Press Play to hear Brother Wolf speak with Limor Shiponi on striding towards storytelling mastery on the Art of Storytelling Show.

Limor Shiponi writes…

Mastery is an ambiguous word raising the impulse of ownership and recognition, resonating something standing apart while representing a form of wholeness. What is it about mastery and mastery in storytelling that keeps me at this issue for so long?

For me, mastery is about inspiration, a northern-star I can dream about and act upon. I want to help my audiences, including myself, touch our stars for the sake of joy in life. I believe mastery leads that way and therefore I seek it, investigate it, I want to understand.

This is what I know: mastery lives in the physical world and it has an age; It lives in people. Mastery is not a degree or a title but rather a state of being, formulated by the work of a person who turnes his search and art into his walk in life without even knowing he is on the path to mastery; until one day, it arrives.

How do you know? You feel one with story, with listener and nothing stands in the way anymore. Time gives-in to your ability to craft it with each word, gesture or sound you make while traveling through a story told so many times before – told once again with the special group of people sitting in front of you. When you seek mastery, they are your companions sharing the path you are unraveling underneath their feet.

When mastery is present the story transcends its documentation, set free into full life. I see mastery in storytelling as magic – a performing art that entertains by creating suspension of disbelief in front of what is seemingly impossible or supernatural, using purely natural means like skill, knowledge, wisdom and love.

Since very young age I’ve been trying to understand how it is that people are fascinated from what seems to be there while it is not, trying to pass through the curtains and reach the back-stage of imagination. Eventually I found myself standing there and I can tell you what I know: mastery lives in the real world in the form of your own kindness, enchantment and glint in the eye. You get there if you are willing to acquire the skill and knowledge, walk the path and share the magic of life.

Bio

To make a long story short…

I tend to tell powerful stories that kick you out of balance and then help you land in safety. I execute my work through performances, workshops, talks, consulting and writing for various formats. I’m constantly and deliberately pushing toward excellence in storytelling and receiving the recognition it deserves. Why? Because I think there is not enough amazing storytelling to go around. I believe humanity deserves its soul back, the permission to do our best and help each other speak the truth. I’m also deeply interested in the connection between high science, storytelling and politics. That’s on the blade side. To the Chalice: I love people and love listening to people. The amount of compassion people stimulate in me makes me an easy weeper, in joy and in sadness.

I prefer being my best and influencing others to be their best. It is the core of everything I do through the main disciplines I’ve studied and practice – orchestra conducting, storytelling & coaching. I feel at home in both eastern and western environments, conflicts are my play-ground for finding balance. Very few matters can leave me speechless or unwilling to participate, one of them is deliberately hurting and neglecting children, another is humiliating a person in a ‘friendly’ way.

I do many things in many fields which people find hard to believe until we meet and actually work together. This is not about boasting but about delivering the nature of my work and the way it is perceived by my clients. I’m curious about almost everything and thank goodness, this trait has not killed me until today. It just helps me to see a problem from many angles and find solutions.

Translating the above into professional jargon…

Some of the issues I speak about – social media and marketing, managing in time (you can’t manage time, it’s the other way round), storytelling and politics, branding (including self-branding and how to do it the right way), organizational culture, woman’s issues in the 21th century, learning.

Some of my storytelling programs – medieval stories, the nine female characters in Arthurian Legends and what we can learn from them, Israeli stories (different from Jewish stories), Mediterranean love stories, wine and bawdy stories, folktales from many cultures, wisdom tales. Most of my audiences are adults and at the same time I love telling to children over the age of four, teenagers and adolescence.

Smart Storytelling Systems™ – include ‘The Quest Master’ & ‘The Key’. The Quest Master is a tactical tool for generating better decision making between high profile professionals. The Key is a process for eliciting great sales stories, brand culture and language and fresh customer service.

Business & organizational consulting – marketing strategy, social media, buzzing, brand language and organizational culture. These are broad issues that narrow down according to the client’s request or my recommendation.

Writing & experience design – I teach copywriting from a storyteller’s point of view, write and evaluate copy, cooperate with experience design and interactive specialists.

The amount of storytelling projects and initiatives I’m involved with will make this text way too long to read. My links will show you the way if you want to know more.

And… I have a request or a serious invitation really. I’m looking for people from the gaming industry that will be wild enough to design a new game from scratch, beginning from storytelling. Not story nor script, storytelling. What do I mean? Contact me.

Limor’s Storytelling Agora
You may find a discussion on this episode between several listeners and Limor here.

Press Play to hear Elisa Pearmain speak about a Teaching Forgiveness through storytelling on the Art of Storytelling.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #088 Elisa Pearmain for $2.23 Teaching Forgiveness through storytelling.

Written by Elisa Pearmain...
Forgiveness is central to the success of relationships, and is an integral part of the emotional, spiritual and even physical healing process, and yet it is poorly understood. Forgiveness offers an opportunity to look at and relate to our stories of wounding in new ways. It calls us to see those who have hurt us with more complexity and empathy. It guides us to forgive ourselves, to untangle ourselves from wounding experiences and the role of victim, and ultimately to live more fully. Stories and storytelling work can help us to understand forgiveness more deeply, and to traverse the forgiveness process with more support and imagination.

In this podcast Elisa Pearmain focused on forgiveness for individuals rather than reconciliation between people or groups of people. She shared a few stories that illustrate aspects of the forgiveness process in action. She discussed some of her personal experiences with forgiveness. She shared some of her observations of the forgiveness process in her therapy practice, and how often at bottom we discover the need to forgive ourselves. Elisa discussed how retelling personal experience in folk and fairy tale can help in this healing process and how the "narrative reframing" or "shifts in perspective" are at the heart of forgiveness, and various techniques for shifting story perspectives she uses. Elisa talked about forgiveness in the grief process, and some of the reasons why it is hard to forgive. All this and your questions in one hour under the wise guidance of our host!

