Tonsil: Musings from an Itinerant Story Listener

R.I.P. Doc Mcconnell

2008-08-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

A staple of the Jonesborough Festival has passed.
Doc McConnell, Sept. 20, 1928 - Aug. 16, 2008.

Farewell, U. Utah Phillips

2008-05-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73.

Official obituary from the family.

The link is to his web site, where you can also find links to various recordings, from podcasts to CDs.

His recording of "Moose Turd Pie" should be required listening for all aspiring storytellers.

Variety Reviews John Lithgow, Storyteller

2008-05-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

I've often enjoyed actor John Lithgow reading aloud on the radio program "Selected Shorts." Now it seems he's opened a one-man show at Lincoln Center, "John Lithgow: Stories by Heart."

Variety lists the show as a "play," and it does have a director. And it does take place in a theater.

But apparently the show is mostly Mr. Lithgow telling stories of his family, and of the role stories and storytelling played in his family. The show includes recitations of poetry by Oliver Wendell Holmes and prose by P.G. Wodehouse.

I found this quote illuminating:

...(the play) encourages auds to make their own connection to the material, without demanding that we celebrate Lithgow's life. He grounds the classics by explaining what they meant to his family, but his biography is supporting material, not the solipsistic main event.

It reminds me of the best of storytellers, who disappear behind their stories. And what you are left with is not the feeling that the storyteller had an interesting life, but a connection with the storyteller, who was able to capture some universal feeling (of pride, of embarassment, of loss, of fear, of love) and share it.

Sometimes I Wish I Lived in Alabama

2008-03-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

Not all the time. Mostly only when I hear Kathryn Tucker Windham tell stories.

Now I just learned that the Birmingham Museum of Art is hosting a retrospective of her work-- not her storytelling, mind you, but 50 years of black and white photographs, including some taken with her first Brownie, purchased in 1930. Most, I gather, were taken during her career as a journalist. Most depict small town life in Alabama from the Depression through the Civil Rights era. I suspect, given Kathyrn's eye for detail in her storytelling, and her career that took her across the state, that she captured some wonderful images on film. Wish I could see them.

If by some chance, you're passing through Alabama before May 25, stop by the exhibit, and let me know what you thought.

Baby Storytelling

2008-02-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

I've noticed on YouTube, if you do a search on "storyteller," you get a host of precious thirty second to two minute home videos of toddlers babbling.

(Actually, you first get a lot of pirated clips from Jim Henson's The Storyteller series, but that's a post for another day)

So. The home movies. The chatty babies. Their doting parents and grandparents immediately tag or title the clip "storyteller."

It took me ages to figure out why.

I think it's because they are capturing their child caught up in the joy of language, the sound of language, the music of it. For the first time, they see their child not demanding food, or sleep, or a beloved object out of reach. Suddenly they see that their child is doing something with language beyond expressing direct needs.

Interesting that they call this "storytelling," and not "poetry" or "echolalia" or "mouth music." I don't believe for a moment that a one-year old is trying to express a narrative by this babbling, as extensive as it is. They're not telling a story.

But it's fascinating that the default assumption of parents is that their wee bairn has stepped up her language skills, and that this next step they call "storytelling."

Storytelling is Alive and Well (in the Papers, anyway)

2008-02-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Don't know why, but there was a burst of stories about storytellers and storytelling in the press last week.

Creative Loafing Atlanta January 30, 2008

with audio podcast here

The Times of London February 1, 2008

The Baltimore Sun February 3, 2008

Farewell to Scotland's Greatest Storyteller

2007-12-01T06:23:00.000-08:00

Duncan Williamson (1928-2007)

The English-speaking world has lost another of its giants of the oral tradition, storyteller and singer Duncan Williamson.

Link is to the obituary in the Independent.
Here are the links to the Times of London's, and the Guardian's.

Limor's Storytelling Agora

2007-10-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Also worth checking out: Limor's blog from Israel. Limor is a storyteller but on her blog, the issues she raises about storytelling are the kind usually only discussed at conferences, and not often enough.

Big picture issues, like "what is storytelling?" and the role of the fourth wall in the relationship between the storyteller and audience. Also practical exercises she uses to get people telling stories.

A welcome and most necessary addition to the storytelling community!

