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 storytellingthe 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 Å‚ 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.

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 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 Janice M. Del Negro who was interviewed by Eric Wolf on revising feminist folk-tales: naming the women. on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Dr. Janice M. Del Negro writes
When Eric and I talked about a topic for this interview, he asked me what was I passionate about? I am passionate about naming the women.

That being said, I was reluctant to use the word “feminist” in the title of this podcast. The word “feminist” is a trigger word that elicits, in many people, a strong emotional response. Since I agree with Mark Twain – “the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug”- the choice of the word “feminist” was problematic, because nearly everyone has a distinct personal definition of that particular word. Eric bypassed that concern, however: “people will search ‘feminist’ online,” he said to the library school professor. So here we are, “Revisioning the Feminist Folktale,” and I am not sure that two people on the planet have the same definition of what “feminist” means, never mind folktale, or oral tradition. So I’ll stick to passion.

I am passionate about retelling folktales. I am passionate about excavating old tales, tales that have already survived for centuries, for emotional truths that resonate with contemporary listeners. There is no definitive version of a folktale, no “original”; we can point to the earliest remembered, written, or preserved version, but not to an “original.” Folktales change over time in order to survive, and re-telling folktales for present-day listeners is a contemporary offshoot of what is popularly understood as the oral tradition.

Tales come to us differently today than in the past. A handful of contemporary American storytellers can say they heard folktales from family or friends, tales that were handed down orally, from mouth to ear, but many of us who retell folktales first meet the tales on the page. Sometimes the tales work just as we find them; sometimes they resonate oddly, indicating currents beneath the surface. Those currents offer an opportunity to retell from where the teller stands now, instead of from where the story stood then.

My stand includes my gender. I am a woman. I am fascinated by the women in folktales, not just the women characters, but the women storytellers. Many of the tales we have were collected by men operating within the social mores of their times. The stories these good men chose to collect and the manner in which they collected them were filters through which the stories travelled, affecting the tale’s content and presentation. I look at a folktale so collected and I want to know: what isn’t there? What would the stories be like if the women were telling them to each other in the kitchen, while the collector was making notes on the polite version in the parlor? Those are the stories I want to tell, and since no one collected them in quite that way, I make my own. Filtered through my own experiences, I try and make an old tale new.

Stories may be static on the physical or virtual page, but for as long as the storyteller is telling, the story has blood and breath. Every retelling of a folktale, imbued with the individual blood and breath of the storyteller, is unique. The storytelling community recognizes this in a practical and concrete way: there are many popular conference and festival programs in which several tellers elect to retell the same folktale, just to show what is possible.

I am enormously interested in the fact that many female storytellers choose to retell traditional tales from points of view not always represented in collected or anthologized versions of folktales. Milbre Burch, Elizabeth Ellis, Susan Klein, Barbara Schutz-Gruber, Megan Wells, my own students (and too many others to name even with unlimited bandwidth) approach folktales through their own artistic processes. I cannot speak to the specifics of anyone’s process but my own, and even my process is malleable; the process changes with every story, because every story speaks differently to every teller.

JMD

Janice M. Del Negro, PhD.
Author, Educator, Storyteller

Janice M. Del Negro is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, where she teaches Storytelling, Children’s and Young Adult Literature, and Foundations in Library and Information Science. Professor Del Negro did her doctoral work at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Del Negro has been a featured speaker, storyteller, and workshop leader at the National Storytelling Festival, the Allerton Conference (”Stories: From Fireplace to Cyberspace”), the Illinois Library Association, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the Fox Valley Music and Storytelling Festival, the Champaign Public Library Children’s Literature Festival, and many other celebratory events. She has spoken and conducted workshops on various aspects of children’s literature and publishing, storytelling, and reading motivation for teachers, librarians, parents, and other educators in a variety of settings, including the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the State Library of Illinois, the North Carolina State Library, and the University of San Diego.
Del Negro’s first picture book, Lucy Dove (1998) won the Anne Izard Storytelling Award; her second picture book, Willa and the Wind (2005) was an ALA Notable Book, and an Honor Book for the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Her recent collection of supernatural tales for young adults, Passion and Poison, published by Marshall Cavendish in 2007, received starred reviews in both Horn Book and School Library Journal.
Del Negro has performed and lectured extensively in libraries, schools, and community centers throughout the United States. Her specialties include retelling traditional folktales, reading motivation through literature and storytelling, and transformation stories, with a gentle emphasis on women and ghosts. Her first recording, Journeywomen and Ghostly Passages, was released in July, 1991; her most recent recordings, Romantic Wonder: Tales of Love and Magic, and Shadow’s Sisters: Shapeshifters, Wraiths, and Spirited Women, were released in April, 1999. She is currently working on a new recording entitled Fortune’s Daughters: Folktales and Ghost Tales, to be released in 2008. Del Negro has reviewed for Booklist Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and School Library Journal, and is currently reviewing for Booklist.
She has served on both the Newbery, Caldecott, and Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award committees. In 2004-2005 Del Negro served as chair of the 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award committee. and subsequently served as chair of the 2007 Caldecott Award Committee.
Del Negro was formerly the director of the Center for Children’s Books, a special collection of children’s books located at the University of Illinois. Before taking her position as Center director, she was the editor of the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, a monthly review journal of books for youth. Del Negro went to the University of Illinois from the State Library of North Carolina, where she was a consultant for children’s services and public libraries throughout the state. Prior to this she worked for fourteen years as a children’s librarian for the Chicago Public Library, including five years as Assistant Director of Children’s Services.

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/

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #056 Karen Chace
	for $2.23 Story by story, building a school storytelling club.

