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The Story Forge

Vol. 4, No. 1  |  January 2020

Welcome to the updated NSN e-newsletter - The Story Forge! This newsletter is intended for those storytellers and story-lovers who originally forged the storytelling community and those who continue to forge the community. We hope you enjoy the adjustments that have been made. NSN wants this newsletter to be for the storytelling community, BY the storytelling community! Please let us know if you have items that would be of interest to our readers.

 
 
 

Hi ! Welcome to a new year and a new decade! January brings with it the mindset of a new start. The NSN staff is looking forward to the new year and the opportunity to work with a number of new Board Members. We are sad to see our seasoned Board Members leave but, as Greek philosopher Heraclitus is quoted as saying, "change is the only constant in life." We wish our "retiring" Board Members well and hope the future brings them many wonderful opportunities. Mother Nature seems to be playing with her weather yo-yo in Kansas City and has taken us from the teens to almost 70 degrees during December! Whatever Mother Nature is handing out in your locality, we're handing out this month's Story Forge for your perusal. Happy reading!

 

Did you miss an edition of The Story Forge? You can read previous editions of the newsletter here.

 

At the National Storytelling Network, our mission is to advance all forms of storytelling within the community through promotion, advocacy, and education.

 

STORY NOW! Interview Series

The theme of our 2019 annual conference was Story Now!

 

Now! From the boardroom to the classroom, and the page to the stage, personal stories and folktales are catalysts for change in every aspect of our lives.

 

Now! We are witnessing the power of stories to tear down the walls that divide us, build bridges between people and cultures, and connect us, human-to-human.

 

In this interview series, we’ll talk to storytellers who exemplify this Story Now! movement.

 

Each month we’ll sit down with an NSN member or member organization, from around the globe, and go behind the scenes to explore how they are personally harnessing the power of storytelling to tear down walls, to be a catalyst for change and connect us human-to-human. Through one-on-one, in-depth conversations, we’ll discover the type of storytelling they do, how they do it, who their audience is and, most importantly, they’ll give examples of the real world, tangible results they get.

Karen Dietz, Ph.D.

San Diego, California

Kathy: You say storytelling in business is a social justice initiation that can dissolve barriers and move the organization forward. Explain.

 

Karen: Organizations have many of the same characteristics of communities, groups, societies, cultures, etc. In other words, within a company (especially larger ones), there are people whose voices/stories are not heard. They are often ignored or put down. We see this in any organization that has silos and...

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Read more of Karen's interview on the NSN website by clicking the button below!

KAREN'S STORY
 
 
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South Korea trains grandmothers to become professional storytellers

SEOUL, South Korea — Park Jeonghee, 64, donned a traditional Korean dress embroidered with tiny flowers and sat down in front of a class of preschoolers. Children gathered around her, their eyes twinkling with curiosity and anticipation. Once Park grabbed the audience’s attention with her shiny antique dress, she began to tell a folktale — on this particular day the title was “Price of smell, price of sound.”

 

She is a professionally trained “storytelling granny"...

READ FULL STORY
 

PARTNER PROGRAM NEWS

 
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The Story Center at Mid-Continent Public Library

The Story Center, established in 2013, celebrates and develops writers, performers, and filmmakers through access to free resources, workshops, and a community of storytellers. The Story Center offers a Storytelling Certificate Program in partnership with Metropolitan Community College, The Story Center Speaker Series in partnership with Rainy Day Books, a local author fair every November, and the award-winning Woodneath Press, which allows authors to see their work in print. This partnership supports NSN's mission to advance all forms of storytelling within the community by engaging the community through the use of storytelling and developing synergies that will encourage the growth of storytelling in the community.

STORY CENTER INFO
EVENT INFO

Presenter Needed

 

The Story Center in Kansas City, Missouri is developing a Story Camp for teens that will run from July 13-17, 2020, in conjunction with the Summer Learning Program theme: Imagine Your Story: Fairy Tales, Mythology, and Fantasy.

 

Our ideal class size will be fifteen 12-15-year-olds per track. Funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation allows us to offer this program free-of-charge to participants as well as to provide stipends for presenters.