Voice - A Storyteller's Lifestyle

2007-08-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

Check out this storyteller's blog... not a diary of a storyteller's performances, but thoughtful articles and essays on tips of the trade and questions for the community. I especially appreciate that a storyteller is willing to share concerns and issues for the entire storytelling community to consider. Kudos to storyteller Rachel Hedman.

Syd Lieberman Jumps into the 21st Century

2007-05-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

(photo by Santheo)
You might say Chicago storyteller Syd Lieberman was already ahead of his time... with a commission from NASA under his belt, he is the only American storyteller with an official claim to give voice to the folklore of the planet Mars. But now he's boldly going where no storyteller (at least not one with his prominence in the field) has gone before... the Creative Commons.

Now, for a limited time (Summer 2007), he is releasing his entire stable of storytelling recording as free downloads from his Web site, www.sydlieberman.com. By my count, he has 14 CDs and cassettes in his multi-decade career, and you can still purchase these, but he's taking a cue from the up and coming undiscovered rock and roll bands of the world and giving away his music so as to build his audience.

And, from what I understand of the Creative Commons license, you are free to copy and share the mp3s, as long as you attribute the work to Syd and don't use it for commercial purposes.

You can subscribe to the recordings as a podcast. I don't know how to do that (I don't have an iPod), but I find I can listen to them fine via his Web site, and even download individual stories.

Given the state of frenzy that the lawyers of the RIAA and Viacom and Time Warner and Fox and everyone has over who copyrights what and who is allowed to post what on which web site... Syd's move is a refreshing one, and obviously comes from a place of abundance, rather than scarcity.

Kudos to Syd!

Chicago Youth Storytelling: WNEP and "Back to School"

2007-05-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Don R. Hall at Chicago's WNEP (What No One Else Produces) has been running a storytelling competition, called SKALD, for 8 years now.

(And my ears on the ground in Chicago in the storytelling community know nothing about it. Time for some new ears. The likely trouble is not only that Chicago storytellers aren't tapped into the theatre scene there, and also Don's use of the term "professional storyteller" does not correspond to the same definition that professional storytellers use.)

Be that as it may, Don's blogged about his efforts to get some youth storytellers involved, and he may have just gotten more than he bargained for.

But it seems his potential batch of students are wildly enthusiastic. Kudos for Don for developing the next generation of storytellers.

The Living Tradition profiles Irish Storyteller John Campbell

2007-01-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

(traditional singer Len Graham and storyteller John Campbell)

Well, better late than never to learn about the masters. John Campbell (1933-2006) was one of Ireland's favorite storytellers, and I only just stumbled across his obituary in the Guardian. I've linked to a nice profile of him from a few year's back, which only gives a hint of his style.

Cayman Net News: Storytelling comes alive

2006-12-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

A report from the 2006 Gimistory, the Cayman National Cultural Foundation's annual storytelling festival.

I also found a web site for the 2004 Gimistory, and Ken Corsbie's review of the 2005 Gimistory (check out the picture of the jam session, featuring Afro-Carribean drums and Jeri Burns' harp!).

Gimistory's official site. Looks like fun!

The origin of manga: Storytelling Man

2006-11-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

From Japan's PingMag: a feature on Tameharu Nagata, one of Tokyo's last remaining traditional kamishibai storytellers. Great pictures of his stories (he's got 700 different ones!), as well as his cart.

YouTube: Storytelling in Jonesborough TN

2006-11-01T22:22:00.000-08:00

Promotional video for the National Storytelling Festival and International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Some nice archival photos of performers and audience members from the early years. Can you recognize the storytellers in their 1973 fashions?

Give Free Hugs: A Storytelling Festival Story

2006-10-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Patricia Digh shares a story that takes place at the National Storytelling Festival, and although its not about storytelling, it's about her daughter and YouTube and finding her voice.

It's a heartwarming blog post. Check it out.

Blogging from Jonesborough: Family Business

2006-10-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Blogger Sandor Weisz writes about his trip to the National Storytelling Festival, with a personal angle: storyteller Syd Leiberman is his father-in-law. So much nicer to get a snapshot of the Festival with some depth, instead of the emails I get with litanys of first I heard so-and-so and then I heard so-and-so and then we saw blah blah blah...

The Best Storyteller in San Francisco: Eleanor Dumont.