Karen has a great resource of storytelling links and other storytelling goodies that are worth your time at http://www.storybug.net

On a warm, spring night in June of 2003 nineteen third and fourth grade elementary storytelling students took center stage in the school auditorium. The event was the first Student Storytelling Festival where their dedication and talent came together for a glorious evening of folktales, fables, myths and legends from around the world. Each child had personally selected their tale and their work quickly became a labor of love. Without hesitation each storyteller stepped to the microphone and whisked us away on the wings of story to England, Africa, Serbia, Russia, Canada, Tibet and beyond. It was an evening filled with individual and family pride, one which showcased not only the personality and skills of each student, but illustrated the virtues of camaraderie and team spirit. They gave it their all and succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations.

Why was this remarkable? According to scientific research, one of our greatest fears is public speaking, yet these young children took the stage with confidence and poise. Facing an audience of family, teachers, administrators, friends and peers, the young tellers held them in thepalms of their hands for an hour.

How did it all begin? With one sentence. In 2002 I had been storytelling for only a few years when I approached one of the teachers and boldly stated, “I would love to start a student storytelling club.” With her support we bravely approached our principal with a proposal and the rest as they say is history!

I am now in my sixth year guiding the Story Explorer’s Troupe. Since its inception I have been privileged to work with over 140 children. I am continually amazed at the innovative, fun and creative work they offer their audiences but more importantly, the changes their teachers and parents observe in their classroom performance, personal confidence and positive peer interaction.Throughout the school year we work on basic storytelling skills, including voice intonation, body language, gestures, improvisation, and stage presence. Our goal is to take the show “on the road.” When the storytellers are ready I organize small group presentations for the teachers and students. The number of audience members increases with each performance; the storytellers continue to gain confidence and we end the school year with a storytelling festival for family, friends and community members. To read an article about last year’s event go to: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070621/NEWS/706210378

Storytelling is a fun and exciting activity but it also aligns with many benchmarks of the educational curriculum across the country. Oral storytelling is rooted in tradition and myths, legends and folktales. It is the conduit that passes on the customs and values of other cultures, while enhancing a student’s view of the global community. The National Council of Teachers of English has published their Position Statement on the value of using storytelling in the classroom and Howard Gardner’s original Seven Styles of Learning (an eighth has now been added to the list: Naturalist Intelligence) offers guidelines on how storytellers and teachers can use the power of story to tap into each child’s specific learning style. In addition, storyteller Kendall Haven has compiled definitive research on how we are innately “hardwired for story.” He has generously given me permission to list some of his work on my website at http://www.storybug.net/teachers.htm. Kendall has recently published Story Proof, which offers a multitude of additional research on the wide-ranging, positive impact storytelling has in the classroom and beyond.

Since our first tentative steps the Story Explorers troupe has continued to grow, partnerships have been forged and I have witnessed many astonishing and unexpected success stories. This June, on two separate evenings, 30 students will use the stage as their canvas and words as their paintbrush to craft a world colored by the magic of their imaginations. In 2002 a group of eager students took a chance with me and with themselves. Their first, tentative steps led them to explore the magic of storytelling and they in turn paved the way for others to discover that they too have stories to share.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and their Applications to Storytelling

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
• Enjoy listening and talking to people.
• Enjoy listening and telling stories.
• Always successful learners by listening and hearing.
• Enjoys word games, puns, rhymes, tongue-twisters, and poetry.

Logical and mathematical Intelligence
• Like to ask questions and investigate.
• Enjoy strategy games, logical puzzles and experiments. (Riddle stories)
• Like to use computers. (Use Clip Art to storyboard)
• Looks for logical sequences and patterns. (Tangrams)

Visual/Spatial Intelligence
• Take information and translate it into images and pictures in their mind.
• Have the ability to retrieve the information through the images and pictures.
• Good in visual arts, sculpture, architecture and photography. (Storyboarding)
• Have the ability to reproduce clear images in their mind. (Visualization)

Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence
• They are good with objects and activities involving their body, hands and fingers.
• More successful in learning if they can touch, manipulate and move or feel whatever they are learning. (Props)
• Children with high Kinesthetic Intelligence learn best with activities: games, acting, hands-on tasks, building.
• Uses their body well to express themselves. (Mime, origami, cut and tell)

Musical Intelligence
• Have the ability to here and recognize tones, rhythms and musical patterns.
• These people enjoy listening to music and singing to themselves.
• Musical children usually play a musical instrument.
• They learn through rhythm and melody. (Incorporate songs, chants or use an instrument in their storytelling)

Interpersonal Intelligence
• Sensitive to facial expressions, gestures and voice.
• Gets along with others and they are able to maintain good relationships

.

• Like to teach other kids, take part in school organizations and clubs. (Peer Coaching)
• Have the ability to influence people and are natural leaders.
• Feels comfortable in a crowd. (Storytelling Performance)

Intrapersonal Intelligence
• They have the ability for self discipline to achieve personal goals.
• These children are self-motivated. (practice stories on their own)
• Prefer to study individually and learn best through observing and listening. (Self Critiques)

Naturalist Intelligence
• Nature smart (Pourquoi stories)
• Likes to spend time in nature; recognizes subtle meanings and patterns in nature.
• Likes to speak out about animal right and earth preservation. (Environmental stories)
• They would enjoy using audio/visual equipment to record nature. (Digital Storytelling)

WEB SITES OF INTEREST

Enoch Pratt Libraries

Listen to some of our most beloved storytellers share their tales in streaming video; a delight for children and adults alike. http://www.prattlibrary.org/home/storyIndex.aspx

Storybug.net

Karen Chace offers a global feast of folktale websites, each with a short synopsis. In addition, there is a smorgasbord of sites focusing on Oral History, Crafts, Arts Education, Puppetry, Grants, Teaching Tools and more! http://www.storybug.net

Story-Lovers.com

With the help of Storytell listserv members, storyteller Jackie Baldwin has compiled an extensive array of stories and books. Click on “SOS” and you will discover your own private folklore library right at your fingertips. Jackie even offers a google search tool so story exploring is a breeze! http://www.story-lovers.com/

