Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on September 24th at 8 PM ET – 2008. Thomas Freeze spike about the advantages of sharing ghost stories with children.

Thomas Freese writes…
I enjoyied being on Eric’s “Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Podcast” on September 23, 8PM Eastern time. I’ve been a professional storyteller and author of ghost story books for over a decade in addition to my work as an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. Our topic was “Why tell children scary ghost stories?” I have over a dozen storytelling programs that I perform for schools, libraries, festivals, churches and private parties. And several of those themed programs are ghost stories. I’ve collected both true ghost stories as well as authoring original fiction mysteries. Kids love storytelling and kids really love ghost stories!

I was fascinated with ghost stories since I was a middle school student. In fact, one of my favorite books, Strangely Enough, which I bought at a Scholastic Book Fair, is still in print and still available for kids at school. After reading it and questioning my Mom about real experiences with ghosts she related a tale of an encounter at her Aunt’s farm when out horse riding. I’ve been hooked on ghostly mysteries ever since.

Fast forward to my life in Kentucky where I was a volunteer singer at the historic 200 plus year Shaker village called Pleasant Hill, located near Harrodsburg in Mercer County. During my ten years singing I heard numerous stories of experiences with the Shaker spirits and I decided to take a stand, rescue the fact or folklore that would be lost oral accounts if no one else researched and recorded them. I interviewed over 60 employees and guests starting in 1998 and later (2005) published those first-hand tales in my Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. I found children of all ages fascinated with the stories of spirits who seemed to act very much in character with the once-living Shakers. Folks heard singing, shouting, stomping in the 1820 Meeting House. They saw Shaker-dressed figures on the old village pike.

As I performed my ghost stories program I included some true tales along with the fanciful entertaining fictional tales. I found kids no less interested in the true tales despite some of those seeming a bit less high-impact than fiction stories. I created a number of guitar songs to accompany my tales of witches, ghosts and other creatures. In live performances of mixed ages I noticed children mesmerized by true ghost stories.

In planning discussions with some teachers or librarians I was intrigued to see that some basically requested “the scarier the better” whereas others wanted assurances at least concerning the younger ages, say up to Kindergarten or first grade. I think a number of scary tales can be done successfully and without undue “trauma” at younger ages but the teller’s environment makes a difference. I sing a song to normalize the fear of ghostly stories at the beginning of my program. What I find fascinating also is that whatever the age of the audience, younger children through adult, one can find individuals sitting side by side of the same age where one is wide eyed with participatory “fear” and the other smirks and says, “That’s not scary enough!”

Please join me for this Podcast as I consider the topic with several professional hats, ghost story author, storyteller and professional counselor and therapist. My credentials include BA Psychology, MA Expressive Therapies, LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, ATR-BC (Art Therapist Board Certified). In addition, I have worked as a Psychic Counselor and I can tell you that some things kids see are not “just their imagination!” Check out my books, first one mentioned above, and also Fog Swirler and 11 Other Ghost Stories and just released Strange and Wonderful Things: a Collection of Ghost Stories with Special Appearances by Witches and Other Bizarre Creatures.

Check out my site for more information: http://www.thomaslfreese.com/

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #055 Buck Creacy for $2.23 What makes stuff funny in storytelling?

Who Is Buck P. Creacy?
Buck P. Creacy is a homegrown Humorist and a Storyteller. But that is hardly an adequate description of this very funny man. Buck P. has always used humor to make life better for those around him. In the process you can tell he has gained a passion for life and people himself.

He started his humor apprenticeship in Slim’s Barber Shop, Farmington New Mexico, at the tender age of 14. There he realized he could shine more shoes and get bigger tips, if he made his customers laugh. He is still putting a shine in peoples eyes and making them laugh.

Buck P. is also a real live “honest to God” Toolmaker, with nearly 30 years in the tool room, working, consulting and teaching for the benefit of companies all over America. Sharing his wit and wisdom with some of the best known international companies in the world such as Toyota, Dresser Corp., Osram Sylvania and the list goes on and on for more than 98 companies. Groups both large and small love him.

