Discover the life of professional storyteller Rachel Hedman through the everyday adventures to make a performance extraordinary. Topics include though not limited to marketing, business, and ideas to further the art. Posts made every 1st and 15th of the month.
Family Famine: Hunger for Love 2-DVD set, shipped/received within 1-2 weeks
***Audio commentary, closed-captioning, and ASL features--$20.00 (includes shipping)
Support creation of BSA storytelling merit badge and join groups on Facebook or on Ning.
Laurie Allen, professional storyteller and music teacher, mentioned the term "Story Police" during a Utah Storytelling Guild meeting. With her permission, I have taken that phrase as well as three common sayings either said aloud or in our minds.
A five-year-old boy playfully grabbed another five-year-old boy and exclaimed, "I'm a police officer and you're under arrest!"
I smiled, but wondered about this response. Seeing the reaction from me and the three other kids in the room, the boy repeated, "You're under arrest! You're under arrest! You're under arrest!"
My smile changed to worry. Since I am married to a man who works for a police department, I did not want the boy to think that taking people to prison was the only duty of a police officer.
Despite all the help that police give--from finding parents of a lost child to "How to Change a Flat Tire 101"--sometimes we first think of the negative.
That could also happen when you hear the term "Story Police".
The following sayings may sound familiar. . .though there are also positive counterparts:
Negative: You can't do it that way. That is not storytelling. Positive: Storytelling is an art of exploration.
The definition of storytelling is as easy to define as cookies. People have a vague idea of what to expect, though there are certain people are definitely know what it is not. An official answer has never been posted by any of the main storytelling organizations, perhaps for fear of being labeled as "Story Police" or offending friends in the art.
This does not prevent people from thinking--or spouting--their opinions.
Our lives are inundated with story. It is only natural that people would have many ways to express what they mean by the art.
Negative: No one would be interested. Positive: Somewhere there are people willing to listen. Let us find them.
Though we are unique individuals, we also share universal experiences. Then, there are cultures and sub-cultures within our world who think in one way or another. Based on statistics, there must be others who would enjoy or embrace your storytelling program or idea somewhere. Of course, there is always the chance to come upon something so specific, it is not financially sound to pursue the idea as a professional storyteller.
We need to balance the potential audience members to the compensation expected. Otherwise, it may be another reason we have kids and grandkids. . .guaranteed audience!
Negative: Why did you think of something that dumb? That will not work. Positive: Stories evolve and so do my ideas.
Sometimes we wish we could look into the future and discover if our ideas would work before we work on them.
So far, a time machine has yet to be invented.
Meanwhile, we must approach ideas through the trial and error method. A person could have hundreds--even thousands--of failed projects and ideas. I have heard people say that each failure is then one step closer to success. Yet, when that grand idea comes as a result of learning from the failures, people remember most your accomplishments.
If you ever need assurance of this fact, then attend a funeral or a wake.
The next time you hear "Story Police", consider that we do not have to put our art under arrest. Rather, we could live and tell in our neighborhoods. . .with safety and peace.
Does this mean we first tell and then we listen? Then to what do we listen?
As ever-learning artists and human beings, we need to listen to:
Self
Story
Society
***These three areas happen to be in the title of the journal "Storytelling, Self, and Society". The intention of this post is to focus on these elements and does not mean to infringe on any publication name.
Self We need to listen to ourselves before we can expect to give proper attention to other areas. Sometimes we need to build the confidence to not only listen but to hearken to our intuitions and first impressions.
Some questions to ask ourselves--
Who am I as a Storyteller?
What kinds of stories do I love?
Where have I told stories? Where would I like to tell stories?
When have I told stories? When do I plan to tell stories?
Why do I tell stories?
How am I different from any other storyteller? How do I share stories?
Listen to these answers. Then hearken.
With the busyness of our lives, we need the silence so we can better recognize these impressions. You could consider these quiet moments similar to the dramatic pauses we add into our storytelling before audiences. The audience needs those pauses in order to "listen" to the images shared by the teller. We, as individuals, need pauses so we can "listen" to ourselves rather than the world.
Story Many storytellers have felt the urge to tell certain stories at a certain time. A wise storyteller listens to what is needed so that the right story is told for the right people for the right time.
When the story ends, it may not be the intent to promote the "happily ever after"--if it ends happily in the first place.
It may be to ask the audience and the teller--
Now what? Where do I fit in with this story?
What action am I motivated to take as a result of this story?
How have my views changed, if at all?
Listen to these answers. Then hearken.
The storyteller has no control as to how the audience will respond to the tales. Therefore, the storyteller has responsibility to be in tune to what stories are needed in the moment--even if the reason is not apparent at the time.
Society The most important unit of society is the family. Start here.
Discover what your family members have to impart about their views of the world. This includes the youngest to the oldest people. Each person has amazing stories to share.
StoryCorps tours the world with a special vehicle complete with a recording studio. People meet at this vehicle in pairs as one person is designated the interviewer and the other person is the interviewee--or storyteller. Being able to listen and guide the conversation are key skills needed by the interviewer.
Beyond the family, national storyteller Elizabeth Ellis reflects on the popular culture of the day through movies, music, and books.
For example, after watching a movie, she jots answers to questions like--
What themes were in this movie?
What stories, if any, are in my repertoire to match these themes?
What do I have to say about these themes? What are my views? Opinions?
Listen to these answers. Then hearken.