Storytelling Arts of Indiana

Teaching Guides, games, activities and resources from such quality tellers as Heather Forest, Doug Lipman, Rex Ellis, Doug Elliott, Janice Harrington and Ed Stivender. You can’t go wrong taking advice from this group! http://www.geocities.com/storiesinc/TeachersGuide.html#Games

Storytelling In Schools

After months of detailed research Jackie Baldwin and Kate Dudding have organized an amazing, downloadable booklet and brochure that will help you meet that question head on. Quantitative studies, innovative projects books, journals, articles and web sites are all at your fingertips, but the best part is that the project is not complete; it is an ongoing process that will be continually updated as new studies surface.http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/edu/how-to/index.shtml

Turner Learning Network

An Educator’s Guide to Storytelling; tips on teaching storytelling, National Standards, Assessments and Cross Curricular Approaches. If you want to implement storytelling into your curriculum, this is a good place to start.http://www.turnerlearning.com/turnersouth/storytelling/index.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

These books contain stories that are perfect for beginning student storytellers.

DeSpain, Pleasant Eleven Nature Tales: A Multicultural Journey Little Rock, Ark.: August House 1996

DeSpain, Pleasant. Thirty-Three Multicultural Tales to Tell. August House, 1997.DeSpain, Pleasant Twenty: Two Splendid Tales To Tell From Around the World Volume One August House 1994

DeSpain, Pleasant Twenty-Two Splendid Tales to Tell From Around the World Volume Two August House 1994

Hamilton, Martha and Mitch Weiss, Children Tell Stories, Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc., 1990.

Hamilton, Martha & Mitch Weiss. How & Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell. August House, 1999.

Hamilton, Martha & Mitch Weiss: Noodlehead Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read & Tell: Little Rock, AR: August House, 2000.

Hamilton, Martha & Mitch Weiss (1996) Stories in My Pocket; Tales Kids Can Tell Golden, CO: Fulcrum Pub.

Hamilton, Martha & Mitch Weiss Through the Grapevine: World Tales Kids Can Read & Tell Little Rock: August House Publishers, 2001.

Raines, Shirley C. & Rebecca Isbell Tell It Again!: Easy-To Tell Stories With Activities For Young Children Beltsville, Md. : Gryphon House, c1999.

Raines, Shirley C. & Rebecca Isbell Tell It Again! 2: Easy-To-Tell Stories With Activities for Young Children Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, 2000

Karen’s website is at http://www.storybug.net

Written by Jeff Gere… March 9- April 2, 2008

BRIEFLY: I had a BLAST in an exhausting collage of faces and places starting with Atlanta, Kennesaw (curriculum mixes drama and storytelling) with Irish teller Eddie Lenihan. Then up through the Smokey Mountains: Cleveland, Knoxville, and Jonesborough (SUCH A LITTLE TOWN!) Connie Gil hosted me. Met with NSN (Bobbie) and ISC (Susan/ Jimmy Neil) about a national story radio show. I did a workshop & tell there, then did lotsa ghost tours with my daughter in Savannah, and caught my breath at her house in Jacksonville, Florida. Then a wonderfully intense long weekend at the Florida Storytelling Camp and home on one of the last ATA flights.

My Georgia has two cities: Atlanta and Kennesaw, and that’s a WORLD of fun! A lot of what I know as ATLANTA is due to two folks: Feriel Feldman and David Schutten. Feriel is the dramatic kingpin behind the Southern Order of Storytellers. She arranged for two evenings of dinners with tellers from SOS, and made sure I toured the hills of Atlanta’s Mansions, drove me to gigs, and to an Atlanta Puppetry Theater show, Duke Ellington’s Cat (WOW! A REAL PUPPET THEATER doing NEW WORKS filled with KIDS! This is SUCH a JEWEL! Atlanta should be very proud.)

David Schutten arranged for me to do a few days in schools (all ages, all black- unheard of in Hawaii). He’s an executive for the teacher’s union, and is a teller too. He has a hand in everything, but managed to drive me around a bit, which was illuminating.

Then to KENNESAW UNIVERSITY. John Gentile heard me tell at the NSN Conference in Bellingham, Washigton in 2003 and arranged this residency with THE Irish teller, Eddie Lenihan (looking a bit like a troll). He’s written a ton of books, one of which is full of new accounts of encounters with the faeries (the only new one since Yates). There’s lots of Scotch/ Irish/ English immigrant history in Georgia/Tennessee, and they brought their stories (Jack Tales) so Eddie has lots to offer such researchers. I learned tons of history of the South and of Ireland. We were wonderfully chaperoned by Hannah Harvey, a bright energetic professor from ‘the hills of Tennessee’. The Kennesaw Theater program is exceptional, giving students 1) theater training, 2) storytelling classes 3) innovative hybrids mixing the two. Prof. Gentile was directing his original adaptation of ‘Moby Dick’. The students are all in their 20s. The first evening we briefly participated in a student storytelling concert (many solo/duet pieces, all innovative and noteworthy in different ways). We’ll be hearing from students in this program in decades to come. I‘d send my (grand) children there.

On each of the next 2 days, Eddie and I would each do a workshop, rest and eat well in the late afternoon, and do an evening show. After the show, we’d ‘drink a few pints’, return to our quaint B&B, drink tea and talk more. I LOVED it- a great priviledge.

My 1st workshop followed my new CD (completed and packaged for the trip and 2 others) YAKKITY YAK- Talkin’ about Tellin’. It uses stories (on the CD told to music) to illustrate points and thoughts about storytelling. It went over very well (as the students told me. A former speech professor said it succinctly codified thoughts and points she’d been making her whole career). Then I did a shadow puppet workshop on the overhead projector and with my ‘laptop’ (the only time I used them the whole trip).

My 2nd workshop pleased me less. I talked lots on storytelling and media, recording ourselves, and showed video clips from my tells and from my Talk Story Festival (also the only time I shared this on my trip). At one point I asked the students how many of them use Final Cut Pro and many raised their hands. This is the future in storytelling. Duh! The question and answer session at the end was much better.

