Thomas Freese writes…
I am looking forward to being on Eric’s “Art of Storytelling with Children Podcast” next week, on September 23, 8PM Eastern time. I’ve been a professional storyteller and author of ghost story books for over a decade in addition to my work as an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. Our topic will be “Why tell children scary ghost stories?” I have over a dozen storytelling programs that I perform for schools, libraries, festivals, churches and private parties. And several of those themed programs are ghost stories. I’ve collected both true ghost stories as well as authoring original fiction mysteries. Kids love storytelling and kids really love ghost stories!
I was fascinated with ghost stories since I was a middle school student. In fact, one of my favorite books, Strangely Enough, which I bought at a Scholastic Book Fair, is still in print and still available for kids at school. After reading it and questioning my Mom about real experiences with ghosts she related a tale of an encounter at her Aunt’s farm when out horse riding. I’ve been hooked on ghostly mysteries ever since.
Fast forward to my life in Kentucky where I was a volunteer singer at the historic 200 plus year Shaker village called Pleasant Hill, located near Harrodsburg in Mercer County. During my ten years singing I heard numerous stories of experiences with the Shaker spirits and I decided to take a stand, rescue the fact or folklore that would be lost oral accounts if no one else researched and recorded them. I interviewed over 60 employees and guests starting in 1998 and later (2005) published those first-hand tales in my Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. I found children of all ages fascinated with the stories of spirits who seemed to act very much in character with the once-living Shakers. Folks heard singing, shouting, stomping in the 1820 Meeting House. They saw Shaker-dressed figures on the old village pike.
As I performed my ghost stories program I included some true tales along with the fanciful entertaining fictional tales. I found kids no less interested in the true tales despite some of those seeming a bit less high-impact than fiction stories. I created a number of guitar songs to accompany my tales of witches, ghosts and other creatures. In live performances of mixed ages I noticed children mesmerized by true ghost stories.
In planning discussions with some teachers or librarians I was intrigued to see that some basically requested “the scarier the better” whereas others wanted assurances at least concerning the younger ages, say up to Kindergarten or first grade. I think a number of scary tales can be done successfully and without undue “trauma” at younger ages but the teller’s environment makes a difference. I sing a song to normalize the fear of ghostly stories at the beginning of my program. What I find fascinating also is that whatever the age of the audience, younger children through adult, one can find individuals sitting side by side of the same age where one is wide eyed with participatory “fear” and the other smirks and says, “That’s not scary enough!”
Please join me for this Podcast as I consider the topic with several professional hats, ghost story author, storyteller and professional counselor and therapist. My credentials include BA Psychology, MA Expressive Therapies, LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, ATR-BC (Art Therapist Board Certified). In addition, I have worked as a Psychic Counselor and I can tell you that some things kids see are not “just their imagination”! Check out my books, first one mentioned above, and also Fog Swirler and 11 Other Ghost Stories and just released Strange and Wonderful Things: a Collection of Ghost Stories with Special Appearances by Witches and Other Bizarre Creatures. [email protected]
Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on May 13th at 8PM ET with Humorist and storyteller Buck P. Creacy about what makes storytelling funny. on the Art of Storytelling with Children.
Who Is Buck P. Creacy?
Buck P. Creacy is a homegrown Humorist and a Storyteller. But that is hardly an adequate description of this very funny man. Buck P. has always used humor to make life better for those around him. In the process you can tell he has gained a passion for life and people himself.
He started his humor apprenticeship in Slim’s Barber Shop, Farmington New Mexico, at the tender age of 14. There he realized he could shine more shoes and get bigger tips, if he made his customers laugh. He is still putting a shine in peoples eyes and making them laugh.
Buck P. is also a real live “honest to God” Toolmaker, with nearly 30 years in the tool room, working, consulting and teaching for the benefit of companies all over America. Sharing his wit and wisdom with some of the best known international companies in the world such as Toyota, Dresser Corp., Osram Sylvania and the list goes on and on for more than 98 companies. Groups both large and small love him.
Today his focus on humor is as razor sharp as ever, but never malicious. He has chosen early in life to make his humor “safe” for any audience. Whether his audience is a group of first year students or industry team members or a family reunions, he manages to bridge the gaps with easy grace.
Buck P. sees the whole wide world just a little bit different. And that difference is enough just enough to make you laugh out loud.
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 [...]
Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on Tuesday May 20th at 8 p.m. Karen Chace talks about building a school storytelling club on the Art of Storytelling with Children. Karen has a great resource of storytelling links and other storytelling goodies that are worth your time [...]
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 [...]
Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on Tuesday June 10th at 8 p.m. Mary Jo Huff speaks about early literacy begins with rhythm rhyme & story time on the Art of Storytelling with Children. Mary Jo writes… Language is critical for literacy development and storytelling creates an interactive bridge. [...]
