Emily Dickinson was an artist who worked at her craft as we storytellers do. She worked with metaphor, cadence, rhythm, rhyme, character and shape. One critic called her a primitive in that she saw everything as if it was there for the first time. She can teach us about surprise and about the importance of searching for a brief phrase, a brush stroke that brings a moment alive.

In one poem she writes, “The moon was but a chin of gold.” A chin of gold is so much more interesting than a sliver of gold. She writes again about the moon saying,

Her Bonnet is the Firmament
The universe her shoe.

I can imagine when Emily wrote that line, “the universe her shoe” she might have jumped up, clapped her hands. She thought deeply and originally about life and yet she kept something of the joy of girlhood always with her. She searches for the word. She writes, “Night keeps fetching stars.” It’s that word “fetching” that is unusual and we’re glad she found it. Or “The wind tapped like a tired man.” Again we are surprised.

What I hope to do in the workshop is to work with “sparks”, simple words that evoke memories that are simply waiting to emerge. Those memories are often fresh and in them we find a brush stroke or a word or a metaphor that’s new.

Emily Dickinson’s flood subject was living and dying. She’s interested in all of life. Some of her verses are full of hard questions. Are her prayers heard? Is there life beyond the grave? “God’s Right Hand . . . / is amputated now / and God cannot be found –” She’s often frustrated, sad, hurt, yet writes a letter to Elizabeth Holland in October of 1870 that,

Life is the finest secret.
So long as that remains, we must all whisper.

Dickinson reminds us that ordinary life is quite amazing. And that is her subject. Again she writes, “Drama’s Vitallest expression is the Common Day.” What can be more common than news? There is always news. So a poem begins,

The Only News I know
Is Bulletins all Day
From Immortality.

That last line, “From Immortality”, is unexpected and not only surprises us, it enlarges us. It reminds us that there is something vast about this business of living.

In the workshop in addition to working with “sparks” and brush strokes, we’ll explore telling things at a slant. She writes,

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in Circuit lies

And she finishes the poem

The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind –

Dickinson challenges us to find the right word, to see life freshly, and to explore all of life through our art – storytelling.

About Jay

Jay O’Callahan takes a bare stage and single-handedly transforms it into a dynamic and sensitive world filled with compelling characters.  He has performed at festivals and theaters throughout the world, including at the Olympics, and been applauded by the media, including The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly. The Associated Press trumpeted him as “a theater troupe inside one body.” Time Magazine dubbed Jay “a genius.”

Jay has received numerous awards for his performances, books, and media and also is a regular contributor to National Public Radio.  Don’t miss your chance to learn from him on this blog topic at the 2013 National Storytelling Conference, August 1-4, in Richmond, Virginia:  www.storynet.org/conference.

Contact Jay

Website: www.ocallahan.com
Email: jay@ocallahan.com

When I was growing up, and even in my college years, before I answered a question in a classroom, I pre-planned exactly what I was going to say and when I answered,  carefully followed the script in my head, little noting reactions of fellow class members.  There was a great deal of tension in the whole process. I admired deeply those people who could seemingly formulate words and meaning as they spoke– those who seemed thoroughly at ease and comfortable in the present moment.

“How do they do that? “ I wondered.

When I discovered the world of theatre improvisation, I began to find answers. In improv, there is no time to be worried about what to say next, no time to be focused on personal issues,  and no time to be lost in past or future events.  Words and actions flow freely as a result of being thoroughly engaged in the present moment.  As a result,  a “flow state” is created.

Csikszentmihalyi (1990) describes this “flow state” as:
–a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter — a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.

We know as storytellers that being in the present moment during performance is essential to the craft.   It is also indispensable in the creation process.  Improvisation is a terrific tool for  creating  the “flow state” necessary for both performance and  as a prelude to originating creative, inspired work.

Many people think improvisation can only be done in a group setting, but this is not so.

Before a performance or before originating a story piece, the following are a few improvisation techniques done alone which will create the “flow” state.

