Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as livel on 12/04/2007 with storyteller the Yellow Springs Tailspinners and Brother Wolf discuss how to effectively start and form a storytelling group.

I spent an hour talking with my local yellow springs Tale-spinners about how we function as a closed storytelling group. We are fairly successful at supporting each other and building on our past successes. I think you will enjoy the conversation.

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 11/20/2007 with storyteller Tim Sheppard and Brother wolf discuss the Art of holding a storytelling space in front of an audience..

Tim Sheppard talks about how various traditions hold the responsibility of an audience differently. What is the moment of impact that storytellers can create and hold for there audiences?

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 10/10/2007 storyteller Brother Blue appeared on the Art of Storytelling with Children to talk about street storytelling and storytelling from the heart.

Brother Blue is one of three storytellers in the country whose work and style have directly influenced my own storytelling style and flavor. I am very proud to bring you this conversation about street storytelling and everything else related to storytelling with storyteller Brother Blue.

Eric Wolf

—–storyteller Brother Blue

Hugh Morgan Hill
(Brother Blue, Storyteller/Street Poet)

He is Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, but everyone knows him as Brother Blue. He is called by many “the world’s greatest storyteller.” He says he wants his stories to be “bread for the mind, the imagination, the heart, the soul.” He says, “I speak my stories from the middle of the middle of me to the middle of the middle of you” [the people].

Brother Blue received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College (with honors) and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. For his Ph.D. degree from the Union Institute, his final presentation or Project Demonstrating Excellence (PDE) was “Soul Shout,” a storytelling concert in a prison, accompanied by a musical band of over twenty inmates.

Storytelling festivals include the Corn island Storytelling Festival, in Louisville, Kentucky; Day for Sam, in Wrentham, Massachusetts, a festival commemorating the life and death of a five-year-old boy; Sharing the Fire, sponsored by the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling; Toronto Festival of Storytelling; Vancouver (B.C.) Storytelling Festival; and the Yukon Storytelling Festival. He has also appeared several times at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee; and at “In the Tradition…”, the festival/conference of the National Association of Black Storytellers, held in a different city each year.

He has taught storytelling in prisons, and in schools and colleges throughout the Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 9/18/2007, Larry Johnson appeared on the Art of Storytelling with Children to talk about storytelling in your class and school and how it creates leaders in the next generation.

Larry Johnson has dedicated his storytelling career to improving the lives of the children around him. Larry spent years trying to convince the state board of education that storytelling and a storyteller belonged in every school in his state.

Eric Wolf

——Larry Writes..
I started telling “goofy” stories around the campfire in the 60s for campers in trouble thru court services, while I went thru the Broadcast program at the University of Minnesota. When I returned from being an army medic, I began to encounter young adults who looked at me and said, “Aren’t you the guy who told those stories at the camp? Do you remember . . .” These young people, who had extreme trouble in school, then told me stories I didn’t remember because Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on 9/11/2007, Mary Margaret O’Connor, Owner of Itales.com. - Digital Storytelling using emerging technologies with your storytelling.

Mary Margaret O’Connor, has an amazing concept hear that is on the cutting edge of digital storytelling. Are conversation on how to use the online and digital experience to support storytelling is eye opening for any storyteller to see the potential for the storytelling art form in the 21st centaury.

Eric Wolf

——–Mary writes…
iTales.com started as a simple enough idea…create a website to house bedtime stories I tell to my children. But what started as a simple project based on a love of storytelling, evolved into a much better and more complex idea, still based on a love of storytelling! That idea became iTales, a website that allows storytellers to upload and sell individual stories. Over time, iTales will be home to thousands of fantastic mp3 audio stories from around the world and will be a method of Continue Reading »

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Press Play to hear this interview on the art of storytelling with Children that was recorded as a conference call on August 28th, 2007, Carolyn Franzini shares how to plan the Cave Run Storytelling festival.

Carolyn Franzini is the Director of the Cave Run Storytelling Festival one of the most successful and prestigious storytelling festivals outside of Jonesborough in the United States in this interview she discusses how to run a storytelling festival successfully and How Storytellers Become Candidates for Telling at the Festival. She has kindly allowed the use fo the following ten tips on running a storytelling festival to be included on the Art of Storytelling with Children blog.

Eric Wolf

She writes
10 Tips for Organizing a Festival.

1. Know why you want to have the storytelling festival
2. Make sure your reasons for having the storytelling festival “fit” your community, sponsor etc because you need their support
3. Make sure all persons on the storytelling festival organization committee love storytelling
4. Try to make the preparation for the Continue Reading »

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In this interview with the Reverend Victoria Burdick, M. Div Hospice Chaplain ~ Celebrant on August 7th, 2007, we discuss how storytelling can be used in wedding ceremonies to create the ceremony. We also discuss how storytelling is used in hospice work. The Reverend has officiated over five hundred weddings and is well sought after for her service because of her ability to represent the stories of both the bride and groom in the ceremony.

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Post written by Lyn Ford was a Guest on the show on Tuesday May 1th at 7pm. Missed the call? Don’t worry - you can listen right now by clicking the play button.

Lyn Ford Writes…
“Breaking” into storytelling isn’t quite the description that fits the beginnings of my career. It was more like leaping off the edge of a cliff, with all the materials to build a strong glider that would carry me wherever I should go, but no blueprint or directions on how to build the thing. I had to trust that I would create both the blueprint and the directions, and be able to make the glider, as I headed toward solid ground. Scary, exciting, and very educational!

My mind and heart were filled with stories from my family’s oral tradition, but storytelling as a career hadn’t occurred to me. Our kids, now grown, volunteered my stories in their classrooms (bless their little hearts!); the experience Continue Reading »

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