By: Eric Wolf,
on 3/10/2011
Available from Yvonne Healy, 5193 King Road, Howell, MI 48843, Phone: 810-813-3000. Email: [email protected] Order online from www.yhealy.com/products.html $14.00 (includes shipping & handling) Reviewed By Linda Goodman A citizen of two cultures, Irish and American, Yvonne Healy spoke both the Irish and English languages until she [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 11/30/2010
Press Play to hear Octavia Sexton talk about Jack Story and how his Traditional Tale belongs to everyone. on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Octavia Sexton writes…
I think most people probably know that a Jack Tale is a trickster story and Jack. They’ve been around for over 800 years – originating in the British Isles. The stories came to North America via European settlers. The stories told in the Appalachian Mountains began to change through the years to reflect the environment and cultural traditions that emerged among the mountain people.
I grew up in a storytelling tradition and stories were a part of life. I heard a variety of stories not only through kinfolk but also at school. I went to a one-room school and the only thing to do at recess was sing songs, tell stories and play games that did not require ‘stuff.’ We didn’t have any ‘stuff’ to play with because we were all just a bunch of poor country kids. I think I established myself very early as a storyteller. I remember being 5 years old and standing on a big rock in the yard of one of my uncles’ houses and telling tales to my cousins, aunts and uncles who gathered on the big front porch. We had all kinds of stories, but I never knew what a Jack Tale was until I went to college.
After eighth grade, Mommy asked me if I wanted to get married or go on to high school. I went on to high school! Five months after graduating high school, I was married, pregnant and working for minimum wage in a factory. We lived in a two-room house, got water from a spring and used an outhouse. Poverty is like a great black hole that keeps sucking you in deeper – almost impossible to get out. Hoping to break the grip of poverty for my family, I went to college full time. While in college the professors discovered I was a storyteller. I was asked if I knew any Jack Tales and I said no. Then I found out what they were and I realized I had heard Jack Tales all my life but the character wasn’t always called Jack. He could be named after anybody or just be called ‘a feller.’ Anyway, it was college that put me on the track to becoming a professional storyteller. I took a storytelling class in college and right off knew I couldn’t tell one like the professor said we should. I kept my mouth shut through that class and that is hard for me to do. Then on the last day, each student had to stand up and tell a story. I thought to myself, “Oh Lord, now everybody will know I can’t tell stories the right way.” I got up there and just told one like Grandpa because I couldn’t do it any different. When I finished everybody was real quiet and staring at me. Then the professor said I was the best storyteller he had ever heard. Talk about getting the ‘big head’ – you couldn’t shut my mouth after that. I started telling in other classes, at faculty meetings and just everywhere.
I think Jack Tales are great stories for anyone to tell and create because he is just like you and me wherever we are. You don’t have to be in Appalachia to tell a Jack Tale any more than we had to stay in Englan
By: Eric Wolf,
on 8/6/2010
Press Play to hear Laird Schaub speak about The Application of Story to Group Facilitation and Community Living on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf
Laird Schaub Writes...
"As a consultant, I'm often asked to work with groups that consider themselves stuck. In helping them understand how they got there and the choices they have to move through it, I always start with the stories-the way in which each person makes sense of their reality as a member of the group. Invariably, the stories don't all match. Sometimes the realities are mutually exclusive. Still, I believe them all and do my best to help everyone in the group understand how each person's actions make sense from that person's perspective. Once I've established a bridge of understanding among the various players, it's then possible to build a new story, where each person's reality is now a little bigger and can hold aspects of other's realities as well.
The key to this is to not ask a person to change their core beliefs, change their personality, or change the way they work with information. I just ask them to change their story, and then to adjust their behaviors accordingly. I ask them to make shifts that are in their interest; ones that will help them be better understood and be less triggering for others. I ask them to make changes that will help them build relationship.
Often, people in the group will be in pain. Being stuck doesn't feel good, and if you cannot see past your own story it often appears that others have taken actions that are purposefully hurtful or disrespectful. Ouch! In this sense, pain is a symptom of a problem, and very useful in helping to diagnose where the stories are not in alignment. Because you want to be treating causes and not just symptoms, it's important here to resist the impulse to alleviate the pain as your priority. It's a better strategy to view the pain as an important source of information and explore it for the purpose of surfacing the clues you'll need to build a story where everyone can feel held and respected."