I was pleased with my tell the first night, but my voice was wearing thin. I arrived with a nose that needed blowing (long flights- I’m not used to this), and it got worse, dogging me throughout the trip. I only took my hat, scarf, and jacket off outside twice (in Florida). It was cold and I had a cold. This messed up my head for my second workshop and evening tell, but I muddled through it on technique and perseverance. Sigh… embarrassing (and unusual. I’m NEVER sick in Hawaii). I‘m proud that I insisted on recording Eddie’s outrageous traditional Tall Tale tell on the second evening. I hope the tremendously innovative work being done a Kennesaw will be recorded (and I hope to put them on my projected national story radio show.) Oh, they treated us well!

Then a series of days began, each filled with new ’story’ friends. It was exhausing fun and I learned so much as my yellow rental car drove from one appointment to the next.

It began with a drive to CLEVELAND, at the bottom of Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains. I joined a small group for a potluck at the house of Peggy Jones. After dinner I told some funny stories and heard about their tellings (Pete Vanderpool is Santa Clause and does a program warn kids about ‘danger strangers’ and safety).

The next day I got a tour of the Cleveland Museum and lots of history from Sylvia Idom, and a drive up a gorge where the Olympic rough water kayaking was held and the devastating copper mining at the hilltop (for years everything was dead). That night I joined the KNOXVILLE group organized by Janice Brooks-Headrick in the sophisticated log cabin of Susan & Stephen Fulbright. After dinner, everyone LEFT (it WAS a Monday night- wish we’d had more time) so we talked story as the news played. The next day Stephen told me about squirrel hunting (early frost= no nuts= not many squirrels= don’t hunt). I took his advice and drove a GORGEOUS backroad and saw wonderful landscapes (and trailer housing).

That afternoon I made it to JONESBOROUGH - what a KICK! A tiny old town by a little river, perhaps three blocks long, nice older buildings, and in its center the ISC- International Storytelling Center. THIS IS IT= The Epicenter of Storytelling in America! ISC has a little theater, and the outside wall has teller’s faces and quotes (including Bren & Lucille Breneman, the grandparents of storytelling in Hawaii.) I saw the little Gazebo for Spookies at the National Festival (as Lyn Ford described it to me)(I’d remove the railing to see tellers better.) I tried to imagine the grassy areas PACKED with listeners and the little town INVADED with audiences spilling out of seven big tents.)

I was generously hosted by Connie Gill, President of the Jonesborough Storytelling Guild. She allowed me to play hookie from the Guild Tell that first night in Jonesborough and we drove to hear the 90 year old Grand Dame of Southern Storytelling, Kathryn Windham. There we met several students from ETSU’s ‘Masters Degree in Storytelling’ Program (the first of many students/ alumni) and professor Delanna Reed. Some later came to my show. They’re an older, more diverse group than the Kennesaw students.

I want to do a National Storytelling Radio show. It’s time. I’ve created the blueprint in Hawaii (go to www.talkstoryradio.com and listen to podcasts- subscribe and make comments.) I met with NSN (National Storytelling Network)’s Director Bobbie Morgan for a very productive, on-task meeting filled with laughter. Connie took me to do a TV appearance, and that afternoon I met ISC’s Jimmy Neal Smith and Susan O’Connor for a delightful talk (we’re new to one another.) All are curious and interested in the radio show. Good will come of this. I’m motivated and committed, and these talks helped.

The next afternoon about 12 adults gathered in a Jonesborough Church community hall for a few hours of workshopping. I talked through my ‘Yakkity Yak’ and then we just talked. I really enjoyed the opportunity to commune in storytelling with these folks, especially the give-and-take session. Larry Kelley , a drawlin’ Jonesborough teller (and very funny CD) said, ” I lieeked whut you saaid, but whut I’ll take away with me is your passion saying it. You Lluuuv storytellin”… See me melt. What a gift! He made my trip.

That night I did a 90 minute tell at the Jonesborough Rep Theater, earning $500 for NSN. A busload of teenagers were the principal audience. I started with personal funnies, added a surfer tale, did a touching tale and a Pele. After a break I did 2 moving tales. One teenager annoyed adults texting, but teens told the teacher “when’s the next one? It was surprisingly good!”

Then I drove to Charlotte (stopping briefly in Ashland, home of David Novak, to see it) to join my daughter Mecca. We walked around downtown and went to a two blocks long ‘art night’. We caught up. In SAVANNAH, an atmospheric city on a river, we took every history (revolution, Civil & Indian wars) and ghost tour we could fit into two days (but found no rockin’ gospel-singin’ church service for Easter.) Life intervened to prevent a ghost tour with Savannah teller Bess Chapas. In my opinion, these tour guides need lessons in telling spooky tales! It was factual, only ‘spooky’ once, despite the guide/teller. Working stiffs just doing a job. One Haunted tour seated 8 people in a Hearse with the top elevated.

Then we returned to Mecca’s house (new to me) in Jacksonville. I told tales to her co-workers at the University (nice folks), and I drove around downtown (art museum, etc.- it was deserted.) I felt lucky to ‘hang’ with her seeing her world. We visited St. Augustine, seeing what wealth built there (Flagler College) and its historic center. I drank a good bit one night with a good Hawaii friend’s brother learning lots of arcane family and regional history. FUN!

