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ORACLE Awards
Since their inception in 1995, the ORACLE Awards have been presented by the National Storytelling Network to those who have excelled in their art, or made significant contributions to storytelling art or practice, NSN or its members. Below are the Award Recipients for 2023: Dolores Hydock, Jessica Robinson and Loralee Cooley. Click the button below for a complete list of award recipients.
Circle of Excellence: Dolores Hydock’s one-woman shows and story performances have been featured at conferences, festivals, and special events throughout the United States, including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. Details…
She has been Teller-in-Residence at Jonesborough’s International Storytelling Center, has taught storytelling workshops at East Tennessee State University, Birmingham-Southern College, and various festivals around the U.S., and has won Resource Awards from Storytelling World Magazine for her twelve CDs of original stories. She has collaborated with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Museum of Art to blend stories with music and art, and her Christmas story special airs annually on NPR-affiliate WBHM in Birmingham. Dolores lives in Irondale, Alabama, on the eastern edge of Birmingham. More about Dolores at: www.storypower.org
Regional Service & Leadership Mid-Atlantic: Jessica Robinson founded “Better Said Than Done” https://www.bettersaidthandone.com/ in 2011. In addition to performing with Better Said Than Done, and locally in the DC Metro area, Details…
Jessica has performed at Exchange Place at the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN in 2018 and, in 2019, in the Susquehanna Folk Festival’s Liar’s Contest. In 2020, she appeared on PBS’ “Stories from the Stage,” and produced the first Women’s Storytelling Festival. Virtually, Jessica has performed for the Queens Theater, Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST), Six Feet Apart Productions, Stories for Healing, First Person Arts Festival, Mostly True Things, The Story Space, Bridgeport Pechakucha, at 2 National Storytelling Network (NSN) Conferences, and the Forest Storytelling Festival. She also shared stories on the Bonkers Brit, Elemental Woman, Full Spirals, Orchid Story, and Funny Parents Podcasts. In 2022, Jessica was a featured teller at the Stone Soup Festival, the Washington Folk Festival, and the Allegheny Highlands Story Festival, and in 2023 was a featured storyteller for Florida Storytelling Festival and the Hampton Storytelling Festival. Jessica is a contributing author to the book Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors.
Jessica has been leading storytelling workshops since 2011. In addition to Better Said Than Done workshops for individuals, Jessica has led storytelling workshops for The Story Center at MCPL, INOVA Fairfax Hospital, George Washington University School of Business, Story Crossroads, AHRQ, The Brookings Institution, and the World Bank. More about Jessica here: https://www.bettersaidthandone.com/storyteller/
Regional Service & Leadership Mid-Atlantic: Loralee Cooley, whose business name is “Storyspinning,” began telling stories professionally in 1977 in Arizona. Details…
She began to comprehend that a told story can be quite powerful–but having no knowledge of anyone DOING storytelling professionally–she launched her career by using material based on Arizona history and filling in for the Governor’s wife for a luncheon.
Subsequently, Loralee’s “Storyspinning” has taken her from Arizona to Virginia, South Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma. In Georgia she was instrumental in launching the Southern Order of Storytellers and is credited with inspiring many tellers in that area. She is now based in Albuquerque New Mexico. She’s been listed on the artists’ rosters of the South Carolina Arts Commission and Texas Council for the Arts.
Her storytelling style strives to bring simple words to life, telling classic tales and modern stories that enchant audiences of all ages. She has told to scouting groups, university students, summer festivals and convention attendees. For more about Loralee see: www.storyspinning.net
Member Awards
To further our mission of “advancing all forms within the storytelling community through promotion, advocacy, and education,” NSN individual, associate, and affiliate members may apply for funding up to $1,000 to develop new projects.
J.J. Reneaux Award
The J.J. Reneaux Grant is being processed through Artists Standing Strong Together. Please use the link below to access current information:
https://www.artistsstandingstrongtogether.net/jjreneaux
The J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Fund supports two different awards given alternate years, both of which support activities to advance storytelling skills. The Emerging Artist Award provides $1,500 to a storyteller of major or unique performing talent who has not yet received wide public recognition. The Mentorship Award provides $1,250 for a gifted younger teller (18-30 years of age) to work with a seasoned teller as a mentor.
ASST and NSN are delighted to announce that LAURA DEAL, of Boulder, Colorado, has been awarded the 2024 J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant. Please help us congratulate Laura!
A gifted writer and performer, Laura Deal brings vivid words and images, engaging presentation, spatters of humor, and much wisdom and kindness to her storytelling. Even though she has come to storytelling only in the past decade, her repertoire now spans a variety of genres, including personal stories, lies, literary tales, folk and fairy tales, historical character presentation, and her own creations. Details…
Laura arrived at storytelling by a long and fruitful path. She began as a historian, a passionate reader, and a creative writer, then moved to study the deeper meanings of dream symbols and focused on the importance of the language of metaphor. As she advanced in dream work, she created a website (https://firstchurchofmetaphor.com/) to explore metaphor and symbol in a number of different art forms. When she finally witnessed professional storytellers – first, Liz Weir and Claire Murphy – she was captured immediately.
In recent years Laura has seized diverse opportunities to develop her storytelling: Spellbinders, story slams and circles, fringes, the Timp Tell competition, and finally, festival invitations. During the pandemic Laura was one of the first supporters of ASST (https://www.asst.art), and her gift with artful words led her to found a poetry gathering, PSST!, within that organization. Through the Chautauqua Training Institute offered by Humanities North Dakota, she researched and developed a powerful performance of the character of Jungian psychologist Marion Woodman. Since so much of her burgeoning career has necessarily involved performance online, she has become an effective teller on Zoom as well as in person. Laura will use the Emerging Artist Grant for further coaching by experienced tellers.
For more information about Laura, please see her website: https://lauradeal.com/.
The J. J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award (https://www.asst.art/jjreneaux) is presented to a storyteller of major and unique performing talent who has not yet received wide public recognition. J.J. Reneaux was a storyteller, children’s book author, singer and songwriter who grew up poor in the Delta bayous and rich in the lore of her Cajun people. She succeeded by virtue of a native talent fired by passion and uncompromising dedication to her heritage and storytelling. Never forgetting her own struggle, she dreamed of helping talented people succeed. J.J. died too soon in the winter of 2000, but she left her family instructions to create a fund that would support exceptionally gifted tellers in the early stages of their careers. J.J.’s family, ASST, and NSN are proud to make J.J.’s dream a reality and proud to support Laura Deal’s storytelling growth.