Bio

Elisa Pearmain began her career in storytelling as a dancer who was trying to tell stories without words. In her late 20’s she was she was challenged in a dance theatre workshop to tell a story combining words and movement about an experience in which she found empowerment. Elisa began to shape the story of her experience as a battered woman in her first relationship after college. By stepping back into the shoes of the scared young woman who tiptoed around her boyfriend, and by reconnecting to the voice she didn’t have to speak her truth, she discovered that she hadn’t deserved the abuse and that when she shared her story others were grateful and wanted to share theirs. Thus began a deep curiosity and belief in the healing power of storytelling.
Elisa was soon leading groups of women to shape and share their stories and to learn from them. Her next project was to gather stories from Vietnam Veterans. She shaped one long story based on the stories she heard from them called “The Defoliated Heart,” and shared it with teens and adults. She learned so much more about wounding and trauma, and the role of story in the healing process.
Elisa’s career in storytelling has led her through storytelling residencies in the Boston Public Schools, as an adjunct faculty at Lesley University for 14 years, teaching teachers to integrate storytelling and as a professional storyteller in schools and libraries and churches.
In 1998 Elisa published her first book, Doorways to the Soul: 52 Wisdom Tales from around the World. This is a collection of short wise tales from many traditions and ways of connecting more deeply with them for personal and spiritual growth. In 1998 she also received her Master’s in Counseling and began to work formally as a therapist. For six years she worked on a psychiatric unit of a local hospital, often leading groups using story. For the past six years she has been working part-time in an out-patient clinic with teens and adults. She finds that almost every client she sees is struggling with issues related to forgiveness, and that being able to forgive one self and others in central to healing, personal and spiritual growth.

She also presents programs in schools related to character development and bullying prevention and has a second award-winning book called, Once Upon a time: Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying. Lessons from 99 Multicultural folktales for the K-8 Classroom. (2006)

To learn more about Elisa’s work and other publications you can go to her website www.wisdomtales.com

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 #066 Michael D. McCarty
	for $2.23 Storytelling and literacy in the 21st century.

Michael D. McCarty writes…
That which does not evolve dies. The ability to change, grow and adapt is essential to the survival of any species, society or ideal. Storytelling has been around since the dawn of man, which says a lot for the viability of this essential art form. Throughout human history stories have been used to inform, inspire, educate and more. Storytelling is part of our DNA.
So what is the role of literacy and storytelling in the 21st century? How is it evolving? The National Storytelling Network’s Storytelling Interest Groups (SIGs) give an indication. Storytelling has entered the business world and the Storytelling in Organizations SIG, Annette Simmons’ books, “The Story Factor” and “Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins” and a host of other books and individuals are taking it there in a big way.

The Storytelling in Higher Education (SHE) and Healing Story Alliance (HSA) SIGs promote storytelling in colleges and the healing arts respectively, while the Youth, Educators and Storytellers Alliance (YES) champion the value of storytelling in the classroom. The Producers and Organizers (the only SIG without an acronym) SIG brings together those who produce storytelling events. These folks are constantly working to make storytelling enticing to new audiences.

On another front, since 1997 The Moth, which is headquartered in New York, New York, has been conducting Story Slams, i.e. story competitions, which have brought in a whole new group of people to storytelling. The most prominent group is the twenty & thirty something’s that come in small numbers to traditional storytelling events, but come in droves to The MOTH.

A critical task for Storytelling is combating illiteracy. One of the most shocking bits of data is the alarming rise of illiteracy in America. People are reading fewer books and the ability to spell is going out the window. I’have worked with middle and high school kids who couldn’t read a simple children’s book or pronounce a word over two syllables without difficulty.
The positive impact of storytelling in fostering literacy has been well documented (check out www.storynews.org). The challenge for storytellers is to be proactive in making sure the education community is made aware of and utilizes storytelling and storytellers to this end.

The Los Angeles Reading Project (LARP) places storytellers in pre-schools telling stories to the children AND the parents and teaching the parents to read and to tell stories to their kids. A director at one of the pre-school sites noted that parents told her that their kids wanted to hear stories rather than play with their high tech toys and games! This is a great example of how literacy and storytelling in the 21st century are tied closely together.

The art of storytelling is alive and kicking. It’s up to those of us who love it to continue to spread the word.

“The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them and learn to give them away. Sometimes a person needs a story more than they need food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memory. That is how people care for themselves.”
Barry Lopez

A short bio for Michael D. McCarty
Awards and Grants
Public Corporation of the Arts Grant (Long Beach, CA) 1994 -1999
Candlelight Award for Sharing Hope 1998 (South Africa)
National Storytelling Network’s 2003 Leadership & Service Award (Pacific Region)

Performance Highlights
Armand Hammer Museum California Afro-American Museum
The House of Blues, Los Angeles African Market Place, Los Angeles
Knott’s Berry Farm
Fowler Museum-U.C.L.A.
John Anson Ford Theater Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles
African Festival of the Arts,Chicago Whole Life Expo, Los Angeles
Bay Area Storytelling Festival Santa Monica Museum of Art
Autry Museum of Western Heritage National Storytelling Conference
Summer Solstice Folk, Dance, Music & Storytelling Festival
Co-Director Los Angeles World Storytelling Festival (2002, 2003)
National Storytelling Festival (Exchange Place)
Museum of Contemporary Art

Check out Michael D. McCarty’s Website….

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #050 La’Ron Williams
	for $2.23 Supporting peace and social justice through storytelling.