Then to the Florida Storytelling Camp, with an auspicious beginning- a ride with Kaye Byrnes. I soon met a WORLD of new friends (and some old)… featured tellers Michael Parent (Maine pal), Michael McCarty (LA pal), Molly Catron (from Jonesborough- twist that drawl with humor into some challenging ideas), Kuniko Yamamoto (mime/prop tells, who may come to Hawaii), and a REAL SURPRISE- Sandy Walker, a Miami ghost tour teller (she never told a ghost tale at Camp)- MAN, what a weird circular compositions: 1/2 way through, you wonder ‘where are we going?’ When she ties it off to end- BAM.. so satisfying. Quirky, halting, reticent speaking style, but POWERFUL! And LOTS of REALLY GOOD local tellers and story enthusiasts and some real ‘doers’ in storytelling. A small core made it happen who love this Camp (Kim Rivers, Mary Lee Sweet, Carrie Sue Ayvar, Mylinda Butterworth, Kay, many others). I’ve never BEEN somewhere with SO MANY GUILDS! It was a revelation to meet so many people doing great things- It was totally engaging. I was MOVED! THESE are my PEOPLE! STORY People! I did the swaps and a 10 minute evening story, which went over well. I hope to return, see my daughter, visit new Florida pals, and have MORE FUN… it really felt great. I was challenged and affirmed, accepted and adopted. That’s A LOT from a camp! I just wrote on MEDIA for their next newsletter.

I stopped for a few days in Los Angeles to see my folks and lunched with itales.com founder Mary Margaret O’Connor (the story download site- get on it.) I came home way tired on one of the LAST ATA flights. I’m finally cleaning up a glut of papers and am listening to some of the box of CDs I brought home (traded for many, sold some cheap). I’m back into my life (which was waiting with its own needs) and plotting MORE trips!

To my new friends met on this trip, thank you thank you and thanks AGAIN for your kind attention to this traveler from so far away. Thanks for gathering your tellers around my passing presence and for sharing your warmth and insights. My world is a bigger, friendlier place.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #051 Jeff Gere
	for $2.23 How you can Think Big with radio and TV.

A BLUEPRINT: I offer a blueprint based on my evolution here in Hawaii mapping a progression from a teller to a story producer of a Festival, a radio, and TV series. I believe it is vital for us to moving storytelling into the blood stream of the mainstream.

MY OPINION: Storytelling is like folk music before Peter Paul & Mary. Its self-image loves small and intimate, is largely adverse and suspicious of media and documentation while the REST of the Web Entertainment World explodes bland content in an ever-growing variety of methods and technologies. Content is King, storytelling is a DEEP WELL of PROFOUND CONTENT, but it/we are NOT reaching the fast-food masses. Our self-image does not serve us. I believe there’s a need for Storytelling. We have an opportunity: We who drink in this well ARE the ones to bridge this gap, get OVER our techno-phobia, and feed this rich story mana to the Masses. OK, you say, but HOW?

“The First impediment is self-imposed” Helen Keller.

A FLOOD BEGINS WITH A DROP: (you): Start with YOURSELF. Do your homework, find your Voice & polish coal into a jewel with your tongue. Tell tell tell tell and tell: THEN get biz card, resume, and website. Start small and build up.
HOW? Look around, step out the door, and make new friends.

RIPPLES: SWAPS & GUILDS are the story community core, the cells of our body, the nexus points for giving, friendly, low risk, social tells with others who share the story calling and mission. Guilds find & nourish talent. Folks try things out and make friends and allies. I encourage groups to dare to arrange for feedback (for those who wish to grow faster) to stimulate growth.

GUILD “Shows” introduce the mechanics of production (overcoming fear, “small” self-concept, email lists, get a venue and publicity, making a program and talent line-ups; staging, money in and out, organizing volunteers).
Why is RECORDING these wonderful events so often ignored?

WAVES: RECORDING (CD/ DVD): “You’re a storyteller- gimme your CD?” You need to have one to give. Period. If you believe in your talent, know you can hold a room, and have developed a program, why NOT catch lightning on a disc? It’s NOT technically difficult, yes you can, and you must. The CD is a seed that can speak for you far away, open doors, and move people. It’s an experiential business card. Recording pushes you to learn about mics, levels, editing, packaging, and distributing. Recording reveals your bad and good habits too, stimulating evolution. Add it to your list for big performances. Look at them as diary entries- make one each year for a century.

OK, you say, but HOW? Hiring a studio is costly, but EVERY computer can record sound now. Learn how. Step in a door at the Public or College Radio Station, or go to the local high school or college technology lab. Look for a Techie, find help, make friends. Learn! Start and get better.

NEW FORMS YouTube and the Web are open to us ALL NOW: the audience is The WORLD! How do you get attention? Join NSN, storyteller.net, CD Baby, YouTube. Tell people. Feed the email list. Put your stuff up for downloadings on www.itales.com, Make a podcast!

You say HOW, I say, go find new friends to help you. The truth: technology is frustrating at first, but you get better and build the capacity to infect more people with the virus of story.

SWELLS: FESTIVALS: I want the BEST talent in the BEST listening environment possible. I want to GO BIG with a BIG SPLASH and HUGE CROWD! I want it recorded. Festivals imply higher risks and thrills than Guild Shows, but involve the same issues (publicity, line-up, recording, sponsors, budget & fundraising.) EMPOWER ING TRUTHS: Businesses want to reach the public. You attract a unique population and can help them. MEDIA: Approach with positive pleasant persistence. Make friends, call back again, write the article ideas out for them. Your attitude: “This event is the THIS WEEK’s most HAPPENING, ELECTRIC, UNIQUE event! I’m here to help you!” Know your talent (I gotta see/hear ‘em . I live in Hawaii, so media (web, CD, DVD) is essential.

TALK STORY FESTIVAL is a three night FREE public celebration held in an auditorium in a seaside park in Honolulu each October since 1989. Sponsored by Oahu’s Parks Department (I’m the Drama Specialist), It features 8 of Hawaii’s best tellers each night (20 minutes each) with a few mainland talents willing to come for the adventure (not the paycheck). I have a core of GREAT talent. I take a few risks (rappers and slam poets, cultural oddities of some kind). I use the theater lighting and add some with a light tech who colors the stage with the tale. I light independently the sign interpreter. I have four cameras feeding into a portable video van and project the editing onto the wall by the stage. The last few years I have an improvisation wizard on piano playing with some of the tellers. I’m the MC too. Press is usually quite good (radio, TV, newspaper coverage and announcements). The Festival forced me to learn to do these things. There’s elation and frustration each year, I seem to have a target on my shirt. It’s hard and demanding- that’s why I love it. It forces me to improve and evolve. Many many people hear great tells out of my efforts. I am grateful.