2006-10-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

When it comes to storytelling festivals and storytelling events in San Francisco, there's one name synonymous with excellence in storytelling: Eleanor Dumont.

From storytelling at school assemblies, to keynote speeches, commemorative occasions or family events, a storyteller can provide a distinctive entertaining and/or educational program, and San Francisco has its share of talent to fit the bill.

However, if one wanted to find Ms. Dumont to tell stories, or for that matter, any of the other many storytellers of San Francisco to make an appearance at your event, you'd be hard pressed to find any way to contact them.

Check the comments for more.

Esther Martinez, Tewa Storyteller, Rest in Peace

2006-09-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Esther Martinez, also known as P'oe Tswa (Blue Water), was a storyteller and linguist of the Tewa language spoken in the Pueblos of New Mexico. At 94 years old, she just received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement. Driving back home from the ceremony in Washington DC, she was killed in a car accident last Saturday by a suspected drunk driver.

You can hear audio recordings of her stories at the NEA web site here.

Washington Post obituary here.

Crackle Mountain

2006-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

Crackle Mountain is a new blog from Australian storyteller Florence Forrest.

It features her re-tellings of Asian folktales, gorgeously illustrated with images of Asisan artwork. Florence cites her sources for both the stories and the artwork, and fills us in on some folklore to help give the stories some context.

I hope she keeps it up!

Stories for Storytellers: SOS - Searching Out Stories

2006-09-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

I realized that Jackie Baldwin's Searching Out Stories web site is also hard to find, if you're not in the know. So I'll add my review here.

SOS - Searching Out Stories has stories for storytellers.

If you are a storyteller who needs a story-- and if you're a teacher, a minister, a camp counselor, a librarian, a toastmaster, a parent, or anyone who needs a story-- this web site is an excellent resource.

This unique, comprehensive archive has been growing for the past eight years. It contains references to hundreds of categories and thousands of stories, suggested by professional storytellers, librarians and teachers from all around the world through the Storytell listserv at Texas Women's University and independent research. You'll find full stories, abridged stories, book references, and descriptions of actual experiences and helpfpul hints in telling these tales at an event or using them in the classroom or at home with your own children or grandchildren.

Jackie has added a Google search interface to the site as well, so you can find just the stories you need, whether you're looking for stories about tigers or mosquitos, or need stories about truth, or strength, or marriage, or if you need help finding tales from a particular culture.

Now, you won't find the entire story usually... you'll often just get the "bare bones" - but if you're a storyteller, you can flesh it out. And the book references are helpful (in combination with your local library). Some of the categories are thin, but the site is a continuing work in progress.

In 2006, Jackie Baldwin was awarded the National Storytelling Network's Distinguished National Service Award for her work in maintaining the site.

Stories for storytelling

Best Online Resource for Storytellers: Storytell

2006-08-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

When you ask around the U.S. storytelling community about the best online resources, the answer you get most often is Storytell (Although Jackie Baldwin's SOS "Save Our Stories" quickly gaining in reputation).

The surprising thing is that is you were to Google "storytelling" or "storytelling resources" or "storytelling community" you won't find it in the first five pages. I suppose that's because it is usually linked to under it's own name, "Storytell" with the description "a forum for discussion about storytelling."

If you Google "Storytell," of course, its home page comes up first... but how many new storytelling fans are going to Google that word if they've never heard of it?

One reason Google overlooks it: it's not a Web page. Storytell is an email list, started in 1995, and hosted by Texas Women's University.

All persons interested in storytelling are invited to participate: professional storytellers, amateur storytellers, people concerned with the rich history of storytelling, people who enjoy listening to stories, and those who speculate about the place of storytelling in the 21st century. The list reflects viewpoints from around the world of issues and topics concerning the storytelling community. STORYTELL serves as a source of information on conferences, workshops and events as well as a place to ask (and answer) questions about the origins and variations of stories, the business of storytelling, or organization of storytelling events.

With more than 500 members on the list, it's a great way to get advice from storytellers, producers, and listeners in the field.

My advice: if you sign on to the list, choose digest format for a while. That will limit your emails to one a day. The list can generate two or three or four dozen postings a day.

It has an an archive, which, sadly, is not accessible via the Web. You have to use the list's majordomo commands, which means the primary means of searching is by date... not by keyword or author.

Still, if you have a storytelling question, there are usually lots of people who will respond and point you to web resources, books, or even local and regional contacts.

