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!

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

Online Storytelling Resource: Storytell

STORYTELL, an email discussion list, used by storytellers and storytelling fans since its creation in 1995 by Karen Morgan, then a graduate student, at Texas Women's University, has a new home: the National Storytelling Network.

Have a storytelling question regarding technique, business, or material and want to crowdsource the answer? Storytell, while not the largest online forum for storytellers, is a very active list.

Most of my readers will already now about Storytell, but I'm posting this info as virtual bread crumbs to create a trail to its new URL.

For instructions on subscribing and using the list: http://www.storynet.org/storytell.html

Almost Live Tweeting from Northlands Storytelling Conference

I'm at the Northlands Storytelling Network conference this weekend in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Got at least 3 folks on Twitter here.

In case you want to follow along this weekend on Twitter: link

(Wireless interenet from the conference center lobby and dining room... not from the breakout sessions, so there won't be much tweeting in real time. I suspect we won't be texting on our cell phones in the interactive workshops.)

Photos on Flickr, thanks to Dale Jarvis. More as weekend progresses.

Tales from the Body 2009: Online Post-Mortem

And welcome to the second installment of my reviews of 2009 storytelling events I didn't attend.

I feel like I should have a name for this. Like the "2009 Carnival of Crankiness."

As I wrote in my post ranting about how storytelling conferences are like shouting down a hole, I'm going to be reviewing storytelling conferences based on their online presence during but especially after the event.

I'm focusing on conferences because they are focused on "getting the word out." To allow practicioners to come together to experience professional development, share best practices, and, to some extent, allow networking to feed future collaborations and innovations. And it drives me nuts that in this day and age... when the marginal cost of disseminating discussions from an event like this is so low... that so little thought seems to be given to sharing out.

I may toss in a performance-centric event (e.g. Going Deep), mainly because the National Storytelling Network is co-sponsoring seven regional events this year in lieu of a national conference, and a couple of those events are more festival than conference.

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Chronologically, the first NSN Year of the Regions Event was: TALES FROM THE BODY: Storytelling About Illness and Disability, produced by the Storytelling Center of New York.
Date: January 25th, 2009
Location: New York Society for Ethical Culture, New York City
Format: Storytelling Concert, Panel Discussion, Story Swap

Kudos to the Storytelling Center for posting a post-event writeup with photos on their site: link.
NSN has posted a report from organizer Donna Minkowitz on its website. link.
Seems like it was a small event, so just by attendance numbers alone I didn't expect any blog posts or tweets. But documentation on two web sites? I can't get cranky about that.

Philip David Morgan, who handles the web site for the Storytelling Center, let me know that he did record most of the event, but getting the video files edited and online will take some time... and the Center isn't clamoring for its own regular Twitter feed or Facebook presence. Oh, but Philip... I look forward to seeing the highlight reel.

While I'm Away: The Future of Storytelling Online

I'm on vacation. But here's a question for you, to ponder, and comment upon.

Eric Wolf hosted a panel discussion this morning at the National Storytelling Conference in Gatlinburg, Tennesee, on the future story of storytelling online, examining the role the internet is playing in shaping the 21st century storytelling movement.

This question is for those of you, who, like me, could not be there. If you were attending the discussion what resources would you like to know about?

No fair answering if you did attend the panel.

Caveat Emptor: National Storytelling Network Directory Listing

There are two online storytelling directories out there.
For years, I have used the one on Storyteller.net.
It's gotten me business, it's a bargain, and it's easy to use.

The other one, at the National Storytelling Network's Storynet.org is not a bargain. Or wasn't, until recently. In what I presume is a need for a fast influx of cash, the last quarter of 2007 introduced a fire sale and dropped the price below Storyteller.net's Premium option. I bought one, partly because it makes business sense, but frankly, also out of a charitable impulse, since the Executive Director put out a call to "help out" the organization.

Caveat emptor.

I purchased a page in the NSN Directory in December with the understanding that the site would not go live until January. When I made the purchase, it was explictly stated that I could modify and update my listing in December but it would not go live.
After five business days without a word from NSN (save for my receipt saying that I would receive my purchase withing two business days), I complained to both Board and Staff at NSN. I did not expect a response, as I knew the office was shut for the Christmas holidays. But someone at customer support picked up my complaint, and promptly changed the NSN web site to say that you could purchase a listing in December, and wait until January to modify and update it. I also received an email saying that I would have to wait until January to modify and update it.

On Dec. 28 I got the go ahead to create my listing. On Dec. 30 I logged in to play around with it. There was not any guidance on how the page would be formatted or any allowable html, so I cut and pasted some dummy text to try it out.

Jan. 2 I got an email from NSN who were surprised to find my directory listing in Latin. (I wasn't surprised, I had entered it in Latin.)

So I spent nearly an hour on Jan. 2 re-doing my entry in English... I would enter data, and then preview the page, but when I tried to correct my entry, the site usually discarded everything I had entered. After my third time, I figured out I needed to save first, and then attempt further editing. I did, even got a confirmation that I had updated my page.

And I waited for my page to go live. This week, I searched, it wasn't there. So I logged in... my page was back in Latin. It had reverted back to an earlier iteration that NSN was loathe to publish.

For the life of me, I don't understand WHY the National Storytelling Network has to have a live human being review my page before I publish it.

The whole point of the Directory re-launch, I had thought, was that "the new Teller Pages allows storytellers to manage and maintain their own page."

Apparently not storytellers who use Firefox as a browser.

And apparently "manage and maintain" means "with the approval of one of our staff members."

Is NSN worried that someone is going to enter a naughty word or an inappropriate photo?

I could see that happening on a free site (although, looking at Storyteller.net, I don't see that it does), but who is going to pay for a directory listing in order to hack the directory?

(Hmmm. A disgruntled customer might....)

FYI: on Storyteller.net, when you make a change on your page, it appears instantly (well, as long as you refresh your browser/reload the page). No one has to "approve" my changes.

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Here's a tip for both storytelling directories out there:
You need disclaimers on them. Like the one here.