1. Lay a stack of 20 pictures of characters (animals, unusual characters) on a table near you Begin to speak, using dialogue and voice of one of the characters. After a few seconds, switch to the next picture. Switch again.   Keep switching, with no pre-planning of character dialogue and voice.
2. Look at an object in the room. Begin talking about the object.  Describe the object, talk about an experience you have had with the object,  talk of the feelings you have for the object or simply talk of anything that randomly comes to mind when looking at the object.  Keep talking for about 20 or 30 seconds, then move on to another object, and another and another. Keep talking. Don’t pre-plan. Let the “flow state” happen.
3. Turn on the music and dance. Let your arms go, let your feet go. Don’t pre-plan moves. Just dance!
4. Pick two characters and begin writing dialogue. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Do not stop for any reason. Keep going. Don’t censor.
5. Sit in a chair in a room. You will be doing a scene between two characters.  Shift in the chair or stand to denote different characters. Begin a conversation as one of the characters. Respond as the other. Continue the conversation for 20-30 seconds or longer. Choose two new characters and begin again. Make as great a difference in the two characters as possible:

one high voice, one low
one fast voice, one slow
one angry, one scared
one authoritative, one meek

(These exercises are adapted from Mick Napier’s wonderful book: Improvise. Scene from the Inside Out, 2004).

Just as story is the SEED OF CREATIVITY, so is the CREATIVE SPIRIT the seed of story. Improvisation is a wonderful way to access the inventive, present moment sensibilities essential for both performing and producing creative work.

About Karla

“If you don’t know the trees, you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.”–Siberian Elder

Making meaning through story and theatre activities has been Karla’s life work. Before turning to freelance storytelling and drama specialist work, Karla spent over 25 years on the faculties of four universities teaching storytelling, drama education, public speaking and interpersonal communication. She has provided residencies, workshops, teacher in-services  and conference presentations at state, national, and international venues.

Currently, Karla works as a professional teller, drama specialist and performer for the Las Vegas Improvisation Players. She sings, plays guitar, autoharp, washboard, and djembe drum as part of storytelling performances and uses puppetry for younger children.

Contact Karla

Email: karlahuntsman@gmail.com

Storytelling can teach by imparting truths. But storytelling can also teach by inviting people to think for themselves and create their own truths.  When people come up with interpretations and support them with reasons, they are doing what is called critical thinking. And when different people work together to create responses to stories, they develop something more—like problem-solving, and respect for diversity, and the habit of cooperation—skills and habits that people who don’t live in civil societies too often don’t have and wish they did.

Years ago while working in Eastern Europe and Central Asia as a trainer for the Open Society Institute I stumbled the value of storytelling as a tool for sparking discussions and helping people think critically. Our task was to work with teachers who, shortly after the cataclysmic political changes of 1989, wanted to know how to teach students to think in diverse ways and come up with their own answers to questions. I wanted to demonstrate ways of doing that; and soon found that the quickest way to engage listeners in a pithy subject for a discussion was to tell them a story, usually through a translator who would retell the words in the local language, sentence by sentence.  And then everybody would jump in and say what they thought about it.

Fifteen years and forty countries later it has become clear that storytelling is just a wonderful way to provoke discussions that get everybody thinking together—and you don’t have to go six thousand miles from home to do that. Here in the US, teachers in 45 states and the District of Columbia are now required by the Common Core Standards to teach the way those Eastern European teachers wanted to: so that students will learn to think deeply about issues they care about, stake out positions on those issues and support them with reasons, often in friendly debates with others. Storytelling is humanity’s oldest and most engaging way of putting issues out there for debate. To provoke rich discussions, all you need is to present them in a way that invites questions rather than asserts answers. That, and a few strategies for inviting and hosting discussions.

Some stories pose their own questions. They have questions built right into them. “The Cow Tail Switch,” from West Africa, and “The Theft of a Smell,” from Peru, are examples. You can have a good discussion of each by asking for predictions about the end, or you can use a fancier strategy such as “Corners” that gives people group support as they think of reasons to back their answers.

Some stories contain moral dilemmas that invite exploration. These stories may not come right out and ask a question, but the questions aren’t hard to find. “The Woman of the Sea,” from Scotland, and “The King and the Shirt,” from Russia, are stories that can invite listeners to voice their own questions. But there are strategies that can deepen the discussion and lead to debate. Some of those strategies are “Shared Inquiry,” “Discussion Web,” “Academic Controversy,” and “Value Line.”