And, let's see if a link here will help boost its Google rank:

Learn about storytelling: Storytell.

Storytell, the best online resource about storytelling

Storytelling on YouTube

2006-07-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

According to today's Guardian, YouTube is sending out 100 million videos a day to Web viewers. Fully 3.9% of everything zipping around the Web are videos from YouTube, making it the most popular site on the internet.

I'm not a fan of internet video. It's too small, and too blurry. And storytelling doesn't translate well to video in the first place.

But storyteller Tim Ereneta has created a place on YouTube to showcase The Ancient Art of Storytelling. He's found folktales, footage of traditional tellers in Asia, a few contemporary practicing storytellers, and some spooky stories from around the campfire.

Some of the campfire stories are really dark.

Not scary and morbid dark: I mean literally, it's like watching black rectangle for three minutes.

Podcast: Activated Storytellers

2006-06-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Activated Storytellers are a family of performers who have been on the road practically forever telling stories through drama.

Now they've got a podcast! In addition to stories, you get to hear the backstage news. Great audio quality. Nice to hear the interplay of different voices among the family. And their stories have that same quality of Old Time Radio. This would be a good resource for schools, both those that have booked the Activated Storytellers, and those that haven't.

Youth Storytelling

2006-05-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

tyler&chris1.jpg, originally uploaded by storycast.

Someone, presumably Elizabeth Rose, has posted photos at Flickr from the 2006 National Youth Storytelling Showcase in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. You can see the next generation of storytellers here, at the storycast photo page.

Podcast: Storyteller.net

2006-05-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

Sean Buvala at Storyteller.net has finally got around to creating a podcast... and this is one the storytelling community will take a liking to.

In addition to stories, he's got reviews and tips. But the stories: he features not just himself, but seveal tellers, so each broadcast you get to hear a couple of storytellers.

Let's hope he keeps it up... and that he figures out a way to improve the sound quality from the live performance venue. The in-studio pieces have so much better quality, it makes the stories less appealing than the non-story parts!

Adventures in Storytelling Blog

2006-04-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

James Nelson-Lucas and Patti Christensen tell stories as a duo in Southern California, and they've started a blog about their storytelling adventures.

Storycast: the First Podcast for Storytelling

2006-03-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Rose has laid claim to the first podcast for storytelling, that is, for storytelling as we know it: oral storytelling, as part of the storytelling revival.

Her podcast, which started in July 2005, has her telling classics like "No News" and "Barney McCabe." These are recordings of performances, not studio recordings, so she's playing to a live audience.

You don't need an iPod to hear her recordings. You can just click on the various entries to get the mp3 file and your computer will play it directly.

There is a link for a podcast feed, but since I don't listen to podcasts that way, I don't have the faintest idea what you'd do with it.

The Storyteller and Listener Online

2006-01-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Blogger Holly Stevens keeps several blogs going, including this one on storytelling as a tool for peacemaking and healing.

The Storyteller and the Listener Online publishes two guest essays each month on storytelling at the community level for purposes of peacemaking, healing, bridge building and/or reconciliation. Essayists come from all over the English-speaking world. Many are professional storytellers; others are conflict resolution specialists, community activists, social workers, teachers, counselors, clergy and more. All have experienced first-hand the value of narrative in peacework and healing.

Holly has found a great cross section of contributors here.

If you don't use a newsreader to keep up with blogs, you can send Holly your email and get a notice each time the site is updated.

I haven't read Blog City blogs before: you'll find the archive links in the left column, under the large site graphic.

New Blog: MultiCultural Stories Network

2006-01-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

Andy Fraenkel of West Virginia, of Center for Sacred Storytelling has started a blog for the MultiCultural Stories Network.

Report from the Asian Congress of Storytellers

2005-12-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Luchie Gualberto Gongora blogs from Singapore.

Alabama Life

2005-11-26T22:57:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

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

2005-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

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

2005-02-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

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

2005-02-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Story Consulting

2004-07-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

School assemblies are difficult. They're unpredictable in that you have a number of variables out of your control, from student behavior to forgetful PTA parents to cranky front office staff... but... school assemblies are the bread and butter of most storytellers. It's where the money is...

Unless, of course, you can speak the language of business. There's a whole subset of "knowledge management" called storytelling, although it's got as much in common with getting up and telling stories as butterfly collections have to do with pollination.