SWELLS: TOURS: Solo & group tours are a unique way to take a vacation. Getting gigs has lots to do with emails, photos, links to websites. Library and private schools fund it, with public tells for fun and recording. Tour with talented friends and the quality will remain high. Avoid needy talents. Fatigue is a factor, the clock defines eating, resting and sleeping. It’s not for everyone.

OCEANS: RADIO is the intimate theater of the mind, a one-on-one conversation with a million listeners, PERFECT for storytelling, and technically easier than TV¦ but HOW? When I realized I could take the audio off a decade of good Talk Story video recordings, I began organizing cuts into themes. I asked people I respected to share material (CDs) and aired what I loved. With a small budget (first from Parks Department, then with a grant to pay an audio engineer) I started experimenting. It took 18 months to find a form, and we aired Talk Story Radio shows on three stations to 13,000 listeners a week for two years . So, start locally, RECORD tells, grow better. Approach your college, low-band, Public, and/or commercial stations (sponsor) for time on the air. Talk to your Guild. Once you start to air, expand the audience with publicity, publicity, publicity (email newletters). Go hear our podcasts at www.talkstory radio.com … after many frustrations, a friend set me up for podcasting. And after several mistakes, I can do it now. Go hear- IT’s FREE & AVAILABLE!

VIDEO is picture rooted to audio. Technically, its more challenging, Storytelling: best Live vs. controlled environment of the Studio (synthesis!). I have long contemplated what TV can add to the energy of a live performance (and visa-versa). We can use this media.

Story TV (from Talk Story Festival) uses College interns, pro directors (paid), I edit & air on Public Access TV (funded by law from cable franchise)(Big Media Threat). Soon I’ll GIVE stories to the Dept. of Education TV to air between their shows.
Commercial TV HAD requirements to do some non-commercial shows. Now? To air on Commercial TV, you can sell a show to the station OR buy time with your own sponsors.

NATIONAL About time we had a National Story Radio (Festivals with quality recordings, tellers invited/involved, sponsors (NSN, Int Storytell Center, Stllg University Programs, Kid Tellings, regional tellers. HUGE!)
Hawaii Spookies Special & Hawaii TV Series , sponsors (DVD)
New CDs (record, 2 track editing, Photoshop) Yakkity Yak, Twisted Luvinz
Live stream of Talk Story #20, Spread Blueprint, build for National TV show.

More on Jeff on his website: http://www.jeffgere.com

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #025 Onawumi Jean Moss
	for $2.23 Using culturally driven objects to create entertaining storytelling festivals.

Onawumi Jean Moss is an deep storyteller to draw from with her rich history on college campus and with her commitment to storytelling. She brings a solid grounding to the often airy art form of storytelling. I hope you enjoy listening to our interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.

More on Onawumi Jean Moss…
Onawumi Jean Moss of Amherst, Massachusetts is a storyteller, narrator, keynote speaker and author. Onawumi is a 2005 recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Storytelling Award (November 2005), the highest award given by the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS). She holds lifetime memberships in the National Storytellers Network (NSN) and the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS). She is also a member of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES).

The performances of this talking book and rhythm master encourage pride of heritage, appreciation of cultural differences and recognition of kinship. This Tennessee native’s first stories were learned from her parents and in church. Her mother, a self-taught reader conveyed, by example, the inherent relationship of context and story and life-lessons. Her father, a natural-born comedian, told riveting night-sky stories as well as eerie, sometimes funny, ghost stories. Today Onawumi is an accomplished storyteller in her own right- a significant accomplishment considering the fact that over the course of twenty-one (21) years, she was a full-time Associate Dean of Students at Amherst College (1985-2006).

During her career as a part-time storyteller, Onawumi has made content-rich, thought-provoking and entertaining presentations before inter-generational audiences across the U.S. and in the Netherlands. Her solo performances, workshops and keynotes, a seamless blend of story and a cappella singing, have consistently won high praise from audiences–kindergarten through college. The same is true of audience feedback from civic, community, religious and business sectors.

Onawumi’s story programs inspire imagination, inquiry, reflection and expression and also complement the study of communications, the humanities, performance, the social sciences and history.

She is the first college administrator to have founded and consistently produced a multicultural storytelling festival (Keepers of the Word 1993-2006) – host to nearly sixty celebrated tellers of African, Asian, European, Hispanic, Latin and Native American heritage. In an unprecedented move, she was twice invited by Amherst College students to give story-based keynote addresses (1988 and 2004) at Senior Assembly (the only administrator ever accorded this honor.)

While cultivating her part-time career, Onawumi:

– made the PBS Special KWANZAA (1998) which showcases her masterful command of storytelling, narration and writing; and

– co-authored her first children’s book, Precious and the Boo Hag with acclaimed author Patricia C. McKissack. Precious and the Boo Hag has received three starred reviews, is the winner of the 2006 ALA/ALSC Notable Children’s Book award (Middle Readers category); is the national finalist for three prestigious national awards: the CCBC Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book Award; Storytelling World Award, Stories for Young Listeners Category (2006) and the Irma S. and James H. Black Honor for Excellence in Children’s Literature Award (2006).

More on this storyteller http://www.onawumi.com/

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.

Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf as a conference call on August 21th, 2007, Steve Otto talks about bringing Storytelling to New Communities with the Chicken Storytelling Festival.

Steve is one of those storytellers who has been around the block. Mastering his skill in storytelling over many years of dedicated work and effort as a storyteller. I found this interview about Steve’s work to bring Storytelling to new communities to be truly inspirational stuff. Storytelling can be for everyone.

