Camp Fire Storytelling. Coachella, CA 2009
It’s funny how you can put thoughts about a particular subject out there and other creative souls, eventhough they may be 1000’s of miles away are also picking up the same signals.
Over the past week, I have been having many conversations with friends about storytelling, the importance of it, the lack of it and how we wish we were better at it. I enjoyed reading this post that Amelia put up over the weekend about Storytelling and her desire to research more about this and I also wanted to share some thoughts.
Having recently experienced the joy of hearing good stories at Squam from lovely narrators like Jen Lee, its made me ponder the importance. Do children & teachers still share stories at school? Do parents still tell bedtime stories? What stories in our everyday lives help us get through the day or a difficult time in our lives? What about all the stories our grandparents have about their lives we know nothing about, or our parents? How can we capture those to help us grow and shape ourselves into better human beings aswell as stretch our own creativity?
I want to HEAR more stories
and
I want to TELL more stories.
“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive” Quote from Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams
A lovely Squam friend is coming to visit NYC in November so we hope to catch some good old fashioned storytelling at The Moth on Nov 16. If you are in the area, come along. 🙂 A couple of other resources include: Storycorps, International Storytelling & festivals. Please add any you know below in the comments.
I’d love to hear what you think about storytelling.
How important do you think it is for our creativity, our lives and generations to come?
louise,
i love storytelling and no, there is not enough of it anymore. my sis and i tell stories to each other all the time, and share stories from our childhood. it's a blast.
we need more stories!
why don't you share a story with us??
xoxo
Dearest sweet Louise, i love love storytelling. I always find inspiration hearing other peoples stories. We do need more stories to go around. Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!
I took a class at the local community center last year on storytelling. It was taught by a wonderful local author and story-teller, Stella Pope-Dearte. She had us all bring in props and tell different types of stories. It was wonderful. And oh the stories we heard. One lady had relatives on the Titanic. Oh yes, we need those stories. Now more than ever.
One of the things I love about blogging . . . is that it provides an arena for me to record my stories . . . for my daughters and others.
Fondly,
Glenda
PS. My husband is a great storyteller.
Storytelling is magical, keeps hope alive and is fun! I am rubbish at it, but my boyfriend is a miracle worker with stories and I fall under his spell again every time he tells one
We used to run story telling nights in our home years ago…very happy memories. The thing that lives with me most is the untold stories…i have been thinking for ages about a project to help people acknowledge untold stories. Still brewing 😉 x
I think some people just don't think that they have a story, I know I have at times. Or even thought there story was boring..ahem, cough cough.
But I think that everyone does have a story to tell. It is just taking the time to connect with your story and retell it with passion and enthusiasm.
As children, we would move closer to the edge of our chairs when that certain relative began to speak. That person that always seemed to have a great story looming in the back of their head. We would walk away scratching ours, wondering if it was fiction, or just maybe the truth. We have to be the crazy, creative person, that keeps our next generation guessing. I wrote a blog this summer that turned into a very funny short story called The Three French Sisters. I meant for it to be an instructional post, but to my surprise, it took on a life of it's own. We all have a story looming in us. We just have to let it out.
i long for storytelling… your photo is reminding me that it has been years since i've gathered w/friends and just told our true stories. now i get little glimpses of my friends' lives through gadgets…
I think everyone has stories in them. It just all depends on the person and if they are willing to share them. I grew up with a great storyteller. My father made up stories for us all the time. I love a person that can tell me stories of there lives. You can learn alot from other peoples stories.
storytelling is so very important to us all … it is what binds us, it's what holds us strong in the moment, it's what keeps those who have gone before us ALIVE.
i love story telling too.
and as a side, but related note, i remember i once read and article that suggesting to ask, "tell me a story about your day" rather than the standard, "how was your day". i try to use that with my husband often, i actually DO get to hear more of a story about his day that way.
I too love stories. Made up and real.
The kids won't go to bed without their bedtime stories and often I tell them the story of their day, or what it would be like to do XYZ.
I also believe we all have our own stories to tell, some hard, some funny, some deeply personal but oh, the connection that can be made by telling our stories… to touch another or inspire them with something from your own story.
I used to love listening to my hubby's grandfather (who was 98) talk about the way things used to be. So much knowledge.
xo,
dana
I was at Squam in Sept also and took Jen's class, it touched something in my, the longing to tell my story and to witness others. I live in NJ so I might be able to come check out the moth ball..
Thanks for the link. I think I am really beginning to realise the tip of the iceberg re. story-telling in our lives. the funny thing is I think we all do it all the time but probably not so consciously.
My son's school is great as there are a couple of teachers there who are professional story-tellers and they incorporate it in the curriculum and it is amazing how fired up the kids get.
My brother in law is also a professional story-teller and runs courses in the wild incorporating storytelling and living with nature – it is sooo inspiring. see here: http://www.wildwise.co.uk/
He has started an annual story-telling festival here in the UK too.
I am right at the beginning of my research, I am excited and also aware that I have to change some of the stories I tell myself daily 🙂
Wish I could come to some of those story-telling events near you . . . . one day 🙂
Amelia.x
The ART of storytelling is one that I grew up hearing a lot being a French Canadian. My Memere never learned to read so the only history I will ever have of her and her mother and father are the oral hiSTORIES. I think storytelling are like jewels of truth and wisdom sprinkled with curiosity and spoken from a place of LOVE.