Today his focus on humor is as razor sharp as ever, but never malicious. He has chosen early in life to make his humor “safe” for any audience. Whether his audience is a group of first year students or industry team members or a family reunions, he manages to bridge the gaps with easy grace.

Buck P. sees the whole wide world just a little bit different. And that difference is enough just enough to make you laugh out loud.

To Learn more about Buck P. Creacy check out hisi site.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #022 Julie Mills Festival Organizer of the Northern Kentucky Storytelling Festival.
	for $2.23 Building a successful storytelling festival at your library.

I think you will find that this interview can really help storytellers understand the librarians and libraries in their lives. If you are interested in storytelling at your local library this interview is must listen and if you are a librarian interested in having storytelling events in your library I would recommend listening as well.

—–More about the Guest…
Julie Mills began working as a Children’s Programmer at the Erlanger Branch of the Kenton County Public Library in August of 2001. Julie started with Preschool age children and in February of 2004, she began working as the School Coordinator. In this position she oversees all school age programming hosted by the Erlanger Branch, be it in the library or at schools.

As a former Elementary School teacher, Julie has always had a love for storytelling and has done some amateur telling herself by including stories in her work with children. She attended her first storytelling festival at Cave Run in 2002 and was entranced. Since then, Julie has attended other festivals including the National Storytelling Festival and the Southern Ohio Storytelling Festival. This was her second year directing our festival and she is thrilled to have the job. Julie is currently attending school at Florida State University through their distance learning program to earn her Master’s degree in Information Studies and plans to graduate in December. She received her BA from Northern Kentucky University in Elementary Education.

You can read more about the Northern Kentucky Storytelling Festival at there website: http://www.kentonlibrary.org/storytelling/

Press Play to hear this interview on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf that was recorded as a conference call on August 28th, 2007, Carolyn Franzini shares how to plan the Cave Run Storytelling festival.

Carolyn Franzini is the Director of the Cave Run Storytelling Festival one of the most successful and prestigious storytelling festivals outside of Jonesborough in the United States in this interview she discusses how to run a storytelling festival successfully and How Storytellers Become Candidates for Telling at the Festival. She has kindly allowed the use fo the following ten tips on running a storytelling festival to be included on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf blog.

Eric Wolf

She writes
10 Tips for Organizing a Festival.

1. Know why you want to have the storytelling festival
2. Make sure your reasons for having the storytelling festival “fit” your community, sponsor etc because you need their support
3. Make sure all persons on the storytelling festival organization committee love storytelling
4. Try to make the preparation for the event as simple as possible–in other words decide what you feel are the most important parts of the festival and do them well. Maybe you can’t do everything the first year, do what is important
5. Keep records of all expenditures in categories- ex marketing, hospitality for tellers etc. This will help you compare expenses from one year to another.
6. Have job lists for all committee members, volunteers –look at these each year to be sure they still fit the job/person
7. Tellers are a very important part of the storytelling festival, have a selection group choose tellers that fit your audience
8. If you have students attending the storytelling festival, be sure you communicate clearly with the school contact person about expectations for behavior, lunch trash etc
9. Word of mouth is your best advertising (after the first years)-your audience will tell others about your great festival
10. On the storytelling festival day(s), the festival committee should try to enjoy the storytelling a little (working it in around their job) or there is not much reason for them to work hard in the preparing for the event.

Carolyn Franzini grew up on a farm in Kansas and now lives with her husband, Bob, in Morehead, KY. They have three grown children. She is retired from working 23 years as a teacher and administrator for public schools in four states. She now has time to pursue her numerous interests. She is the coordinator of the Cave Run Storytelling Festival-the last weekend of September at Cave Run Lake. She loves to travel and learn about other cultures. She realized a dream this summer when she and her husband took seven students from Morehead to Yangshuo, Guangxi, China for three weeks. She hosts a weekly radio program, “A Time for Tales” , on Morehead State Public Radio. Each show features theme related stories told by professional storytellers. Other interests include studying Chinese and cooking.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #013 Cynthia Changaris
	for $2.23 Singing with Stories for Children.

