Articles

By Cassandra Cushing Cassie is a Next Generation Scholarship recipient for attending the 2013 National Storytelling Conference, August 1-4 in Richmond, VA. My storytelling teachers and mentors told me that sometimes a synergy between the teller, the tale and the audience can emerge in an almost tangible relationship—an unseen but nonetheless palpable energy becomes present […]

by Darci Tucker “I suppose there was folks worse hurt than a bullet to the leg, for the surgeon left that part of the tent.  And when he did, I saw, on a table nearby, a pile of bandages.  So I grabbed as many of those bandages as I could hold, and I slid out

by Jo Radner Part of the nature of man is to recompose a unity that has been broken. In mosaic, I recreate an order out of shards. — Mosaic master Marco de Luca That’s what it feels like, to me, to set out to make a big, complicated story.  I start with heaps of shining

by Willy Claflin I’m really looking forward to joining all of you at the National Storytelling Conference in Richmond this August 1-4.  Last summer we planted a seed.  A new domain name was registered: The American Storytelling Festival.  A new festival was proposed.  Somewhat tongue in cheek, it promised to be Everything You Ever Wanted. 

by Ellen Munds In my early days of fundraising, the idea of asking someone for money made me physically sick. But I also knew that no one was going to do it for me, so I had to learn how. In 1996, I attended a one-week course at the Fund Raising School of Indiana University

by Mij Byram It was the second day of torrential Florida rains. At the Florence Fuller Child Development Center, first and second graders came into the lunch/story room all herky-jerky and bouncy-flouncy after their milk and cookies snack. They were unable to sit or even stand still for more than 3 seconds. The energy was

by Jay O’Callahan 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

by Karla Huntsman 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

by Charles Temple 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

by Gini Cunningham-Baefsky 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