Shout Out: JustStories Online Storytelling Festival August 1, 2, and 3, 2012

I've known about the diversity work of Susan O'Halloran and Angels Studio in Chicago for many years, and was delighted to see that this year, they will hold their annual storytelling festival online. Susan sent along this announcement:

Join us for the first ever JustStories Online Storytelling Festival August 1, 2 & 3 – a free Facebook event. Every hour from 8 am to midnight (CDT) a new video will post on the JustStories Facebook Page (www.Facebook.com/juststories)—stories that can help heal our racial and ethnic divides. Over 70 humorous, heartwarming and thought provoking stories by 43 professional story artists! You can comment, ask questions and share your stories, too. Storytelling + Facebook = a worldwide FUN and RESPECTFUL conversation that celebrates our differences and all that connects us.

Please share this invitation with all your friends so they, too, can have a front row seat to the JustStories Online Festival right in the comfort of their homes! Anyone can view the Festival at any time at www.facebook.com/juststories, but with a Facebook user name and password you can comment, ask questions, and share your stories, too. (You don’t have to fill out a full profile and you can cancel the account after the Festival.)

Full schedule and story descriptions at: http://www.facebook.com/juststories/app_186981981345123

Sue also noted:

Often you hear leaders declare “It’s time to have a national conversation on race”. But how do we do that without causing more division and hard feelings?

One of the best ways to reflect on difficult issues is through the use of shared stories. Stories can be entertaining, engaging and emotionally touching. When you hear other people’s stories you realize how unique each person and each group is as well as all we have in common. When we’re able to walk in each other’s shoes, even for a few minutes, the stranger becomes a friend.

For the last nine years, the JustStories Storytelling Festival has been a live storytelling event in the Chicago area, a co-production of Angels Studio, a communications ministry of The Society of the Divine Word and O’Halloran Diversity Productions. But this year for its 10th anniversary the festival is going to the web in hopes of reaching an even bigger audience with stories that can heal our racial and ethnic divides. Think of it – on the internet there are no geographic boundaries or time limitations. This storytelling festival about inclusivity can now include everyone!

2012 International Storytelling Conference

April 7, in Istanbul, in case you were wondering. Link.

Pop quiz: what's this conference preview missing?

The Problem of Keeping Dry

A Nasruddin story, for World Storytelling Day

Gemma Hannah's Online Storytelling Challenge

Storyteller Gemma Hannah of London has put out a call for storytellers: storytellers who are willing to collaborate-- via video-- on a multi-teller version of Anansi and the Box of Stories. Watch her version (see below), then post a video of your telling (on Vimeo). Once she has a variety of versions, she'll produce an edited version featuring storytellers from around the world.

More details at storyweb.co.

Can't quite picture how this will work? Check out John Liu's film "The Art of Storytelling": link

Storyteller Jay O'Callahan on Imagination, Listening, and Appreciation

The 99% has posted a talk by storyteller Jay O'Callahan, in which he shares some of his process for developing stories. Included is an excerpt from "Forged in the Stars," a story commissioned by NASA on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.



The audience for this talk aren't storytellers, so O'Callahan's simplifies his process greatly (you would too, if you only had 20 minutes to explain what you do), but notice how the story he tells to illustrate his point is a story about storytelling. In his telling, he's not telling the story of the moon landing, he's telling the story of Neil Armstrong telling the story of the moon landing.

In Conversation with Ellouise Schoettler

I can't quite remember the timeline of how I met Ellouise Schoettler. I'm sure it was via email first (perhaps on STORYTELL). She introduced herself in person at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival. I ran into her again in Fresno, California, at the Rogue Festival. And then I found her blog, and her online videos. I've learned a lot from Ellouise: we worked together in a MasterMind group, and this year, we each had shows at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington DC (where I finally got to hear her tell in person... and she had one of the most focused, robust social media strategies for promoting her show of any of the 130+ artists in the Festival). While I was there, she asked me to come be interviewed on her cable television show, "Stories in Focus," and I was delighted to talk with her on camera about my work as a storyteller and storytelling blogger.



Considering we didn't plan our conversation at all, I thought we managed to sound reasonably coherent. Ellouise wanted to keep the conversation lively, so all I knew going in was that I could tell a story (about 10-12 minutes long) and that I should think of a tip to share at the end of the show.

Shout Out: Storyteller Mark Goldman's Advice from the Experts

Storyteller Mark Goldman may be relatively new to the storytelling community, but one thing he's been doing recently is asking professional storytellers for advice to share with everyone. Thanks to Mark's iPod (with a built-in video camera) and YouTube, you can see the results in one-minute video bites. And Mark's recent trip to the National Storytelling Network's 2010 Conference means he's got a bumper crop of new videos.