And some stories seem straightforward, but can still yield up engaging issues with a little work. “Jack and the Beanstalk,” from England; “Hansel and Gretel,” from Germany; “The Boy Who Lived With the Bears,” from the Seneca Indians of Upstate New York; “The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dogs,” from the Blackfoot people of the Northern Plains; and “A Gift of Laurel Blooms,” from the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky, can all inspire interesting thoughts. But sometimes to get at the heart of these stories you need to to twist them around. And sometimes you need to climb inside the skin of the characters and see what they are going through.  Strategies like retelling them by casting people in different roles, or comparing them to other stories, or relating them to life, or dramatizing them can all lead to good discussions.

I look forward to seeing you in Richmond at the National Storytelling Conference this August.

About Charles

As a teacher, author of children’s books and textbooks, and leader of workshops for teachers and writers, my work has taken me to more than 30 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, the Caucasus, Central and Southeast Asia, and East and West Africa–with support from USAID, the World Bank, UNESCO, CIDA of Canada, the Dutch government, the Open Society Institute, and the International Reading Association. I was born in North Carolina, and lived in South Carolina, Virginia, and Texas before moving to Upstate New York, where I chair the education department at Hobart & William Smith Colleges and have happily taught for thirty years.

Contact Charles

Charles Temple
Education Department
Hobart & William Smith Colleges
Geneva, New York 14456
Temple@hws.edu

Recipient NSN Spotlight Grant

If you ask any De Anza, Pinole Valley or Hercules High School Interact Service Club student what their most important educational experience has been to date, they are likely to tell you (in unison), ‘the Bay Area Storytelling Festival Study Trip’. Not only is it the best field trip ever, but the students agree that they spent years in anticipation of the day when they could join the ranks of teen helpers and run the Study Trip itself. And they have, under the thoughtful tutelage of Robin Yee Wilson, Study Trip Coordinator.

During her fifteen years as event chair, Robin and the Bay Area Storytelling Festival Study Trip brought storytellers to over 8500 elementary age school children, accompanied by teachers, aides and supervising parents. Many high school students who attended the study trip when they were in elementary school joined an Interact Service Club in high school to give back, and to help with their local storytelling festival.

Providing young students with an opportunity to fall in love with storytelling, seeing children transformed by the magic of stories, and then watching those teens insist on helping the next generation experience `festival magic’ has been extremely satisfying for Robin and her group of dedicated volunteers. Robin reports that after attending the Study Trip in 2012, one third grade class when asked to make oral reports remarked unanimously that they wanted to give their presentations like “storytellers”, standing tall, with chests out, and dramatic deliveries.

This year marks the 16th annual Bay Area Storytelling Festival Study Trip. Robin Yee Wilson recently retired from her leadership position with the Study Trip and has passed the torch to three new chair-persons; Michael Baefsky, Gini Cunningham-Baefsky and Jean Ellisen. They are busy at work, excited for the day this year (May 17) when 500 students will have an opportunity to hear Len Cabral, Yvette Brandy and Will Hornyak.

The Study Trip and Bay Area Storytelling Festival will take place at the Craneway Pavilion and Conference Center, and at the Richmond Library, in Richmond, California May 17- May 19, 2013. The Craneway is an old Ford automobile factory, converted to war production during World War II, and staffed primarily by women who are known proudly as `Rosies’, derived from the cultural icon “Rosie the Riveter.”

Children attending the Study Trip will have an opportunity to learn about the Rosies through interactive games organized with park rangers and volunteers from Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, which is located next door to the Craneway.

This year the Storytelling Association of California’s (SAC) received an NSN Regional Spotlight Grant (Pacific Region), on behalf of the Bay Area Storytelling Festival Study Trip. This was one of seven grants given to producers of storytelling events for their dedication to connecting people to and through storytelling. SAC and the Bay Area Storytelling Festival (BASF) committee are grateful for this endorsement of the Study Trip and acknowledge Robin Wilson, Erica Lann-Clark (Northern California NSN State Liaison) and Kirk Waller (President of SAC) who wrote and submitted the grant proposal.

Gratitude is also extended to the BASF outreach sub-committee, Jean Ellisen and Liz Nichols, who have with the help of Karin Werner, organized Free Family Story Concerts at libraries to build awareness of the Study Trip and the festival. In addition, friend-raising activities with a variety of community organizations have yielded new friendships and financial support to help defray expenses. Kudos to private friends and donors who are sponsoring a class from a low income school, and directly donating funds to SAC that are earmarked for use at the Study Trip.