This Tuesday Evening at 8 pm ET on June 24th - 2008 Jim May will be appearing on the Art of Storytelling with Children Podcast. Jim May Writes… I tell stories to children because I learned many years ago that nothing in my ten years of experience as a classroom teacher held my elementary students’ attention like [...]
This Tuesday,July 1st at 8pm ET - Jack Zipes the preeminent writer about and translator of fairy tales will be appearing on the Art of Storytelling with Children. Jack Zipes writes… At their best, the storytelling of fairy tales constitute the most profound articulation of the human struggle to form and maintain a civilizing process. They depict metaphorically [...]
This Thursday evening on the 31st of July - Pass it On Kids, children’s consignment shop located at 136 Dayton Street in Yellow Springs, Ohio will host four hours of the Fairytales Forever Saga as told by Brother Wolf in four acts at 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the evening. Story lovers are welcome to bring their children and themselves to any one-hour or all four. Suggested ticket donation are $7 an hour for adults and $5 an hour for children.
Seating is limited to ten people an hour so reserve your seats early by calling Pass it On Kids at 767-9100. Be sure to leave the acts you will be attending, your name and phone number and the # of seats you wish to reserve per hour. There will be a short intermission after each act. Drop-in’s are welcome on the hour - 6,7,8 or 9pm.
Told in the tradition of 1001 Ariabian Nights, Fairytales Forever is an on-going story made up of multiple shorter fairytales woven together into a seamless web. As the night wears on the stories, will become darker and more scary.
All ages 5 and up - 6pm – Peter and the Magic Yo-yo & Myia and the Sword of Light.
All ages 7 and up - 7pm – Treachery of the Goblin King & The Fairy War.
All ages 10 and up - 8pm - A Gift for Alex, The Fishermen’s Heart & Truth from Lies.
All ages 12 and up - 9pm - 100 Princes & The Ice Queen
Brother Wolf, a.k.a. Eric James Wolf, is a local Yellow Springs resident and an internationally known storyteller and host of the Art of Storyteling with Children Podcast.
Pass it On Kids is a Yellow Springs children’s consignment shop located at 136 Dayton Street, specializing in gently used children’s clothes, shoes, furniture, games and toys.
For more information go to:
http://www.ericwolf.org
http://www.fairytalesforever.com
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/about
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This Tusday at 8pm September 16 ET Dale Gilbert Jarvis will be speaking
on How to collect true scary stories for Halloween. You are welcome to join the call - just sign up for the event alert list on the top of this page before September 13th, 2008.
Near to where I live is a small lake with the delightfully ghoulish name of Deadman’s Pond. According to local legend, the pond is bottomless, and I’m sure many people know of similar stories for lakes near where they live. These lakes and ponds offer us tantalizing doorways to another realm. Peering into the reflective surface of a still body of water and wondering what lies beneath provides us with a link to the unexplained. Perhaps this is why they fascinate us. It is not so much that we think they actually are bottomless, but that part of us wishes that they might be.
So too with ghost stories. I’ve told ghost stories to literally thousands of people over the past 13 years, and they continue to be the stories most often requested when I do work with school kids. Most of the stories I tell are true, or at least were thought to be true by the people I learned them from. I love collecting stories that are tied to specific places, and sharing them with people who love that delicious shiver that runs up one’s spine when they are well told.
“A teller of spine tingling tales that are so convincing, that even if you don’t believe in ghosts… you soon will!”
‑Wayne Rostad, On the Road Again
Bio of storyteller Dale Gilbert Jarvis:
Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a storyteller, professional folklorist, and writer living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Dale tells ghost stories, faerie stories, legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland, Ireland, the United Kingdom and beyond. Dale is the founder of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle, president of the annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival, and a member of the board of Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada.
As a storyteller, Dale has performed locally and at international festivals, but is perhaps less well known than his alter ego, the distinguished Reverend Thomas Wyckham Jarvis, Esquire. Since 1997, The Reverend has been the host and guide of the St. John’s Haunted Hike, a walking ghost tour through the haunted streets of St. John’s. Under his supervision, locals and tourists have been introduced to the vengeful lovers, murdered soldiers, and mysterious fires which await those brave enough to explore the secrets that lie in wait in St. John’s darkest corners. Mixing history, humour, and traditional storytelling, Dale has been winning over audiences and throwing in the odd scare here and there, and has been covered by a wide variety of local, national and international media. Over the past years, the Hike has grown from a small idea to a fixture in the St. John’s tourism industry.
Dale is the author of two books of local ghost stories, “Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories of Newfoundland and Labrador” and “Wonderful Strange: Ghosts, Fairies and Fabulous Beasts of Newfoundland and Labrador” both published by Flanker Press, and a collection of world ghost stories for young adult readers, “The Golden Leg and Other Ghostly Campfire Tales” also published by Flanker.
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