Eric Wolf

Steve Otto has a degree in Speech and Dramatics, from the University of Missouri, with a specialty of Television Production. You have to realize that I got my degree when TV was in it’s infancy, and all production was done live (No video tape) and everything was done in Black and White. I worked at KOMU-TV Channel 8, in Columbia, Missouri, WPTA-TV, Channel 21, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and KETC-TV, Channel 9, in St. Louis, Missouri. I started out as a cameraman, and worked into production as a producer-director. I loved television and really enjoyed the opportunity offered to a right brain person to see images and create pictures before the camera collected them. KETC-TV was the local PBS station and things went well until they lost some contracts to produce proragams for PBS and the station “went to Black” (off the air) for the summer, and they handed each producer a check for one week salary and said “We’ll see you in the fall . . .” I began to think someone was trying to tell me something . . .

I went to work with Blue Shield, to set up a new public relations department for the organization. About 4 months into my training period, they told me that the board of directors had decided they really didn’t need a public relations department, but I could continue in the claims operations if I wanted. Having become accustomed to eating, I said yes . . . I worked for Blue Shield for eight years and worked up to Claims Manager of the operation.

In 1968, the Medicaid Program became operational in the State of Missouri and they needed someone with claims experience to run their program. I took over a brand new program and was able to make it one of the most efficient , cost effective claims operations in the country. We could process over a million claims a month with a turn around time that averaged 4 days, at an administrative cost of about 3 percent.

After 5 years with the State, I received a call from the Federal Government, (who has over site over all the medicaid programs) to come to work for them in Kansas City. I spent the next 23 years as a senior level federal employee with Health and Human Services. I loved the early years of the program because I really felt that I was doing things to really help people . . . Very rapidly, however, the program became a money pit for the providers instead of a program to help people get the necessary medical care that they need.

While working with the “Feds” I started back to Theatre, doing over 30 roles in community theatre as actor and director. I had a blast . . . I was finally doing something that was really creative . . . Advances in my job duties, however put me on the road more and more and I was unable to do theatre because I couldn’t do all the six weeks of rehearsal.

My first grade teacher wife, Virginia, came home one day with a brochure from Universtity of Missouri, Kansas City . . . I said “Storytelling for teachers”! She said she was going to take the class and thought I should take it with her. . . I reminded her that I WAS AN ACTOR!
I didn’t do things like go to a library and READ to children . . . She quickly convinced me that I should take the session and I did.

The first session opened like many other seminars with welcomes etc. And then they introduced the first speaker, they call her the “Feature”, and a short, rather heavy set black woman walked out on stage . . . I could not believe what I was seeing . . . I had paid for THIS? And then she opened her mouth, and began to tell a story . . . Her eyes reached out to every person in the auditorium, her hands beckoned us all into the story and her voice had my completely mesmerized. I looked more carefully at my program and there was her name . . . It was a lady from the Carolina’s named Jackie Torrance! I honestly could not believe what I was seeing! My theatre background said you NEVER react to your audience! The fourth wall prohibits you from looking right at your audience! . . . And yet there she was with the audience completely under her control and bringing every member of the audience into “Her Place . . .”

I thought “This is what I want to do . . .” and I began to take every storytelling class I could. I read books for content and beginning, storyline, ending instead of just enjoying them . . . And I began to tell stories . . .

I told for three years totally enjoying the opportunity to learn everything I could about the Art. Then one day a lady called from a local Town Festival asking me if I could tell stories at their festival. I checked my calendar and told her I could. We got all the details down and just before she hung up she asked “Oh by the way, how much do you charge?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing . . Charge? for doing something fun like telling stories? I quickly realized that she must be mistaken and I said “Well my USUAL fee is twenty five dollars” I waited for the rejection when she said “Oh, that is FINE!” I should have asked for fifty . . .That was the start of my professional career. I got to the place when I had more jobs than time, I would just raise may rates. I has worked well.

In 1994, there were budget crises in the Federal Bureaucracies. I went to a senior staff meeting and we were told that we had to cut staff and did anyone want to take an “Early Out” or early retirement. At that time I was responsible for Nine Billion dollars a year in federal dollars, which Lent itself to “Just a bit of Stress . . .” I had been doing planning for retirement for some time and I began to figure that if I could do about $400 a month in storytelling, I could make up the difference in what I would get from the Feds for staying another 5 years till I could formally retire . . . And the next thing I knew, my had was in the air and I was saying “Take Me!” I have been telling stories full time since that time and have loved the opportunities it has given me to interact with others from Nursery School to Nursing Homes, and SHARE not TELL stories to wonderful people. I have averaged around 250 shows a year all over the country, and yes, I have been able to make over $400 a month to supplement my early retirement.

The Big thing I have gotten more that any monetary benefit, (although I must admit that it nice) is the true JOY of being with my audience. This is where the “Giving Back” and community involvement comes in. I have personally known the feeling of having someone come up to me and say “I way there in your story, I wish I could tell my stories . . .” I have been there when I have taught teacher how to use storytelling in their classrooms and seen the “Light Bulbs” go off when they think “that is exactly how Billy learns”. That is more powerful than any check can ever be.

About 15 years ago, River and Prairie Storyweavers (RAPS), the Kansas City area Storytelling Guild, decided we would have a winter retreat. We decided that we would go out of town for the retreat since everyone would stay and be with each other for an entire weekend. We went to Topeka, KS, about 60 miles from KC, stayed in a hotel, ate together, told stories together and brought everyone to a closeness that only storytellers can achieve. We went back the next year and when telling stories on Saturday afternoon, one teller said “I’ve got to tell this CHICKEN STORY.” When he was through, almost everyone came up with a CHICKEN STORY! In the wrap up of the weekend, we began to realize that the “RAPS Retreat” didn’t have the most “PZAZZ” and marketing capability . . . So we decided to make the annual January event the “CHICKEN FESTIVAL” We decided that this would be a festival with NO featured tellers, and everyone who attended would be the FEATURE! We also decide to make this an event which would travel to areas which had NO storytelling presence. We would invite the community to participate and listen to stories and even tell if they so pleased. So far we have started four new storytelling groups in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. We give new group the opportunity to become a sub group of RAPS and make use of our 501(C)(3) Non profit status, until they can become independent on their own. About eight years ago we added music to the program and we now have tow or three session of time where anyone can bring their musical instruments and “Jam” for the group. We have had as many as twenty people up playing together who have never played together before. We have also had locals from the community enter into this activity.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #019 Cristin Thomas Director of the Tejas Storytelling Association
	for $2.23 Exposing new audiences to storytelling.