About

The Storytelling Association of California (SAC) is a regional voice for story listeners and storytellers in California, reminding the local and national community of the power and the joy of storytelling. SAC presents the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, an annual multicultural weekend of storytelling produced entirely by volunteers.  As part of the festival, they put on the School Study Trip, which NSN is proud to sponsor as our 2013 Pacific Regional Spotlight Event.  This year May 17th-19th marks the 27th Bay Area Storytelling Festival and 16th School Study Trip.

Websites

Bay Area Storytelling Festival:  www.bayareastorytelling.org
Storytelling Association of California:  www.storysaac.org

There was a long hushed pause before a young woman began to speak; her story spilled out.  She heard strange voices, muffled and distant, the eerie lights coming in the windows, the glow of eyes outside peeking in, the child in the bed trembles at the alien invasion. There were no aliens, it was a mask of imagination held up to hide the reality of police peering into the house for the parent on a drinking binge. This is real life, as told in a story slam format, a place where freedom of speech is releasing the story held in for so long.

Campus Slammer is a powerful stage for the stories Connecticut college students are ready to share. If there were no other reason than to give a place to tell such a story, we should do this, but there are many reasons. The creation of Campus Slammer 3 seasons ago was spurred by a desire to reach out to this demographic. The board of directors of Connecticut Storytelling Center www.connstorycenter.org was interested in building new audience, reaching into new venues and trying out the hot new slam format. A visit to Massmouth in Boston showed the formula for success. The quandary was the four W’s: who, what, when, where.

Connecticut has a multitude of colleges ranging from the small community college to Ivy League.  Each campus is home to students of an infinite variety, each with a story to tell. Like many states, Connecticut spends a large portion of each spring engrossed with the inter-collegiate rivalry of basketball. Why not build a program that gives student wordsmiths the same opportunity to represent their school? From that marriage of thought a plan developed and the first season was carried out on six campuses in the state.

Every participant in Campus Slammer is invited to attend the Connecticut Storytelling Festival for free. We want young people at our festival and this is how we have made a way to entice them in. Storytelling needs to develop a young audience that will carry on our well established tradition. The Campus Slammer participants may fully partake of the workshops and performances. This year the CT Storytelling Festival will be held on April 26-27, 2013 at Conn College in New London, CT. Each of our college students is soon to enter the work force and this introduction to storytelling will travel with them from our slams and festival to every corner of the earth.

The personal story shared in the slam format is a singular genre in the expansive world of storytelling. In order to quickly show our participants the infinite variety of story, we give out prize bags with CD’s and books donated by storytellers. They are sure to connect with folk and fairy tales, healing stories and more as they look and listen beyond the slam style story.

The world of storytelling needs to build a relationship with college professors, and Campus Slammer is one such opportunity to connect with the educational system to insure that storytelling is incorporated into class curriculums and recognized as an art form. This relationship will continue to foster understanding of storytelling and how it can connect to curricular areas. A working partner on college campuses is an opportunity to expand with other programs in the future. The professors are given an avenue to the resources of the Connecticut Storytelling Center community.

It takes time to grow relationships and connect with college professors or campus organizations to host the Campus Slammer. To introduce the format to communities with multiple colleges we have added open call Campus Slammers held in two communities this year. One slam is in an improv theatre setting and the other in a coffee shop. Each will take more development and outreach to grow and attract its own in-house event. Each of these venues is then a tool to expanding CT storytelling into new areas and a way to initiate new listeners.

Campus Slammer is like a toddler, able to move forward with tentative steps growing and improving with each day or event. There is room for significant growth when you assess the list of colleges in the state. There is tremendous potential to move beyond the boundaries of Connecticut and develop a larger Campus Slammer with a rivalry excitement to compare to the basketball Sweet 16. Imagine a finals event bringing colleges from far and wide together. That is a story I’d like to hear.

The Connecticut Storytelling Center is growing a vibrant future for storytelling. If you would like to learn more, visit the Campus Slammer page at www.connstorycenter.org/campusslammer. If you would like to make a donation of product for student prizes, they can be shipped to the center or brought to the CT Storytelling Festival on April 26-27.

About Carolyn

Carolyn Stearns is a Connecticut storyteller.She is board member at the Connecticut Storytelling Center, serves LANES on their slam committee, and is the CT liaison to NSN. Carolyn is Chair of Campus Slammer, the CT inter-collegiate story slam movement. It is no surprise that Carolyn works with youth after a tenure of 33 years as a 4-H volunteer and more than 20 years coaching FFA (Future Farmers of America) horse judging, oral reasons and public speaking students. Carolyn lives in Mansfield, CT and is currently working part time in education and in pursuit of her career in storytelling. Historical stories are Carolyn’s favorites to tell.