Brief Bio:
Laird has lived 36 years at Sandhill Farm, an income-sharing rural community in Missouri which he helped found. He homesteads there, has raised two kids, and has developed a flair for preserving food and celebration cooking. He is also the main administrator of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, a network organization he helped create in 1986, and that serves as a clearinghouse of information about North American communities of all stripes.
In addition to being an author and public speaker about various aspects of community, he's also a meeting junkie and has parlayed his passion for good process into a consulting business on group dynamics. He's worked with about 75 different groups around the US, many of them multiple times. His specialty is up-tempo meetings that engage the full range of human input, teaching groups to work creatively with conflict, and at the same time being ruthless about about capturing as mu
By: Eric Wolf,
on 6/22/2010
Press Play to hear Brother Wolf speak with Tejumola Ologboni on Walking the Talk with Street Storytelling.
A little more on the Artist…
Teju of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a master storyteller and folklorist of international renown. He draws listeners into stories with gestures and movements, and sometimes with music made on traditional Africa instruments. Some of his stories are filled with magic and mystical characters, like “the Possum and the Hare;” others are fact like the story of Joshua, a runaway captive who escaped to Wisconsin, and whose case went all the way to the Supreme Court, when a bounty hunter tried to capture and return him to being enslaved. Serious or humorous, political or festive, Teju’s stories reflect on longstanding and contemporary cultural perspectives to capture and return him to being enslaved. Serious or humorous, political of festive, Teju’s stories reflect on longstanding and contemporary cultural perspectives to give listeners greater understanding of the profound influence of African heritage on our traditions and identities. Come listen to this culture keeper and be enlightened and inspired.
He is also an author, teacher, consultant, poet, writer, actor, dancer, percussionist, and “verbal illusionist.”
“Storytelling is the most ancient of ancient arts.” -Tejumola Ologboni
Whether in your schools, concerts, festivals, libraries or community centers, bring Teju the Storyteller to your stage for a memorial cultural experience.
Tejumola F. Ologboni
P.O. Box 16706
Milwaukee, WI 53216
(414) 344-6656
You can learn more about Teju at http://www.yourfavoritestorytellers.org/teju.html
By: Eric Wolf,
on 5/27/2010
 |
SB: And you’ve done over a hundred, haven’t you?
BW: There are 103 online, with 17 more waiting to be uploaded.
SB: And is it mostly an American audience?
BW: I view the podcast as an International project. 44% of my audience is overseas. I’ve been working really hard to connect with international potential audience when they’re in the United States.
SB: So, the podcast is a big part of what you do?
BW: Yes, definitely. One of the things that’s started happening recently is that people are starting to come and say “interview me,” but it really doesn’t work that way. I’ve only ever done that twice, and both times I regretted doing it….
One of the things I struggle with is that a lot of podcasts that are very successful aim at an audience that is very tech savvy, but my target audience (storytellers) is almost the opposite. What that means is that the build is much slower than with other projects of these type. It’s one of the great frustrations of the project for me. And recently I rebranded it, which makes that process even slower. That’s why I’m always quick to say to anyone “if you like listening to it, let other people know, or people at your institutions know,” That’s the biggest way my audience grows…
SB: And I actually brought that up when speaking with Dale Jarvis as well. He’s quite successful at using social media, he does a lot of traditional storyteller-type reaching out to people as well, so he’s getting a kind of synergy going there, but he often has to think about bridging the gap between people who are traditional storytellers and are often over 40, and potential storyteller audiences who might not even be aware of the storytelling world unless he reaches out to them using social media.
BW: You use the term “traditional storytelling” a lot. I wouldn’t describe most of the storytellers I know as traditional storytellers. I would say “performance storytellers I know” or “community storytellers,” but I wouldn’t say “traditional tellers” unless I was talking about Native Americans, people from Africa, like the Griots from Africa, places where they still have a living tradition. Though it’s true that most of them are over 40 because it takes many years to master the tradition… Community storytellers doesn’t get as much respect in the U.S. and you can see this in their promotional materials, which often don’t even use the word “storyteller.” The storytelling brand is badly damaged; it’s associated with children and librarians reading books to children. That’s why I recently re-branded my podcast. (From “The Art of Storytelling with Children” to “The Art of Storytelling.” —SB)
SB: What do you think listening to stories does for people?
BW: I think that human beings are community animals. Not in the sense of lower, but in the sense of us being biological. Storytelling arises out of that need to build and structure community. When we know the people in the room, we’re really creating opportunities for connecting with them. In diplomatic relations, there’s a technique for using storytelling to prevent the hotheads from getting out of hand. Tellers are used to using metaphor and simile to speak to each other.