Cynthia Changaris writes…
Songs, rhythms and rhymes are a strong way to connect to children. I use singing and rhythms, finger-plays and rhymes in my work to develop an immediate response from the children, to connect to their previous knowledge, and to let them know this event is going to be fun and interactive. It allows me to issue an invitation, “Come on! Come along with me.”

When babies are in their mother’s womb, they are exposed to sounds, music from the outside, banging, etc. But, the most regular sound they are exposed to, which is a constant for them is the beat, beat, beat of the mother’s heart. This sound is often accompanied by the rocking of the mother’s body as she goes about her work. We are inborn with a connection to music that goes back to our inception and moves forward with us as we grow. That makes music a powerful bridge for children in their learning.

When performing as a storyteller there are many ways to use songs. I use songs that stand alone, songs that relate to the subject of the stories, songs that connect a group of stories together, songs that teach wonder and reverence for the humanity and the world, songs that are sung by the character in the story, songs that are repetitive and provide an interlude or a point of movement of the story, songs to frame the story, and songs that are stories. I use songs that allow and encourage body hand and facial movement. I sometimes create songs as I tell a story.

When I am leaving a storytelling event and hear the children humming or singing one of the songs I have put together with the story, am delighted. As they walk away humming, or reciting a chant, I know the story has entered their lives and their hearts.

Twenty-eight years ago when my first-born was a toddler and I was an assistant professor working in the College of Nursing, I decided that I wanted to learn to work with children and music. I have always loved to sing and always had a song in my heart, so I found Ruth Crawford Seeger’s American Folk Music For Children and read it from cover to cover. I sat down at a piano and plinked out the unfamiliar songs, and took time to enjoy the songs I did know.

Ruth Seeger had gone into the archives at the Library of Congress and discovered a wealth of folk songs for children, then used these songs in a Pre-school for 3 years, teaching and playing with the children. The strength of this book is the songs, which under gird our cultural heritage. In addition, and more important for me is also the way she demonstrates teaching and changing the songs, playing with the songs, helping the children put the songs and melodies in their body, their hands, their minds and their heart.

When I discovered Storytelling in 1983, at the Corn Island Festival, it was natural for me to watch carefully the tellers who did use music in their work, people like Doug Lipman, Heather Forrest, Michael Parent. I got more books of songs at the library. I checked out tapes at the library of children’s songs. I drenched myself in children’s music, and when I found one I liked, I collected it, put it in my repertoire and used it. I have been doing this ever since. While driving down the road, I will have a story pop into my head and think, “Oh, here’s a song goes well with that story!” That is my creative process and what gives me joy, discovering good songs and developing connections to story that will delights me and the kids.

Cynthia is the owner of the storytellers river house in Bethlehem, Indiana 47104

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #011 Bill McKell
	for $2.23 Founding a Festival from Scratch.

Bill Mckell writes…
Creating the Southern Ohio Storytelling Festival in Chillicothe has been an interesting journey. I guess it began when my wife and I started attending the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN when our daughters were quite young. When they became old enough to enjoy attending storytelling festivals, we were reluctant to invite them into the “get away” weekend we enjoyed in eastern Tennessee each year. So we searched for an alternate festival to which we could take them. We found the Cave Run Storytelling Festival near Morehead, KY and began taking them there. After attending a couple of years, my wife and I wondered if we could do something similar in our hometown of Chillicothe. The art and tradition of storytelling seemed a natural complement to the historic and charming character of Chillicothe’s downtown and the community’s Appalachian heritage. I posed the idea to one of our leading downtown businesswomen and the idea took off from there.

Margaret Daniels, another leading citizen, was intrigued by the idea and volunteered to chair the festival committee. A number of interested people joined the committee and worked to launch the first event. It took us about 18 months from when the committee first formed until we held our first festival. We sent a delegation to Cave Run and spent much time with their director learning how to budget a festival, hire storytellers, promote the event, etc. They were very helpful. We then worked hard to find inexpensive local venues and interested local sponsors to help make the budget work. We used mailing lists of local arts patrons to help us promote the event and we worked with the local paper and radio stations to help us get the word out. Our first event held in 2004 was a success. We were able to invite four “national” storytellers, two “regional” tellers and one “local” teller. We invited older elementary students from around the county to attend performances on Friday. Over 1200 attended.