The school visit was all that I wanted it to be: well planned, well received, a joyful, thoughtful sharing of stories and songs with over 500 children, parents and teachers. It was an affirmation of what I do. During the times when I have no storytelling work I turn my focus to other things, sometimes researching stories, other times working on my antiques booths or working around home. When a performance comes up after a long hiatus, I sometimes ask myself, “Why do I do this? Would it not be easier to just be like other people and clean house and putter in my gardens instead of going out to tell stories to strangers?”

But each time I venture out to tell, I come home realizing that those who were once unknown are strangers no more. I come home filled with the wonder of the impact of a tale told and a song simply sung. I am humbled by the reaction to the stories, and to me, the storyteller. I realize over and over again the importance of sharing stories, of reminding people of the deep pleasure of listening, of the teachings in the old tales. I come home revitalized and determined to continue this once vaulted profession of storytelling–a profession that over the years lost its command of public interest as different forms of media developed and replaced it in the homes and hearts of people.

And yet…when I say “I am a storyteller,” when I explain what a storyteller is (so many do not know and think it is only reading to little children), when I say that the stories I tell live in my mind and not on paper, when I sing the ages-old songs and see the delight and sometimes deep emotion induced in my listeners, I feel once again the power in my blood, in my voice.

I am a storyteller. I tell stories. I follow the ancient path of bards, griots, seanachies, and elders. This is who I am, this is what I do.

©Susanna Holstein – reprinted from an article on www.grannysue.blogspot.com

About Susanna

Storyteller, writer and ballad-singer Susanna “Granny Sue” Holstein is West Virginia’s Liaison to NSN. She writes the blog Granny Sue’s News and Reviews, the poetry blog Mountain Poet and a monthly column for Two Lane Livin’. Her work has been published by Woodland Press, Little Creek Press, NSN Press and other print and online journals. Her CD, Beyond the Grave: Appalachian Ghost Stories and Ballads is available from Amazon and the WV Book Company. A new CD titled Lucky 13: War, Love and Growing Up in a Family of 13 Children will be available in May 2013.

Contact Susanna

Email: susannaholstein@yahoo.com
Websites:
www.grannysu.blogspot.com
www.grannysue.blogspot.com
www.mountainpoet.wordpress.com
www.twolanelivin.com

Click to Listen:

daboiku

About the Story

The same weekend I was performing this story at the National Storytelling Conference, I was also moving into my new home, starting a brand new phase of my life.  I was inspired to share this story that is very, very dear to me.

About Omope

Omope Carter Daboiku is a wordsmith, actress and storyteller based in Cincinnati, Ohio. A folklorist with specialties in African, Affrilachian, Appalachian, and Native American, Omope designs curriculum and programming that reflects global consciousness and cultural appreciation. She has taught at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and has been an Artist-in-Education for the Ohio Arts Council since 1990.  As an actress, Omope  received rave reviews for her portrayal of Bessie Coleman, the first female African American pilot. Omope has performed on several television and radio shows, including NPR. She can be found on Facebook.

Click to Listen

MountainBob

In 1996 I wanted and needed a tall tale story. My vivid imagination went to work and that’s how I came up with the idea to grow a big watermelon. This story has been a big hit wherever I tell it.  But one of the best benefits I have received from this story is how to outline a story before I begin writing.  In the unique process that I use I can start at any point in the story and work forward or backward in my outlining process.  I have taught this process in workshops and it has been beneficial to many people in writing a story.

About Mountain Man Bob (Phillips)

Bob is one of the seven founding members of the Jonesborough Storytellers Guild founded in 1994. In 2000 he was selected as one of seven finalists to compete in the National Storytelling Competition held in Hillsboro, Ohio and captured first place.

He lives in a 150 year old log cabin at the foot of the Cherokee National Forest.
Currently he has 3 CD’s for sale.

Contact Mountain Man Bob

Email: bob@mtnmanbob.com
Listen to one of his stories at www.storytellersguild.org

Click to listen

elliott

The Scat Rap was first created in 1988 at a “Music and the Environment” workshop at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Tennessee by a group of naturalists, including Andy Bennett, Mary Keebler, and, Rodd Pemble.  I added several verses to it and rearranged it with help from Billy Jonas.

