By: Eric Wolf,
on 7/14/2011
photo by: Simon Brooks Yvonne Zinicola ( Rt.) with Lanes President Joanne Piazzi and President- Elect Tony Toledo Written by Carolyn Stearns This is part two of two of my interview of Yvonne Zinicola our Lanes Exec. Director. Now more than a year into her position we look at where we have come from [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 7/6/2011
Written for by Carolyn Stearns… Part 1- An Interview With Lanes Exec. Director Yvonne Zinicola as of 3-29-2011 I requested to interview Yvonne for the blog as a way of capturing her first year and reflecting on its impact with Lanes and storytelling in the Northeast. I sent [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 5/21/2011
by Stuart H. Nager I found out about World Storytelling Day (http://worldstorytellingday.webs.com/) on February 23, 2011, through a posting on Facebook. The global event, centered around the theme of Water, was to be on or around March 20th. I’ve been working hard as a Teaching Artist, doing my storytelling and other performance gigs here and [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 5/8/2011
The bankruptcy of the International Storytelling Center is a sad affair and a concern to all citizens of Jonesborough, who recognize the great cultural and economic contributions that the Center and its programming bring to the town. For storytellers and storytelling proponents around the country and the world, however, it is a tragedy in the [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 2/28/2011
Press Play to hear Storyteller Tim Ereneta talks about how he brought Storytelling to the Fringe on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf. Here’s the best thing about a storytelling performance in a Fringe Festival: I don’t have to wait to be discovered. I don’t have to worry about offending my host with my material. [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 2/2/2011
The International Storytelling Center has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to alter or annal their contract with the National Storytelling Network.
This is a very personal moment for me – I am invested in the success of both these organizations. I am an active member of NSN and I believe that the ISC is essential for the success of the American storytelling revival. So who do I side with? I side with both organizations – being that I love them both – I am a child of two parents – long divorced – who are quarreling over money while the riches of the worlds drift through their fingers.
I know that many of you are mad at the ISC – I ask you to practice the better part of your nature and forgive… buy your tickets NOW to next years festival – I did – help this Jewel in the Crown of American Storytelling continue… I also ask the board members of NSN to defend NSN’s right to control the National Storytelling Festival and to negotiate with ISC as co-owners of the brand, name and event for the good of both organizations. Clearly no one wants to see ISC go down or NSN stripped of needed funding from the festival that represents members investment in the long term heath of the national storytelling festival.
All the Best
Brother Wolf
PS: Please comment below for your thoughts on this event…
By: Eric Wolf,
on 2/18/2010
Press Play to hear Ben Nind speaking on how Storytelling is Essential to Community Health and Life on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
Storytelling Is Essential to Community Health and Life.
Do we really have to justify why this is so? Are we so removed from ourselves as purveyors of stories that we actually need to rationalize, in some manner or form - why storytelling is essential? This is an odd question because it means that I have to somehow divorce story from the human experience and that is an impossible task.
The glue that holds all of the pieces together is story past, present and future. Birth, marriage, divorce, life, death, addiction, celebration, grief and victory are woven with stories in every window and door that we pass in our day to day existence. Without stories there is no community, there is no activity and the world is just one big cold ball of rock hurling through the blackness of space.
Is storytelling essential to community life? Say no more. Just listen and let me tell you a story..............
Bio
Ben NInd grew up in the theatre community of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.
From a young age, his mentors provided him with a passionate love for community theatre. In the end, it was this passion that drove him to drop his cubical world and enroll in the Theatre Studies Program at Red Deer College in Alberta. In 1994, he graduated from the English Acting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal and continued training with Silamiut Theatre of Greenland, through a generous Fox Fellowship grant. Ben returned to Yellowknife in 1995 to found Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre where he wore the hat of actor, director, playwright and mentor working throughout Canada and the circumpolar world.In the spring of 2004 he became the Executive and Artistic Director of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, a position he still holds. He continues to promote the development of all performing arts in the NWT. His passion lies with the stories of the Canadian North. They are the core material from which his brand of theatre magic is cut. His belief in the stories, and his commitment to the talented men and women who tell those stories, keep this unique and powerful northern theatre movement alive and relevant for contemporary northern audiences.
By: Eric Wolf,
on 1/13/2010
Press Play to hear Jimmy Neil Smith about the future of the International Storytelling on the Art of Storytelling Center with Brother Wolf.
 Photo Curtsey of Fresh Air. |
|
||||
Jimmy Neil Smith writes...
In the early 1990s, I attended a conference of the Tennessee Arts Commission in nearby Johnson City. During the session, potter Bill Strickland spoke about the arts-based Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center in inner-city Pittsburgh—an institution, founded by Strickland, that teaches low-income, inner-city youths an employment skill.