Joel Ben Izzy, travelling storyteller, is a storytelling storyteller. He's found a way to move beyond school assemblies without an MBA or a PhD in organizational development. (Thank goodness!)

He's still telling stories, he just happens to find his audiences in corporations: Check out this article from his web site:
http://www.storypage.com/consult.html
Click on the SV Magazine link to get the PDF file.

NSN keynote - Margaret Read MacDonald

2004-07-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. MacDonald has an impeccable storytelling resume. That doesn't give her the right to use her keynote address to scold the very organization that invited her to speak.

(She was chiding the National Storytelling Network for charging too much money for international memberships.)

Heck, they charge too much for domestic memberships.

It was appropriate in the context of her speech (an overview of international revivalist storytelling, and the challenges and opportunities for collaboration in U.S. storytelling events) to raise the issue, but why not be diplomatic about it?

Appalachian storytelling blog

2004-07-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Storyteller Stephen Hollen shares his Tall Tales & Mountain Musings-- stories of life in Kentucky, then and now at mountainstories.easyjournal.com

Online Texas Storytelling Concert

2004-05-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

Indian legends, true stories, tall tales, and fractured fairy tales, from University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences' Advanced Storytelling class Master's students.

Requires Real Player to see streaming video.

Storyteller Blog

2004-03-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about time. A storyteller has finally created a blog about storytelling-- from the storyteller's perspective. I'll be keeping an eye on Mr. Odds Bodkins and his writing.

A Look at Jonesborough, Tennessee

2004-01-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

Jill Jordan Seider travelled to Jonesborough Tennessee for "The Savvy Traveller" radio series. Listen in Real Audio (June 2003)

Later, in October, she wrote about for U.S. News and World Report:

Mother Nature is to blame for global warming. Seems she was watching a bunch of guys ice-fishing. It was so cold their mustaches froze. They'd been staring in a hole (and neglecting their wives) for days. "How did I create this moron?" she asked herself, and she turned up the heat.

At least that's the way Bil Lepp tells it. But don't call the EPA to
share the news. Lepp is a well-known "liar" from West Virginia who shared his fabrications at the National Storytelling Festival earlier this month in the Blue Ridge mountain town of Jonesborough, Tenn.

The festival began in 1973, when 60 people came to hear mountain men and others spin yarns from the back of a hay wagon. In the 30 years since, the old-fashioned art of storytelling has become a 21st-century sensation. This year, 10,500 listeners flocked to Jonesborough. Some 200 annual gatherings take place in the United States. And in 2002, the folks at Jonesborough opened the $10 million International Storytelling Center. Funded primarily by government grants and loans, and affiliated with the Smithsonian, the center hosts summer storytelling and periodic workshops.

Why this burst of popularity? The answer lies in the appeal of a good story. It can make you laugh, like one of Lepp's fibs. And it can bring tears to your eyes, like Donald Davis's tale of the day of his birth. The infant and mother were near death; the terrified father had to run home from the hospital to milk the family cow, which he found chewing on the last row of corn on the Davis farm. In a frenzy, he whipped the
beast, then cried and "bellered" with her. She licked him. "He never did tell me if he licked her," says Davis. "Then my daddy set down, and he milked that sweet old cow. I'd spent my whole life thinking that men feel no pain in childbirth. If I had known about the story sooner, maybe I would've had the grace to not cause him some of the deliberate pain I was so good at dishing out later."

Only a rambling and intimate story can reveal such truths, which tend to be subsumed by the roar of our electronic, visual, and virtual culture. "Nothing in modern media can compare to being face to face with a person and feeling that person's heart and soul being poured into the images and action of their stories," says Joseph Sobol, author of The Storytellers' Journey: An American Revival. "It can be intoxicating."

It certainly is for Andy Saladino, 60, a pathologist from Baltimore who attended the Jonesborough event for the fourth time this year. "It's magical," he says. "It transports you away from all the troubles in the
world and makes you feel more focused on what's really of value."

Burst of popularity? I know this was edited down for a travel piece, but what's so different about the "appeal of a good story" in 2003 that wasn't there pre-1973?

Storytelling declining in Shanghai, too

2003-10-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

via XINHUA online ):
The Shanghai Daily is noting a massive drop-off in storytelling theatres in the area, blaming modern media in part, for exposing audiences to fashion trends and pop stars at the expense of the folk arts, like pingtan.