Check out Mark's "Experts" page: http://www.storytellermark.com/Experts.asp

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Simple idea, brilliant execution: take a fable that most people are likely to know, and ask them to tell it. Splice the tellings together.

Designer John Liu did just that with his Nikon camera:

Art of Storytelling *new from John Lui on Vimeo.

The Storyteller's Fire (David Novak)

Stumbled across this audience warm-up: an old outdoor education standby for focusing the attention of a large group of campers, adapted here by storyteller David Novak for storytelling.

File this in the "why didn't I think of this before?" drawer.

So, Willy, that's a New Sound for You, Isn't It?

Random department: If you search on the name "Willy Claflin" on YouTube, you get about 19 results. Most are of storyteller Willy Claflin singing a song, or telling a story. But you also get this:



Love the suit.

Anyone seen Willy Claflin break into Korean boy band pop?

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Update March 16: the original video was removed from YouTube, so you can't repeat the search results oddity anymore.

I still have no idea why a live performance of the song "1 년 정거장," or "1 Year Station" sung by G-Dragon showed up in the search results.

Storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham on Alabama's Ghost Trail

While combing through YouTube for video of storytellers, I found a terrific interview with Alabama storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham, recorded for the Alabama Ghost Trail (a project of Southwest Alabama Tourism). She's mostly not telling stories in the interview (though there are a few), but talking about storytelling, so I thought I'd let her do the talking. (Interview in three parts, about 30 minutes total)

Part 1, she talks about ghost stories, and a little about her own ghost, Jeffrey.


Part 2: More about Jeffrey, the importance of storytelling in the Southern United States and her part of Alabama, blue bottle trees, and family storytelling.


Part 3: telling ghost stories to children, why ghosts come back, collecting and preserving ghost stories.


These videos were produced by Matt Wilson in association with the University of Alabama Fellows Experience and Southwest Alabama Tourism. You can find more videos from the Alabama Ghost Trail at: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlabamasGhostTrail

Introducing: Story Lab X

Does the art of the storyteller translate well to video?

It's a question that storytellers have wrestled with since the beginnings of the American storytelling revival, which predated the rise of the home video recorder by just a handful of years.

As a performer (and as an audience member), it's an interesting dilemma, as video has the potential to increase reach, at the same time that it may or may not capture what is essential about the live art.

There's been some recent chatter (again) about the invisibility of this art form in today's broadband media landscape, and this called to mind recent efforts (like those of Ellouise Schoettler, Philip David Morgan, Eric Wolf, and RED Internacional de Cuentacuentos, among others) to use the Web to showcase videos of storytellers telling stories.

So, along those lines, for your consideration, to consider both the plusses and minuses of watching storytellers on video, I'm launching a new site, Story Lab X.

I'm simply curating-- scraping videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Ning, Blip, etc. (so if one day you happen to catch one of your own videos there-- don't panic. I'm simply linking to where you originally posted it using the 'embed' code. (If you don't want your online video shared online, then might I suggest disabling the sharing option?)).

I chose the word "lab" to call to mind an experiment. The videos that appear will not only differ in their content, but in their approach to the medium. There are aesthetic issues the translation to video entails... some of these videos are clearly using what different about the medium to their advantage, and many, it is clear, have not thought about it. Posts on some of these issues raised, the plusses and minuses of translation to video, are coming soon.

Meanwhile, over at Story Lab X, the videos are there for you to ponder, to enjoy, and to stir up questions of aesthetics.

Here's your first assignment: enjoy the videos: http://storylabx.tumblr.com

For the time being, there's a new video posted each day.

(But if that's not enough for you, there is always my semi-curated storytelling collection on YouTube)

Kattaikkuttu School: Thanks, YouTube!

Here's where we are today, with some documentary footage from 2006:

TED: Carmen Agra Deedy

Back in February, I linked to Creative Loafing's article about Atlanta's storytellers, noting in passing that the story's lede was Carmen Agra Deedy's appearance at the 2005 TED conference. Well, lo and behold, the video is finally available. According to Creative Loafing article, Deedy tossed her prepared remarks, and what you see here is extemporaneous:



...but I gotta think this is part of her standard repertoire.

YouTube Storytellers

Looking for storytellers on YouTube?

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UPDATE February 13, 2011: YouTube discontinued Groups as of December 1, 2010.