About Doug

Whether he’s singing about catfish, pontificating on possums, wailing out a jivey harmonica tune–on the trail or in a concert hall–storyteller, Doug Elliott, performs a lively collection of traditional tales, woodslore, legends, and outrageous personal narratives–flavored with regional dialects, lively harmonica riffs, and more than a few belly laughs.  Elliott has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival (TN), performed and conducted workshops at American Museum of Natural History (NY), Royal Ontario Museum, Smithsonian. Named harmonica champ at Fiddler’s Grove Festival(NC). Authored five books. ALA Notable recording artist, occasionally seen on PBS and the History Channel.

Contact Doug

Website:  www.dougelliott.com
Email:  doug@dougelliott.com
Blog:  dougelliottstory.wordpress.com/

To the logical, pragmatic, no-nonsense, Type-A personality that I am, the concept of appreciations in storytelling was initially lost on me.

Appreciations felt like a “nicey-nicey-fluff-give-them-positive-first-but-doesn’t-help-teach-them-or-move-them-to-change” process. Why not just tell them what they need to change? I would silently think, “Enough of this touchy-feely stuff. Give them meat to chew on!”

My first storytelling teacher, Doug Bland, at South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute in Phoenix, kept giving people appreciations in class, no suggestions or critiques, just appreciations. And he really meant it too, it wasn’t just lip service. I thought, this was OK for the first few weeks of class, but when was he going to get to “telling people how they need to change and improve”? As the weeks went on, I was still skeptical, but I began to try to follow Doug’s lead. I was quite surprised to find that it was easy to find something to appreciate about every telling.

Then I attended a workshop with Doug Lipman, the Storytellers’ Coach. He spoke of how his father gave him constant praise, even for the smallest things, from birth, and throughout his life. It made me think of my own father, who could pick out the one, single mistake I had made in any situation. It made me think about my eighth-grade teacher who embarrassed me in front of the whole class with his condemning critique of a book report I had written. It made me think of how I critique both others…and myself.

A small part of me, the therapist, the mediator, began to understand appreciations, at least on a psychological level. Reinforcing positive behavior helps people repeat that positive behavior. I began to make a change. I tried to “give praise and appreciations” wherever I could. I was conscious of really looking for the positive aspects of what I saw, and letting people know what I appreciated about what they had done.

Then I met Anthony. Anthony was a cherub-faced sixth grader at a school I visited to tell stories and talk about storytelling and hear the kids telling stories. Anthony eagerly raised his hand and volunteered to be the first to tell his story. He was a little nervous, but told a good story. He paced back and forth, had lots of “ums” and “uhs”, he didn’t always face forward and look at his audience. As he was telling, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Anthony was me!

Yes, I did see myself in that eleven year-old boy; eager, creative, excited, longing for acknowledgment and praise. I thought, how can I say anything negative about his telling? What good would that accomplish? I felt that even giving him one, tiny “constructive suggestion” might bruise his young ego and only send him into a labyrinth of self-doubt. And then the second wave came over me. Are our adult egos any less fragile than Anthony’s? I think not.

It was then that I began to understand appreciations on an emotional level. There have been adult students and colleagues who have asked, “Just tell me the bad things.” I, myself have even said that in the past. And yet, behind the bravado that purports to be strong and only wants a critique, stands a delicate ego, deeply longing for praise and acceptance.

So the next time that you hear someone tell, young, old or in between, I hope you see Anthony…and then yourself…and then give some appreciations.

©Mark Goldman – reprinted from a 3/13/12 article on www.StorytellerMark.com

About Mark

In January of 2011, Mark Goldman quit his day-job to focus full-time on storytelling. Since that time, he has produced several storytelling events, including The Great Arizona Story Slam and S’more Stories. He coaches other storytellers, has presented several workshops on storytelling, and is Arizona’s State Liaison for the National Storytelling Network. His website has storytelling videos, and a weekly newsletter highlighting local tellers and events, and provides “Tips” and “Tidbits” about storytelling. He blogs about storytelling and his adventures with elementary school storytelling students at www.storytellermark.com/articles/index.asp

Contact Mark

Website: www.storytellermark.com
Email: Mark@storytellermark.com
Phone: 602-390-3858