Pingtan, by the way, is a regional form of storytelling (popular in East China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai) that typically involves two storytellers, accompanied by music --or prefaced by sung ballads, telling long serial tales. This art thrived in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with many of its stories dating to that time. Here's a summary by Eric Miller, of the University of Pennsylvania:

pingtan is a collective term, denoting two forms of storytelling: pinghua (narration without music); and tanci (narration with music, also known as, prosimetric performance, or chantefable). The prose of pinghua, and sections of tanci, is delivered in a styled form of speaking that is different from everyday speech; it has a recognizable cadence. Both pinghua and tanci allow insertion of commentary, anecdotes, poems, and descriptive set pieces; and both involve long, often serialized, tales. In tanci, the story is told in alternating passages of prose and rhymed metrical verse, plus comic-relief passages, singing, and instrumental accompaniment. In olden days, a story could take three months to tell, with an hour session each day: today, two weeks is usually the limit....
In the course of a performance, storytellers go into and out of multiple registers, voices, and dialects. The plot line is delivered in a formal dialect, while asides to the audience are given in the local dialect. Ancient dialects are no longer second nature to young performers or listeners: many elders say that today the singing is good, but the speech is poor. Thus today the frames, or registers, of language styles that performers shift into and out of are in some ways simpler. Instead of switching dialects, a young performer may just switch tone or accent.

The older performers also speak of the diminished attention span of young people: after all, commercial TV -- which is accessible in cities -- has advertisements every 10 minutes (I wonder if the rate of alternation between singing and speaking in tanci has been affected by such developments). Some older pingtan performers say that today, fewer people come to listen to the art, more just to hear a story. Older, well-known stories are regarded as boring by many younger listeners, forcing the development of new stories. Some young people complain that the pace of the storytelling is too slow, that more action and less of the detail that has traditionally been so characteristic of tanci is desired. These changes are perhaps due to the quickening pace of life in modern China and the difference sense of performance introduced by editing and other aspects of TV, videos, and movies.

Eric Miller, Continuity and Change in Chinese Storytelling

The news from Shanghai documents the decline in the number of theatres, and also in the quality of the performers... but I suspect that like many folk arts, it may disappear from public view but not go extinct.

Telling Tiny Stories

2003-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

(from Gibberish.com's Top 50 list, I discovered LooneyLabs, a "that hippie game company," and it turns out they've got a storytelling game, Nanofictionary.

I haven't bought the game --yet,-- but I can see how storytellers would have a competitive advantage playing in a group of non-storytellers. It seems to be a game that writers could enjoy, and improv folks would certainly find it easy (not sure what the intersection of gamers and improv folks is).

I'd love to see this played among a group of storytellers.

Three potential problems, and I'll confess this right off: I haven't read all the game's rules. This is just based on what I've found at a Nanofictionary fan site.

The "Resolution" card. Given that this is a card game, and you're randomly or strategically collecting story elements (Action, Character, Setting, etc)... a randomly drawn Resolution is going to come across as just that: random. And what defines a story is that its narrative elements belong together (i.e., it's not a random list). A resolution comes out of everything that has gone before. So, yes, a storyteller or improviser could invent a satisfying resolution, given a random list of characters and settings and a problem.... but to leave it up to the cards is like asking a football team to hustle the ball down to the end zone but wait on the 1 -yard line for new instructions.
The "It was all just a dream" card would cause any self-respecting writer or storyteller to have a hissy fit and set the game pieces on fire.
I'll let the story speak for itself (this submitted as a favorite):
A long time ago, in a submarine below the surface, there was an inner-city school girl, the guy in the apartment upstairs, and the mentally and physically retarded black cat. The girl had a rifle, the guy had grenades, and the cat had a sniper gun. The smart scientists were going to give the girl homework, the guy a life, and put the cat in a mental home, but they got caught red handed. They were never seen again and a statue was built in the girl, guy, and cat's honor.

$17 from Looney Labs.

Wisconsin Weather Stories

2003-09-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

So UW Madison wants to combine atmospheric science and folklore.