Many, although not all, of the videos that were posted to the Ancient Art of Storytelling Group can be found on my YouTube playlists:

World Storytelling


World Storytelling 2

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The way to find storytellers on YouTube is not via the search box (which, despite an update by Google, still isn't helpful)*, is via The Ancient Art of Storytelling group.

For the past two years, this group has been a repository for YouTube videos featuring stories told by amateurs and professionals alike.

You can find storytellers like Lethan Candlish, Sean Buvala, Yvonne Healy, Ruth Halpern, Mike Lockett, Joe Hayes, Dale Jarvis, Margaret Read MacDonald, Priscilla Howe, Alton Chung, Michael McCarty, Clare Muireann Murphy, John Row, Kate Dudding, Ellouise Schoettler, Martha Escudero, U. Utah Phillips, Diane Ferlatte, Nancy Donoval, Antonio Rocha, Norah Dooley, Gene Tagaban, Gale Portman, and the Gypsy Moon Tellers to name a few. (The tandem team of April Uhrin and Robin Rundquest, the Gypsy Moon Tellers, were the first performance storytellers to post video of their work on YouTube, beginning in June 2006).

The Ancient Art of Storytelling also has video from sessions of The Moth, stories from Toastmasters, kids, and English language learners, as well as campfire tales, Rakugo, Kamishibai, slumber parties, kitchen tables, and living rooms.

There are stories told in at least eight languages.

BTW, anyone can join the group, anyone can post a video, but it is moderated to keep it focused on storytelling.

* The fault is not the technology underlying the search box. Viacom's cable music channel, VH1 has been running a series called "Storytellers" since 1996. There are hundreds of (unauthorized) clips from this show currently on YouTube (lawsuit, anyone? yes!) There is more demand for Viacom's storytellers than "traditional" storytellers on YouTube, so until such time as demand changes (or supply shifts, say, should Viacom's lawsuit result in YouTube removing all Viacom content from its site), searching for "storytellers" is going to be useless.

2nd Story: Story, Music, and Wine Festival

"12 days. 54 stories. 46 storytellers. And 5000 glasses of wine."

Now that's a storytelling festival I'd like to see!

Where? Chicago.
When? Last month. Just missed it. (They do have a monthly series)
What the--?

The best stories I’ve ever heard come from hanging out with friends over a good bottle of wine. That’s when people really start talking, really get to the meat of their experiences—the wild beauty of it all, the destruction and the hope. That's the feeling we're going for: the crowd at Webster’s Wine Bar has the intimacy of my own living room and the crazy, wine-warm secrets that have been told there.”
—Megan Stielstra, Director of Story Development

Check out the video from the local news station:


I wouldn't call a wine bar the ideal venue for storytelling, but-- according to the bar's website, surveys like Zagat's give it a rating as a top night spot right up there with the Green Mill (one of Al Capone's former speakeasys and home of the infamous poetry slam). In that company, I wouldn't mind having that venue on my resume.

Oh, it's personal storytelling. Nevermind.

Cringeworthy moment 53 seconds in:
CLTV Reporter asks: "Is there a storytelling scene in Chicago?"
Festival director: "There's a really active theatre scene, and there's a really active literary scene, and what we try to do is-- kind of-- meet in between."

Okay, granted, this is an entertainment reporter, not Woodward & Bernstein, but the fact that this answer got a pass is telling: it means that there is no Chicago storytelling scene.

(I Googled "Chicago Storytelling" and hey, the Chicago Storytelling Guild came up first. But its site hasn't been updated since 2006. So in the unlikely event of a fact checker from CLTV trying to find background on storytelling... they'd skip right past the old guard and take 2nd story at its word.)

Although the video interview emphasized the performance, browsing through the other video clips on their site and on MySpace, I found the festival gives a pass to the writers... there's a lot of "storyreading" going on too. Maybe after the third glass of pinot you don't mind that the evening's entertainment is engrossed in a piece of paper held in her hand and is reading AT YOU.

(Sorry, the snark is slipping out. My guess is that the actors all memorize their stories and the writers have their crib notes in their hands.)

Learn more at their web site,
or their MySpace page,
or this TimeOut Chicago article.

This feature at CenterStage got me laughing. As if a wine bar wasn't a difficult enough venue, the festival takes a break between each teller to have everyone taste another wine. I guess you have to be there. Just the image, though, of the juxtaposition of the seriousness of which you're presenting flights of wine with the literal spotlight on the personal storyteller is giving me a spot of cognitive dissonance.

Still, I'd love to see this once. Anyone seen it?