Strickland spoke eloquently about his institution and its program. His address was stirring and powerful. Then, as a closing, Strickland said, “I challenge each of you to go home and build an institution that confirms and makes real what you know.”
Strickland’s challenge inspired me.
Less than a year later, the National Storytelling Association announced the development of what would become the International Storytelling Center—the organization’s first permanent home in 30 years and a “launching pad” for a series of national and international programs, products, and services.
It was Strickland’s challenge that would give birth to the institution that has become the International Storytelling Center. The Center campus—now composed of the elegant Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall, Historic Center Inn, and the Storytelling Community Park—opened in June of 2002.
Through the work of ISC, we are seeking to confirm and make real what we know about storytelling—the ancient tradition that is as old as humankind yet as modern as this morning’s headlines. Now, in 2010, ISC is launching an expanded vision—a journey to a New Horizon—a better life, a better world, through the power of storytelling.
To achieve this vision, ISC is:
• Building international awareness, appreciation, and audiences for storytelling
• Teaching individuals, organizations, and communities across the globe how to tap into the power of storytelling to build a better life and a better world
• Enhancing the Center’s role in Jonesborough as the worldwide beacon for
By: Eric Wolf,
on 12/16/2009
Press Play to hear Michal Malinowski speaking on the Storytelling Museum of Poland on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.
A storyteller - shaman from Altay in Siberia at the festival of Intangible Heritage organized by the Storytelling Museum.
Michal Malinowski writes...
The Storyteller Museum is a unique institution devoted to the collection, preservation and promotion of oral heritage from all over the world. Our mission is to save the vanishing examples of intangible treasures, acquaint new generations with the oral tradition of a variety of cultures and revive the custom of storytelling. Nonetheless, our attention is also devoted not only to tribal storytelling but also to contemporary trends in oral expression. The Museum has been the leading place in Poland to developed the storytelling revival movement. We have organized Storytelling Festivals and workshops in our location and other places in the country
The Storyteller Museum has an innovative approach to collecting and exhibiting different cultural artifacts by applying the latest achievements of digital technology. Our interests pertain not only to narrative texts but also to other indirect elements, such as gesture, movement, dance, sound, music, costume and body coverings. We have been engaged in work on various exhibitions, elaborating unexplored topics, such as African Griots: Local Knowledge -Global Polish Oral Tradition, A Panorama of European Oral Tradition, The Storyteller Museum supports all initiatives of transcribing oral traditions into tangible platforms. For such an end it has initiated a special program called Indigenous Writers, aiming to give the opportunity to tribal people to enunciate their oral art, so that it can be preserved in various forms, such as books, audio-visual recordings and museum digital displays. We are currently working on the book "Folktales from Burkina Faso"
Michal Malinowski - biography
Folklorist, writer, storyteller, computer graphic artist, born in 1966 in Warszaw, graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Lausanne - Switzerland diploma in painting and computer graphics, started his carier as multimedia artist designing animation movies in Switzerland and Japan. Simultaneously discovered his passion for writting which he has realised as animation script writter and free lance journalist for various magazines in Europe and Asia. In 1997 traveled to Papua New Guinea where discovered traditional storytellers and decided to create the new type of museum based on interactive technology presenting oral traditions and intangible heritage. In 1999 quit Japan in the goal to extend his knowledge in cultural studies and went for one year to Folklore and Mythology Department at Harvard University. After retourned to Poland and opened in 2002 the Storyteller Museum in the house he built himself.
He has contributed to the beginning of Polish storytelling revival mouvment , organizing since 2002 various storytelling events ( storytelling evenings, workshops and Festivals in the Museum venue and all over Poland). He performed his storytelling programs life on stage, libraries, schools or since December 2007 regularly on the III Chanel of the Polish National Radio. Recently performed in the storytelling festival
By: Eric Wolf,
on 7/9/2009
Would you like to be a part of a storytelling conference call that supports you in your use of storytelling with children? If so, then enter your name and email address and you will receive personal invitations to participate in The Art of Storytelling with Children Conference call - most Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern.
| Name: | |
| Email: | |
| Share your thoughts on the call, connect with old time storytellers and ask questions to experts in the field. |
|
I will not share or give away your email address.
And don’t forget to subscribe by iTunes or your browser to The Art of Storytelling with Children Podcast so you can get weekly inspirations from Bother Wolf direct to your desktop. Read the info on the right to find out how. It’s free and it’s super simple.
photo by: Simon Brooks Yvonne Zinicola ( Rt.) with Lanes President Joanne Piazzi and President- Elect Tony Toledo Written by Carolyn Stearns This is part two of two of my interview of Yvonne Zinicola our Lanes Exec. Director. Now more than a year into her position we look at where we have come from [...]