The weather narrative - atop the rhymes, charms and proverbs - is a way, for example, to integrate weather into our sense of place and, for the meteorologist, lends an oral history to be explored through the lens of science. Famous Wisconsin stories with a weather pitch include the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the Armistice Day storm of 1940, when dozens of duck hunters - trapped on Mississippi River sloughs by a sudden 40-degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature - froze to death in their boats.

Can't say it's a bad idea. I'm all for place-based education. Nothing wrong with introducing kids to oral history in their social studies or science classes. But aiming for a K-12 audience seems a little broad to me. While "Colder than a brass toilet in the Yukon" and "Windier than a peach orchard pig" are no doubt gems for undergraduate folklorists, not sure how well you could maintain order in a third grade classroom explaining those ones.

Sweet Tooth for Storytelling

2003-08-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

Couldn't find the URL, so here's the search results from the Kingsport Times News:

Date Published: July 31, 2003
Krispy Kreme donates $1 million to International Storytelling Center
JONESBOROUGH - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts recently gave the International Storytelling Center a sweet deal in the form of a $1 million donation.

The company's chief executive officer, president and chairman, Scott Livengood, said Krispy Kreme has been working on forming a partnership with the not-for-profit organization located in Jonesborough.

"We've had an ongoing relationship that began about a year ago," Livengood said. "The Krispy Kreme Foundation was just established, and its mission is to focus on people and organizations reaching their potential."

The donation will be given in allotments over a three- to five-year period and will be used primarily for the initial development of a storytelling in education program, operational support, and completion of a theater in the ISC interpretation center.

The donation comes amid a drive to secure funding in an effort to raise $20 million over a seven-year span.

"The ($20 million) is what will help us build the capacity of this organization to be successful," ISC founder and President Jimmy Neil Smith said. "Like any business or nonprofit organization, we need the pieces to be successful."

Half of the $20 million will eventually be placed in an endowment. The interest earned from the endowment would then be used to cover annual operating costs.

Smith said he, Livengood and other ISC officials just completed a three-day tour of the region in which they spent time with potential partners.

"We are introducing ourselves to the region because we want people to know there has been a change in who we are and how we operate," Smith said.

The ISC is well-known for having helped host the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough every year for more than 30 years.

However, Smith said the ISC's new mission is to improve and teach to improve nearly every facet of life with storytelling.

"The festival is the cornerstone of what we do, but we have a new vision," Smith said. "This new vision is one that stories can be used to build a better world."

Livengood said it is that mission to use storytelling in education, business, health care, and peace and understanding that convinced Krispy Kreme to enter into a partnership that he said will last far beyond the three- to five-year donation period.

Livengood lives in Winston-Salem, N.C., the home city of Krispy Kreme, and attended his first storytelling festival last year.

"I did not have to be persuaded about the power of stories," Livengood said. "That event, however, helped to broaden my perspective."

- By Corey B. Shoun

Byatt v. Rowling

2003-07-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

A.S. Byatt takes a clear eyed look at Harry Potter's literary merit, which is minimal. (New York Times)

Ms. Rowling's magic world has no place for the numinous. It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip. Its values, and everything in it, are, as Gatsby said of his own world when the light had gone out of his dream, "only personal." Nobody is trying to save or destroy anything beyond Harry Potter and his friends and family.

She sees the appeal for children, and doesn't fault the books for that... but takes to task adults who should know better. Read the whole piece here.

Storytelling Articles Online

2003-07-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across Questia via a Google ad. At first I thought it was a bookstore. Then I clicked on the links and realized it was all content. Online content. It's an online library. Check out their articles on storytelling... Holy Moses! They even have the entire work of Annette Simmon's The Story Factor available. (Doug Lipman's review here or Questia's online version here) (I know Annette is getting her work out there any way she can... if you have the patience to read all 250 pages of her book online, be my guest. Me, I'm happy to plunk down the $16.95 to hold it in my hands.) Reading online gives me a headache. Here's the catch: you only get to see the first page of each chapter for free... to read the whole thing online, you have to subscribe. $9.95 a month for an annual, or $19.95 by the month. Might be worth it for a student.

Tales Retold: Fairy Tales New and Old

2003-06-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I heard a radio show by the Modern Language Association featuring a history of fairy tales in our culture, with Alison Lurie, Karen Rowe, and Jack Zipes. It's available online (Scroll down to "Fairy Tales"). Excellent overview, for a 30 minute feature.