SB: What
By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/21/2010
Press Play to hear Brother Wolf takes questions from his audience on the Art of Storytelling Show on how to work with Audiences This is 2 of 3 shows commemorating the 100th Anniversary episode of the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show. This Episode is podcast in 128 bit rate – this higher bit rate costs more to cast online – if you enjoyed listening to the higher quality show – perhaps you would consider purchasing your next download through the website….
This picture is called a Wordie – it is picture of what words people are using when making comment on the blog.
Click on it too see a closer look…
I would like to thank the following people for contributing there time and energy to the 101st Anniversary Episode….
Tim Ereneta Story Lab X – http://storylabx.tumblr.com/
Kevin Cordi The Story Box Ning – http://thestoryboxproject.ning.com/
Jonatha and Harold Wright Telling in Tandem – http://www.jonathaandharold.com/pubs.html
Fran Stallings NSN Oracle Award Check out the NSN website at http://www.storynet.org
Baba the Storyteller – http:// www.babathestoryteller.com What do you see for the future of the art of storytelling?
Trish Cane Suggestion of Books for storytelling to children and Adults
Dianne de Las Casus – Congradulations! She has a wonderful blog at http://storyconnection.net/blog/
Elisa Pearmain Stories to teach Peace – tell us a story example. http://www.wisdomtales.com
Resources Suggested:
Alternative to Violence Project
Children of the Morning Light.
Harvey Heilbrun How do you deal with an audience that is out of Control? http://hdhstory.net/
Sarah Hauser How do you involve kids in stories with out losing control? Portland, Oregon Storytellers http://www.portlandstorytellers.org/tellers/pages/sarahhauser.html
Jeanette W. Vaughn What is the responsibility to the audience as a Storyteller?
http://kuumbastorytellers.org
Thank-you to everyone who asked a question or added there two cents to this show….
Eric Wolf
What People are saying about the Art of Storytelling Show…
1 Comments on Art of Storytelling 101st Anniversary Episode., last added: 4/21/2010
By: Eric Wolf,
on 1/10/2010
Press Play to hear Nothando Zulu speaking on participation on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Nothando Zulu writes..
Participation, Participation, Participation...
I began telling stories as a member of an acting ensemble in 1976, presenting storytelling as a major part of our repertoire. We worked primarily in park and recreation centers and schools. As members moved away or went into other fields, we evolved into‐ and I cofounded ‐ the Black Storytellers Alliance (BSA) in direct response to the demand for storytelling to deliver the inspirational and cultural lessons embodied in our stories.
Early on I encouraged members of the audience to share the storytelling space by becoming a part of the story and one of the characters in the story. On many occasions, I was unable to use all the audience members who wanted to participate! It was wonderful to have so many trying to join in the storytelling process and reinforces oral storytelling as a powerful medium. Therefore, I decided to use a kind of birthday system for who I would choose:
• I start with participatory stories in mind
• I ask the audience who had a birthday in the prior month
• Depending of the number of positive responses, I decide on the story to
present.
One example is Ananse and His Six Children. If I receive more than six positive responses, I make some twins or triplets and sometimes quadruplets! I may use the age of the participant to determine the specific role of each participant. In the story Ananse and The Moss Covered Rock, Little Miss Bush Deer has to be at least a third grader, to understand and answer “No” to each of the questions asked by the Ananse character. When the participant is younger, (s)he may miss the concept and answer in the affirmative.
Audience participation is fun and most effective when the storyteller has extensive experience with audience inclusion.
Breif Bio
Nothando Zulu is a Master storyteller who has been sharing stories with audiences for over 30 years. She shares stories that entertain, educate, motivate and inspire. She has performed at many venues locally, nationally and internationally. She draws from an extensive resource of colorful, often funny characters whose antics and follies leave audiences pondering their own life’s lessons. As Director of Black Storytellers Alliance, she and her husband with the help of the Board of Directors has produced a three-day storytelling festival celebrating the art of Black storytelling called, “Signifyin’ & Testifyin’” (now in the 17th year). Nothando is also a wife, mother, grandmother, community and political activist who believes in the power of stories.
Read more about Nothando Zulu on her website http://www.yourfavoritestorytellers.org/nothando-zulu.htm
and on the Black Storytellers Alliance Website http://www.blackstorytellers.com/
By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/10/2009
Your Feedback is important to the future of the show.