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SUBMIT PROPOSAL
 

MEMBER NEWS

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Book Review - Four Days With Kenny Tedford

 

Paul Smith, a member of the National Storytelling Network, is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Time, Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Post, PR News, and Success Magazine.

 

This is a story of two men destined to meet. Kenny Tedford had a story the world needed to hear and learn from, and Paul was the person who was seemingly chosen, maybe by fate, to tell his story.

Paul and Kenny met purely by chance in July of 2012 at the National Storytelling Conference, held in Covington, KY that year.

 

From the moment Kenny sat down next to Paul, (by chance), and before they even spoke a word to each other, Paul was intrigued by what he observed. As Paul would learn later that day when he had lunch with Kenny, Kenny Tedford had earned a Master’s Degree in Storytelling -- amazing because Kenny was born with brain damage and many disabilities including blindness and deafness. And this was just the tip of the iceberg.

 

That next year Paul interviewed Kenny for four days and wrote his unbelievable life story.

This book is for anyone who appreciates the power of storytelling.  But more important, it’s for those who question the power a single story has to permanently transform both the teller and listener in profound ways.

 

For me, this quote from Paul summed up the overriding message of the book.

 

As Paul explains, “If I was going to properly grasp the wisdom from this man’s life, I’d need to think of him not as someone with disabilities and limitations, like I was a psychologist studying a patient, but as someone with a unique perspective and life experiences I didn’t possess and that I wanted to learn from.  I needed to think of Kenny not as my subject. But as my teacher.”

 

Kathy Greenamyre, Community Relations Manager

National Storytelling Network

CLICK FOR MORE INFO
 

NEWS FROM NSN'S SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

 
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Youth, Educators and Storytellers (YES)

 

The YES SIG will have its January Zoom call on January 23 at 7:00pm EST

 

Pleasant De Spain shares Vagabonds of Imagination

 

‘Vagabond,’ derived from the Latin word vagary, means to wander.

Storytellers are the vagabonds of imagination. We begin with a mission to seek and find, putting our tales, old and new, made-up and true, into a beginning- middle-end, and sharing them with our listeners, near and far.

 

Where have we dared to wander? Let’s gather to discuss the success and failures of our missions, searches and finds. Let’s share core beliefs supporting our quests, not only for stories to tell but for light and life.

 

Free to YES members, $15 for non-members

REGISTER NOW
 
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UPCOMING EVENTS

Calendar events can be viewed on the NSN website by clicking the button below.

FULL CALENDAR
 

NORTH CENTRAL REGION

Illinois

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Indiana

January 11, 2020, 7:00 pm, Growing up Black and White in America

 

January 13, 2020, 1:00 pm, As I Recall Storytelling Guild: Hancock County Public Library

 

January 15, 2020, 2:00 pm, As I Recall Storytelling Guild: College Branch Library

 

February 8, 2020, 7:00 pm, Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner: Stories of a Seared Childhood

Iowa

January 15, 2020, 7:30 pm, Truths Be Told

Michigan

January 2, 2020, 7:00 pm, Monthly Moth Story Slam

 

January 7, 2020, 6:30 pm, Monthly Moth Story Slam

 

January 8, 2020, 7:00 pm, Muskegon Yarnspinners Monthly Meeting

 

January 9, 2020, 9:30 am, Parent-Tellers

 

January 9, 2020, 6:30 pm, Mid-Michigan Area Storytellers (M.A.S.T.) meeting

 

January 16, 2020, 9:30 am, Parent-Tellers

 

January 16, 2020, 7:30 pm, Go Comedy Improv Theater

 

January 17, 2020, 7:00 pm, Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers

 

January 18, 2020, 12:00 pm, Detroit Story League Monthly Meeting

 

January 19, 2020, 2:00 pm, Storytelling workshop with Genot “Winter Elk” Picor

 

January 20, 2020, 6:30 pm, StorySpinners of Grand Rapids Monthly Meeting

 

January 20, 2020, 7:00 pm, Here:Say Storytelling "Exquisite Corpus."