Rather than reflecting the trends, some storytellers created theme-based programs to promote opposite actions. Who said we have to agree with everyone? That is a different way to listen and then to hearken according to Self.
So. . .are you listening to Self, Story, and Society? Only you know the answer.
Once upon a time the art of storytelling was born. The world celebrated the birth as the human family became more unified and edified upon each tale told.
People seem unable to pinpoint storytelling's exact time of birth or that first story.
We have relished narratives without knowing all the details.
Some details have been important. . .particularly to storytelling's death.
To some people, the progression in technology sounds like a metronome alongside a piano to provide the steady inspiration to create something extraordinary like concertos or full-orchestra pieces. People build relationships or collaborate who--due to distances--could not otherwise meet.
Others account the ticking to a time bomb. The explosion of social networking on Facebook, Twitter, and blogging could cause casualties, but will storytelling be one of them?
She watched as television came to her village. Less and less children had any desire to sit around the elders at night to learn of their culture. Instead, the culture came from the television. She lamented, "The generations are sitting all together now, silently watching television. And on TV it seems like being young is all that matters and that the old have nothing to say."
No matter your view, we must remember that for every trend there is also a counter-trend.
Anyone who vocalizes their opinions strengthens these trends and counter-trends.
Society will seek for ways to interact the more that people latch onto laptops, cell phones, blackberries, or whatever else is the next vessel for technology.
Storytelling is often the counter-trend to technology despite existence of digital storytelling or virtual teller sessions through programs like Second Life. In fact, storytelling is more rooted in society than ever before because of the existence of technology. As long as the human race progresses with ideas and inventions, then there will always be the ones to uphold the narrative art in its purity.
Rushkoff questioned, "Is the traditional story itself a relic, incapable of providing meaning over time?" He continued, "Is it our job to create stories capable of competing with the ones currently programming our society, or to abandon this arms race altogether in favor of new artistic and cognitive mechanisms. And, if so, what are they?"
Lately we have witnessed storytelling combine with other art forms so Rushkoff may be right that some of us are "in favor of new artistic and cognitive mechanisms." Though does adding different styles to storytelling constitute a death of some kind?
The essence of the art must exist in order for other styles to be added to it.
Generational Gauge False Reading: Storytellers are dying out with no one to replace them. Needle up. Needle down. Needle still down.
Or are we reading the gauge upside down.
While interviewed by the Reading Eagle, professional storyteller Charles "Chill" Kuhn from Coatesville, Pennsylvania said, "Yes, I do believe storytelling is a dying art." He added, "But I would like to add that we are all storytellers whether we realize it or not."
Not everyone agrees with this verdict, as was apparent when Betty Smith, who has worked with the National Storytelling Network staff as well as with the International Storytelling Center, responded to this article and declared on Facebook, "Hey storytellers. . .someone needs to let this guy know that storytelling is alive and well."
Reading the regular column of "Remembered Voices" compiled by Wendy Gourley in the Storytelling Magazinemay seem that we lose at least one well-loved storyteller a month. However, for every storyteller who passes on, we gain at least two more new tellers.
Whether or not these new tellers align themselves with storytelling guilds or organizations does not change the fact that they do exist.
The Weber State University Storytelling Festival, which celebrates over 70 youth tellers as part of its program, has considered expanding from a three-day event to a four-day event in order to give at least 20 more youth opportunities to tell. Such a change may happen within three years. This does not count the hundreds of youth who participate before tellers are selected.
Whole schools or school districts declare storytelling units or festivals to fulfill the demand for this art.
The generational gauge certainly has the needle up. Political Pulse False Reading: Storytelling Organizations have lost their influence. Thump. Thump. Tha-thump.
Can you hear the life of storytelling organizations? We did not always have them.
In an excerpt from The Way of the Storyteller, Ruth Sawyer, the author, wished, "there might be a guild for storytellers today where masters and apprentices might work together for the upholding of their art." She died five years before the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS) was formed in the United States in 1975.
Sawyer was not the only one who desired organization, as Kathryn Tucker Windham, key person of the American Storytelling Movement, wanted to be the first paid member of the NAPPS. Nowadays, NAPPS is known as the National Storytelling Network (NSN).
In NSN's golden time, there were over 4,000 members. This membership has dwindled to about 2,000 members.
During a personal interview in 2000, Windham reflected, "Organizations come. Organizations go. Storytelling remains. . .I'm at a place where I'm not scared anymore about what happens if this stops or that stops or whatever."
Though every organization, whether connected to storytelling or any other industry, have their periods of growth and then times that plateau. We are in such times.
Organizations do not equal storytelling. Windham was right that the art would continue whether people promoted the name of the National Storytelling Network or any other organization. These entities exist to give structure and possibility to what we cannot accomplish as individuals.
As if to respond to the current economical instability, there are still people who wish to join in the efforts. Tim Ereneta pointed out that Europeans tend to be more adept at these unions. He shared the promise for the International Storytelling Network, also known as Red Internacional de Ceuntacuentos. You can read Ereneta's blog post on this discovery here.
So membership numbers may rise or fall, though it appears we will have many organizations and guilds for decades--if not centuries--to come.
You must ask the question: Do you believe storytelling is "alive and well"?
Posts
Laurie Allen, professional storyteller and music teacher, mentioned the term "Story Police" during a Utah Storytelling Guild meeting. With her permission, I have taken that phrase as well as three common sayings either said aloud or in our minds.