That formula continues to work for us as we are now working on our fourth festival. We continue to hold our event on the first Friday and Saturday after Labor Day. Grants and sponsorships have allowed us to bring in top quality storytellers while keeping the cost of admission quite reasonable. We hold our evening “concerts” in the Majestic Theatre–the oldest continuously operating theater west of the Alleghenies–in downtown Chillicothe. We continue to host hundreds of local students as well as other student groups from all over the state. We have also established an outreach program where the storytellers in our line-up actually go out into the community and tell stories to groups who cannot make it to the festival themselves (domestic violence shelter, homeless shelter, children’s ward at the hospital, etc.). It’s been very well received. We encourage all storytelling enthusiasts in the mid-west to join us for this fun-filled weekend.

You can see the festival’s website at http://www.southernohiostoryfest.com/

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #001 Mary Hamilton for $2.23 Learn about the “Working on Our Work” Storytelling Weekend.

Post written by Mary Hamilton.

What is a WOW Weekend?

A WOW Weekend is a “Working on Our Work” Storytelling Weekend facilitated by Scheherazade’s Legacy – Mary Hamilton & Cynthia Changaris. Wow Weekends provide an opportunity for storytellers of all experience levels to gather as peers and grow in the art of telling stories. Each storyteller participating in a WOW Weekend is guaranteed the same amount of time (minimum one hour) for the group to focus their attention on the teller’s work. Using an artist-centered process, each participant will be able to use the collective wisdom of the group in service to the storyteller’s work.

Want to try out a new story? Participate in a WOW Weekend. Have an idea for a new workshop and want to talk through it? Participate in a WOW Weekend. Got a gig coming up that calls for you to make a familiar tale five minutes shorter? Participate in a WOW Weekend. Got a gig coming up that calls for you to present a program of stories you haven’t told in a long time? Participate in a WOW Weekend.

In other words, the agenda for each teller is determined by the teller. Truly, a WOW Weekend fosters a gathering of artistic peers listening, thinking and responding in support of one another’s work.

How Do We Work on Our Work Together?

We use the Artist-Centered Response Process. The Artist-Centered Response Process is a combination of storytelling coaching techniques developed by storyteller Doug Lipman and artist-centered critical response process developed by dancer Liz Lerman. We’ll use a step-by-step process with the artist deciding how far to proceed along the five steps:

Step 1: Listen (to the work, to the ideas, to whatever the artist want to use the brains of the group to consider). Sometimes, Step 1 is the only step the artist wants because the artist just wants to “put the work out there” to see how it feels, but does not want to discuss it with the group. That’s fine and allowed at a WOW weekend.

Step 2: Give affirmations – the group lets the artist know what they heard that is working. Artists are encouraged to use Step 2 to benefit from the opportunity to hear from peers. While some may feel, “I don’t need to hear affirmations. I want to focus on what needs to be fixed, so I plan to skip Step 2!” it is important that the artist hear affirmations. It is in Step 2 that artists often learn about aspects of their work that are indeed working well that the artist had not realized were successful or had not acknowledged as strengths.

Step 3: Artist asks questions – this is the artist’s opportunity to bring up those issues the artist wants the group to consider, ponder, give opinions on, etc.

Step 4: Listeners ask questions or state reactions – this is the artist’s opportunity to hear (and answer if desired) questions from the group. This step can help the artist become aware of sections where the listeners “didn’t get it” which can really help the artist figure out where tinkering may be needed. “State reactions” does not mean “pass judgment” but instead means the listeners can tell the artist where they were lost or confused, or found their attention wavering, or what they are wondering about. If a listener feels a strong desire to make a suggestion during Step 4, the listener should ask the artist’s permission first.

The Final Step: Check back in with the artist. Often, after the listeners ask questions, the artist discovers she/he has more questions about the work or more comments to make, so a final check with the artist is always the last step in the process.

To hear this call you must join the community email list - join now.

This Post is a repost from Mary’s Website – See the original material in context and learn more about the WOW weekend. ]]> http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/2007/04/06/mary-hamilton-wow-weekend-coaching/feed/ 1