 

January 20, 2020, 7:00 pm, Lansing Storytellers Guild Monthly Meeting

 

January 21, 2020, 6:30 pm, Monthly Moth Story Slam

 

January 23, 2020, 9:30 am, Parent-Tellers

 

January 25, 2020, 10:00 am, Detroit Association of Black Storytellers Monthly Meeting

 

January 26, 2020, 2:00 pm, Ann Arbor Storytellers’ Guild Monthly meetings

 

January 30, 2020, 9:30 am, Parent-Tellers

 

February 4, 2020, 6:30 pm, Monthly Moth Story Slam

 

February 6, 2020, 7:00 pm, Monthly Moth Story Slam

 

Minnesota

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Nebraska

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

North Dakota

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Ohio

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

South Dakota

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Wisconsin

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 
 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

NORTH CENTRAL EVENTS
 

SOUTHEAST REGION

Alabama

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Florida

January 23, 2020, All Day, Florida Storytelling Festival

Georgia

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Kentucky

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Mississippi

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

North Carolina

January 12, 2020, 3:00 pm, 2nd Sundays @ The Center

 

January 13, 2020, 6:30 pm, Bynum Storytelling Workshop

South Carolina

January 14, 2020, 7:00 pm, Teddy Roosevelt, Presented by Greenville Chautauqua, History Comes Alive!

 

February 1, 2020, 2:00 pm, Teddy Roosevelt, Presented by Greenville Chautauqua, History Comes Alive!

Tennessee

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

SOUTHEAST EVENTS
 

NORTHEAST REGION

Connecticut

January 18, 2020, 10:00 am, Homesteaders' Storytelling Guild

Maine

January 3, 2020, 1:30 pm, LOONS Storytelling Guild

 

February 7, 2020, 1:30 pm, LOONS Storytelling Guild

Massachusetts

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

New Hampshire

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

New York

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Rhode Island

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Vermont

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 
 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

NORTHEAST EVENTS
 

MID-ATLANTIC REGION

Delaware

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

District of Columbia

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Maryland

January 7, 2020, 6:45 pm, Alison Tocci Featured at Story Space

New Jersey

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

New York

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Pennsylvania

January 4, 2020, 1:00 pm, Patchwork Story Swap

 

January 19, 2020, 2:00 pm, Members Only Story Coaching Session

 

February 1, 2020, 1:00 pm, Patchwork Story Swap

Virginia

January 25, 2020, 7:00 pm, My America: Stories of the American Experience

West Virginia

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

MID-ATLANTIC EVENTS
 

SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

Arkansas

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Kansas

January 24, 2020, All Day, 2020 RAPS Chicken Festival

Louisiana

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Missouri

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Oklahoma

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Texas

January 1, 2020, 6:30 pm, SASA's Story Nite Gathering the First Wednesday of every month

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

SOUTH CENTRAL EVENTS
 

WESTERN REGION

Arizona

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Colorado

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Idaho

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Montana

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Nevada

January 28, 2020, 6:30 pm, Nevada Storytelling Guild Monthly Meetings

New Mexico

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Utah

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Wy0ming

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

WESTERN EVENTS
 

PACIFIC REGION

Alaska

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

California

January 2, 2020, 7:00 pm, First Thursday Storytelling

 

January 15, 2020, 7:00 pm, Storytelling at the Twisted Horn Mead Hall

 

January 15, 2020, 7:00 pm, Third Wednesday Storytelling at Twisted Horn

 

January 25, 2020, All Day, Auburn Winter Storytelling Festival

 

February 6, 2020, 7:00 pm, First Thursday Storytelling

Hawaii

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Oregon

January 22, 2020, 7:00 pm, Stories on Tap

Washington

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

 

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

PACIFIC EVENTS
 

INTERNATIONAL & ONLINE

International

Sorry, there are no upcoming events on our calendar for the next 31 days in this area. Do you know of an upcoming event? Submit it to be included on the NSN calendar here!

Online

January 2, 2020, 8:30 pm, Virtual Storytelling Guild

 

February 6, 2020, 8:30 pm, Virtual Storytelling Guild

Do you know of an upcoming event in this region? Submit it to be included on the NSN event calendar! Click here to submit an event.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS
 
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National Storytelling Network

7338 Belleview Ave
Kansas City, MO 64114-1220
United States

 

 

1-800-525-4514 

Copyright © National Storytelling Network. All rights reserved.

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