Participate now and directly influence the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Currently survey participants responses are coming from…
(One participant may check more then one choice.)
Professional Storyteller 43%
Educator 43%
Parent 41%
Storytelling Organizer 34%
Story Admirer 34%
Audience Member 31%
Writer of Children’s Stories 23%
Semi-professional Storyteller 20%
Librarian 18%
Amateur Storyteller 16%
Storytelling Coach 16%
Faith Based Storyteller 15%
This survey is still open - take your turn to influence the future of the Art of Storytelling with Children…
Fill out hte Listener Survey.
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By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/10/2009
Press Play to hear Elaine Wynne who is a clinical psychologist speak’s on uses healing stories with children on the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Elaine Wynne was a Storyteller first. Stories flowed freely around the kitchen table and from an Anishinabe/Irish man who lived on the farm where she grew up. She told stories to her young children and then in the early 70’s finished a degree in Storytelling and Image Development for Non-Profits. She began to perform as a storyteller and then in 1982 got a degree in the Psychology of Human Development (Storytelling and Healing as a main focus) and became a Licensed Psychologist.
She worked six years at Mpls. Children’s Medical Center and developed a story called “The Rainbow Dream”, used by children and adult cancer groups for many y ears. Later, her work using storytelling to teach self management to 2-5 year olds with asthma (with Daniel Kohen, M.D.) was published in the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and in numerous medical and psychological journals in Europe. R esearch on using stories and games as teaching methods showed significant reduction in emergency clinic and hospital visits over a two year period.
Elaine has performed and taught storytelling (and storytelling as a healing art) in Norway, Sweden, England, Ecuador, Japan, and Singapore, as well as in numerous places around Minnesota and the US. Last year, she presented a performance workshop at the 12th annual Pediatric Emergency Management of Humanitarian Disasters in Cleveland. She won Grand Prize with her husband (Storyteller Larry Johnson) at the Tokyo Video Festival for a storied exchange between children in St. Paul and London. She and Larry conduct and teach about Cousin Camp which they developed with their 13 grandchildren.
You can read more about her in this cool article in the Daily Planet
By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/10/2009
Press Play to hear Elaine Wynne who is a clinical psychologist speak’s on uses healing stories with children on the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Elaine Wynne was a Storyteller first. Stories flowed freely around the kitchen table and from an Anishinabe/Irish man who lived on the farm where she grew up. She told stories to her young children and then in the early 70’s finished a degree in Storytelling and Image Development for Non-Profits. She began to perform as a storyteller and then in 1982 got a degree in the Psychology of Human Development (Storytelling and Healing as a main focus) and became a Licensed Psychologist.
She worked six years at Mpls. Children’s Medical Center and developed a story called “The Rainbow Dream”, used by children and adult cancer groups for many y ears. Later, her work using storytelling to teach self management to 2-5 year olds with asthma (with Daniel Kohen, M.D.) was published in the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and in numerous medical and psychological journals in Europe. R esearch on using stories and games as teaching methods showed significant reduction in emergency clinic and hospital visits over a two year period.
Elaine has performed and taught storytelling (and storytelling as a healing art) in Norway, Sweden, England, Ecuador, Japan, and Singapore, as well as in numerous places around Minnesota and the US. Last year, she presented a performance workshop at the 12th annual Pediatric Emergency Management of Humanitarian Disasters in Cleveland. She won Grand Prize with her husband (Storyteller Larry Johnson) at the Tokyo Video Festival for a storied exchange between children in St. Paul and London. She and Larry conduct and teach about Cousin Camp which they developed with their 13 grandchildren.
You can read more about her in this cool article in the Daily Planet
By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/9/2009
Your Feedback is important to the future of the show.
Participate now and directly influence the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Currently survey participants responses are coming from…
(One participant may check more then one choice.)
Professional Storyteller 43%
Educator 43%
Parent 41%
Storytelling Organizer 34%
Story Admirer 34%
Audience Member 31%
Writer of Children’s Stories 23%
Semi-professional Storyteller 20%
Librarian 18%
Amateur Storyteller 16%
Storytelling Coach 16%
Faith Based Storyteller 15%
This survey is still open - take your turn to influence the future of the Art of Storytelling with Children…
Fill out hte Listener Survey.
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By: Eric Wolf,
on 4/1/2009
Your Feedback is important to the future of the show.
