Report from the Asian Congress of Storytellers

Luchie Gualberto Gongora blogs from Singapore.

Alabama Life

How good is this? Storycorps AND storyteller Kathryn Windham on the same radio show, available as an mp3 file.

Thanks, Alabama Public Radio!

Songs, Stories, Memories

It's rare that we ever see blog entries about watching a storytelling performance. A good storyteller will inspire you to share your own stories.

Here's an entry from Susan A. Kitchen's 2020 Hindsight blog, that comes close... as she recounts her experience seeing Arlo Guthrie in performance, and this calls up memories and stories of her own.

http://www.2020hindsight.org/2005/11/15/this-land-is-your-land/

Musings on Story and Life

Where are my manners? The other day I showed a photo of Jonesborough, Tennessee here and I forgot to credit its owner, Gwyn Calvetti.

Gwyn is not only a professional storyteller, she's one of the few that is a blogger too.

You can read Gwyn's perspective on a life of stories at her blog, Musings on Story and Life.

Check out her October 31 real life ghost story!

Call for Performers: NSN Conference 2006 Fringe

Forwarded from the National Storytelling Network:

Performance Opportunity
National Storytelling Network Conference
July 20 - 23, 2006 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Want to present 55 minutes of your riskiest, experimental or most compelling storytelling at the National Storytelling Conference? Enter the lottery for the 2006 Fringe in Pittsburgh performances.

Yes, last year's exciting addition to the National Storytelling Conference will be back! And just like last year, anything goes -- you can present 55 minutes of folktales; 55 minutes of autobiography; 55 minutes of work in progress, performance art, stand-up comedy, puppetry, dance or your favorite long form story! Here's your chance to explore the limits of storytelling at the Pittsburgh Conference with all Fringe performers selected by lottery.

What is the Fringe? It is a growing network of performance venues with no restrictions on style or content. Fringe Festivals take place all over the world. Many storytellers are taking advantage of this venue to reach new audiences. By providing this opportunity for you to experience a typical Fringe performance selection process and format at the NSN Conference, we hope to encourage more storytellers to participate in American and Canadian Fringe Festival performances.

Lottery

To enter the lottery, please, submit:

1. Your name, address, phone, email info
2. Title of your 55 minute program
3. Maximum 30 word description of the program
4. Fringe Standard Category Identification(s): (select all that apply)
adult, family, solo, improvisational, ensemble, dance, etc. [Example: a single storyteller presenting a family program selects both "family" and "solo." Use "family" to identify a program for children.]
5. If appropriate, Fringe Standard Content Warning(s): (select all that apply) language, adult subject matter, violence, nudity

Email submissions to: Niemistory@aol.com
Mail submissions to: Fringe Lottery c/o Loren Niemi 8105 Jamaca N.
Stillwater, MN 55082

Submission Deadline

Mail submissions - November 30, 2005 (postmarked)
Electronic submissions - no later than 11:00 pm EST - Nov 30, 2005.

Notification of Selection

Performers drawn by lottery will be notified of their selection by Dec 15th and, if possible, of the day and time of their performance slot. Slots will be assigned based on order of performer selection and content with family material earlier in the day and adult material later.

Deadline for Acceptance
You must confirm your participation by January 15, 2006!!
More names than slots will be drawn for a waiting list and will be moved from the waiting list to performance slots as slots become available. Last year four of the eight people on the waiting list performed in Oklahoma City.

Click on the link to read the fine print. Link.

You don't have to be a member of the National Storytelling Network to apply!

Storytelling as an Effective Tool for Safety Training

The National Institute for Occupational and Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released a report on a sever-year research project entitled "Tell Me a Story: Why Stories are Essential to Effective Safety Training." NIOSH needed new training materials for miners, in a manner that was culturally appropriate.

Miners are storytellers. One need only spend time with them to observe that they interact with each other through the telling of stories. Such stories may be about close calls they have had, about other master miners they have known and worked with (and in many cases, learned from), about someone they knew who made an error in judgment and paid dearly for it, or about things they have seen and experienced as they have gone through their careers. The role of miners’ stories is complex and includes the sharing and strengthening of their occupational culture as well as the bonding that must exist to survive in a dangerous environment.

Of course, they didn't hire storytellers to come in and share folk tales. They brought in camera crews and had the miners tell their stories. Full evaluation report from Elaine T. Cullen, Ph.D., and Albert H. Fein, Ph.D available as PDF file (and it's in the public domain!).

Blogger Sneaks Camera into Jonesborough

The National Storytelling Festival has very strict rules about cameras in the performing areas.

Most folks just take pictures of the scenic streets. Here's one by storyteller Gwyn Calvetti:

Although, sometimes, you can stumble upon a spontaneous performance, as Gwyn Calvetti documents with her collages of street performances led by Ed Stivender:
Jonesborough Fringe
Fringe, 2
Or perennial fixture Doc McConnell

But somehow Angela, a knitting blogger, managed to get her camera into the tents and get storytellers to pose with her socks-in-progress.

Storytelling from the Internet Archive

I've used the Internet Archive for a while to search for old web pages that have vanished from the Web. Now, I understand, they are also allowing folks to upload audio and video, becoming a public distribution channel for homemade media and music released into the public domain or under a creative commons license.

Just for the heck of it I did a search for "storyteller." A surprising number of Grateful Dead bootlegs show up. Still, I found these:

A short demo recording from the audio stories of C gurkin

Childhood Matters: Music, dance and theater are all great ways to help children learn to express themselves, communicate their feelings and interact with the world. Guests: Andrea Temkin of Arts Council Silicon Valley and Asheba, beloved Bay Area musician and storyteller

Oh my! Many of the Fray Day events are here!

Now if I can only figure out how to download these files and play them...

Tags: storytelling, frayday, internet archive

Platform Storytelling

Tim Ereneta tries to explain what "platform telling" is to a general audience.

By and large, I think he gets it right, but if "platform storytelling" does not involve a ladder and diving board under a circus big top-- what is the name you give to that form of storytelling? Hmmm?




tags: storytelling

Teahouse tellers stage China comeback

via The Telegraph (Calcutta)

The storytellers who survived Mao's re-education camps bring back their art form.

More info on Chinese storytelling at Tim Sheppard's site here


Tags: storytelling

They're back! Storytelling Concert Online

The Advanced Storytelling Class from the University of North Texas's School of Library and Information Sciences has another online storytelling concert available, if you've got Real Player.

Mystery storyteller blog

Hope's Blog is a humble blog of a woman named Hope who teaches storytelling in Indiana.
There's barely any identifying information on the blog-- no email, no blogroll, no "about me." Reading the blog, we know she teaches storytelling, works in a library, loves to read.

Cross referencing the Storytelling Directory of Indiana I'm guessing this is the work of Hope Baugh, who teaches storytelling at the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science.

Priscilla Howe's blog

Storyteller Priscilla Howe not only has her own web site, she's got a blog about her storytelling. It's called Storytelling Notes. Lots of good stuff on the creative process... check in and see what thoughts go through a storyteller's mind when she's preparing, packing, travelling, planning.