this all around the planet.

But the basic circle is still the tribe. The largest number of people that can live in the intimate sharing of the resources of our immediate environment. When we get beyond that we create abstractions – states, governments, corporations. We have the illusion that we control these creations – but they are monsters with lives of their own, and soon they have usurped all our power. We are powerless within our own institutions.

Yet the Original Instructions are there still. Still in our blood. In our genes. In our heritage. We fall in love. We conceive children. We long for the security of our tribe, our own people, our own sacred land. Our society is crumbling all around us, and still in our ears we can hear, if we but listen, the voice of the Creator whispering in the night, telling us to hold our loved ones, to keep our families together, to embrace our neighbors, to share the beauty and the bounty of the earth in one sacred circle.

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