Participate now and directly influence the Art of Storytelling with Children.
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By: Eric Wolf,
on 2/26/2009
Press Play to hear Loren Niemi who was interviewed by Eric Wolf on Honoring Elders and Apprentices on the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Loren Niemi writes…
I’ve been a storyteller for 30 plus years and yet in so many ways I feel like a beginner learning how to do now, what I learned how to do then. It is – LOL – a very “Zen and now” approach to storytelling: beginner’s mind.
At this point in time, I understand clearly and fondly what a gift I received when I came to storytelling. The gift of generous mentors – specifically, Ken Feit and Rueven Gold – who took a “Zen and now” approach offering friendship, access, who posed and (sometimes) answered questions, encouraged and gave permission for me to find and develop my own voice rather than adopt theirs. They welcomed me wherever they were telling and often made space for me to tell a story at those gatherings.
They were prolific in suggesting, cajoling, handing me books and lists of books to read that would ground me in the storytelling traditions. It is one of the laments I have about a significant portion of those coming into storytelling now, that they do not read (or feel they have to read) widely and deeply. My mentors understood the value of reading anthropology, mythology, theater, folklore collections as well as the importance of listening to stories and storytellers of all kinds from many traditions to enrich our understanding of the power of this art and the breadth of its reach across cultures.
They are dead now, but the stories I heard them tell still resonate for me. What they taught directly and indirectly has served me well over these many years. Many of the tellers (Marshall Dodge, Ray Hicks, Gamble Rogers, Jackie Torrence, Duncan Willimson) who were here at the beginning of the American Storytelling Revival are dead now but I was fortunate to have heard them and cherish the fact of it.
As the generation that is the root of our storytelling culture pass, I also understand that I have been at this long enough to be able to mentor others. I welcome the opportunity. It is consistent with the tradition of storytelling apprenticeship. It is both a responsibility and a pleasure to nourish “tongues of fire.” It is not a matter of ego or authority, but an understanding that if storytelling is to flourish I have a vested interest in passing on to those who would take it, the gift of craft and knowing.
Inevitably I will pass. But stories, perhaps even some of mine, will abide and I would hope that as I have honored my elders I will have shared the joy and terror which is storytelling with my apprentices.
Loren Niemi Bio
“I began as a child fibber
but soon discovered that I was less interested
in telling lies than I was in improving the truth.”
Storytelling is also the only sensible explanation Loren Niemi can offer for forty plus years as a community organizer and public policy consultant, trainer and Lobbyist working with non-profit groups to articulate their dreams, shape their messages, and resolve their conflicts.
Loren has also spent thirty as a professional storyteller, creating, collecting, performing and teaching stories to audiences of all ages in urban and rural settings. He has served as the Humanities Scholar in Residence for Northern Minnesota, the ringmaster and tour manager of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre’s Circle of Water Circus, and is one third of BAD JAZZ, a performance art trio with Michael Sommers and Kevin Kling, experimenting with theatrical and storytelling forms. His work has been called “post-modern,” “on the cutting edge of storytelling,” “with the dark beauty of language that is not ashamed of poetry.” It is, as storyteller, Kate Lutz said, “a sensibility that owes more to the New Yorker than to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.”
He is the co-author, with Elizabeth Ellis, of Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories, from August House Publishers and the author of The Book of Plots, on the uses of narratives in creating oral and written stories, published by Llumina Press.
Loren has a BA (Philosophy and Studio Arts) from St. Mary’s College (Winona, MN) and a MA in Liberal Studies (concentration: American Culture) from Hamline University (St. Paul, MN). He teaches Storytelling in the Communications Department of Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, MN) as well as providing organizational and corporate message framing, storytelling branding and community building workshops around the country.
Loren was one of the founders of the Northlands Storytelling Network, a five state storytelling education and advocacy organization, and spent four years as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Storytelling Network, the 3000 plus member advocate and promoter of America’s storytelling revival. He was the 2005 recipient of the Oracle award for national leadership and service.
25th Anniversary performance, Kevin Kling on the horn and
Available from Yvonne Healy, 5193 King Road, Howell, MI 48843, Phone: 810-813-3000. Email: [email protected] Order online from www.yhealy.com/products.html $14.00 (includes shipping & handling) Reviewed By Linda Goodman A citizen of two cultures, Irish and American, Yvonne Healy spoke both the Irish and English languages until she [...]