We covered the following topics…

1. Building a festival
2. Grants
3. Sponsorships
4. Marketing
5. Strategic Planning for an Organization
6. Positioning the organization for continual growth
7. The need for clarity

Planning for the future…
Looking ahead is so important. Know the road that you are traveling with clarity of your mission and knowledge of your vision. Many organizations can trap themselves in the survival of day to day. When this happens it is extremely difficult to look ahead. By looking ahead we can create a plan that helps us reach multiple demographics.

Cristin Thomas has a Bachelor of Science -in theatre from Texas Woman’s University. She has also received a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University. After receiving her MFA, Cristin began working as an actress with a Non-Profit Professional Children’s Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Cristin worked with this company for eight years the last three years she was the Managing Artistic Director. Cristin was hired to be the Executive Director position at Tejas Storytelling Association in 2005.

You can find the history of the organization on www.tejasstorytelling.com. We are a membership organization that produces six newsletters a year on Storytelling Events and Helpful Insight on one’s artistic growth as a storyteller. We have a new website that is allowing storytellers to advertise themselves, find event information, newsletters and email newsletters that are sent out monthly.

TSA Mission Statement:
The mission of Tejas Storytelling Association is to perpetuate the art of storytelling throughout the South Central Region. TSA will continue to promote all facets of storytelling and to expand the understanding and experiences of storytelling by nurturing storytellers and listeners and recruiting new audiences.

TSA History
In 1985, storyteller Finely Stewart produced the first storytelling festival at the Denton Arts Center, in Denton, Texas. A handful of storytellers and listeners gathered to participate in the ancient art of storytelling. Storytellers told in themed concerts to the listeners. This humble beginning lit a spark in those who participated. By the next year, story lovers worked to establish the Tejas Storytelling Association (TSA) as an official 501(c)3 non-profit organization. They named it Tejas to express Finley’s grand vision of creating an organization that would bring together listeners and tellers from throughout the Texas region. Many historians believe that the word Tejas had its origins from the Caddo native american word for friend.

From these beginnings, TSA rapidly grew. They continued to grow the festival drawing tellers and listeners from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The festivals began to feature workshops on how to tell stories and feature nationally known storytellers.

In 1997, Karen Morgan became TSA’s second executive director after Finley Stewart. She had served years as a volunteer and later as a board member. Through her tenure as executive director, she shepherded the growth of the festival. She solidified the relationship between the Festival and the city of Denton. In 2000, she founded the Denton Storytelling Task Force.

2005 marked many changes to TSA. TSA celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Texas Storytelling Festival. This year also brought sadness in the loss of Karen Morgan as executive director. Her years of hard-work, community building, and vision will be missed. TSA has hired a new executive director, Cristin Thomas.

She and the board of directors are working to take TSA to the next level increasing the impact of TSA on the Tejas region. They have revised the organization’s mission statement to provide a new focus for taking storytelling to the next level.

For many, storytelling is much more than a past time. It’s a way of life. Volunteers have provided hundreds of thousands of hours to TSA in the support of storytelling. They have done so because they’ve felt that same spark that started over twenty years ago. People attending TSA’s events experience the joy, wisdom, and hope that storytellers transmit through their stories. We hope that you’ll attend the Festival or one of TSA’s other events and experience the power of storytelling.
Portion taken with permission From the Tejas Storytelling Association Website.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #016 Ellen Munds, Executive Director of Arts Indiana.
	for $2.23 The A B C’s of Running Festival.

Ellen Munds Writes..
In this interview we cover how to;

1. 1. Create your mission statement or why you want to do a festival
2. 2. Determine your target audience
3. 3. Details such as indoor or outdoor, specific site for an event, accessibility, design and traffic flow of the site
4. 4. Artistic Elements
5. 5. Marketing and Public Relations
6. 6. Funding
7. 7. Budget
8. 8. Volunteers
9. 9. Care and Feeding of the storytellers, sponsors and volunteers
10. 10. Evaluation of your Festival.

This interview should be heard by all members of the national storytelling network who are interested in running or creating there own storytelling festival. Storytellers who are serious about working the festival circuit should consider this episode required listening.

Ellen Munds is the executive director of Storytelling Arts of Indiana and one of three co-founders. She has served as the chair of the Organizer’s & Producers SIG, the chair of the Awards Committee and served as the State Liaison for the National Storytelling Network.

She writes about her organization;
Storytelling Arts of Indiana is a very unique organization in the storytelling community. The board of directors is comprised of individuals from the community with special skill sets (not storytellers), we are not a membership organization and that we have year round programming.

Programs include:

Hoosier Storytelling Festival,
Storytelling Series and Special Events
Frank Basile Emerging Stories Fellowship and Premiere
Sharing Hoosier History Through Stories in collaboration with the Indiana Historical Society
Weekly storytelling at Riley Children’s Hospital
The As I Recall Storytelling Guild
Family Programs in collaborations with other Not-for-profits
Storytelling Performances in the Neighborhood Parks in collaboration with Indy Parks & Recreation
JawBreakers
Newest program: Using Storytelling as an Educational Tool: Teaching English/Language Arts Indiana State Standards, Grades K – 5 (Workshop and a CD of 50 activities)

We have a book coming out in celebration of our 20th birthday, The Scenic Route: Stories from the Heartland published by the Indiana Historical Society Press. And we are kicking off a $100,000 Endowment Campaign: The Story Lives On in October, 2007.

More on Storyarts in Indianapolis, Indiana.