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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Storytelling in Community, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 26 - 31 of 31
26. Charlotte Blake Alston - Breaking Barriers Through Storytelling

Greetings! I look forward to sharing with you on Tuesday evening October 29, 2008, at 8pm. The focus topic on this pod cast of Storytelling With Children is “Breaking Barriers Through Storytelling”.
Charlotte Blake Alston storyteller in the Afriacan American Tradition
My introduction to literature and the planting of seeds that later bloomed into storytelling, came in the 1950’s. In the midst of a social, political and cultural climate that suggested that my family and community were devoid of intellect, history or culture, my father began reading to me the literary diamonds and jewels that came from within our culture. Somewhere around 6 years old, my father read out loud the words of James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. My father relished and touted the genius of these writers. He handed me the Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, selected a poem for me to memorize and launched me, as a child, onto a spoken word path. Numerous church banquets, teas and special community events were staging grounds for “a reading by Miss Charlotte Blake”.

I’ll share some memories of that time and fast-forward to the place where those germinating seeds and my experience in an independent school crossed paths with storytelling and an immediate realization of the power of this art form. On I faculty of 70, I was one of three faculty members of color. One particular event at the school served as a reminder of how invisible we often were, of how a genuinely well-meaning (and I really mean that!) community could unknowingly participate in perpetuating stereotypes and marginalizing members of their community. My concern was the statement those actions made to the children in the community. When I encountered storytelling, I immediately saw it as a window, a bridge, a tool I could use; a way in which initially children, could access, affirm, value and appreciate a cultural perspective that was different from their own.

That two-story repertoire (plus a set of Kiddie Rock& Roll songs!) later expanded to incorporate stories for all ages. I’ve since told at home and abroad in schools, festivals, concert halls, detention centers, a refugee camp; in collaboration with jazz musicians, choreographers and symphony orchestras. One of my most storyteller-reaffirming moments happened in a refugee camp in northern Senegal. So come on in! It’s okay. This will not be psychologically heavy duty! I am not an academician. This will be a chance to peek inside my head, listen to my heart and perhaps hear a perspective, a view that might serve you well in your own work.

“See you” on the pod cast.

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27. Why tell children scary ghost stories?

Thomas Freese writes…
I am looking forward to being on Eric’s “Art of Storytelling with Children Podcast” next week, on September 23, 8PM Eastern time. I’ve been a professional storyteller and author of ghost story books for over a decade in addition to my work as an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. Our topic will be “Why tell children scary ghost stories?” I have over a dozen storytelling programs that I perform for schools, libraries, festivals, churches and private parties. And several of those themed programs are ghost stories. I’ve collected both true ghost stories as well as authoring original fiction mysteries. Kids love storytelling and kids really love ghost stories!

I was fascinated with ghost stories since I was a middle school student. In fact, one of my favorite books, Strangely Enough, which I bought at a Scholastic Book Fair, is still in print and still available for kids at school. After reading it and questioning my Mom about real experiences with ghosts she related a tale of an encounter at her Aunt’s farm when out horse riding. I’ve been hooked on ghostly mysteries ever since.

Fast forward to my life in Kentucky where I was a volunteer singer at the historic 200 plus year Shaker village called Pleasant Hill, located near Harrodsburg in Mercer County. During my ten years singing I heard numerous stories of experiences with the Shaker spirits and I decided to take a stand, rescue the fact or folklore that would be lost oral accounts if no one else researched and recorded them. I interviewed over 60 employees and guests starting in 1998 and later (2005) published those first-hand tales in my Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. I found children of all ages fascinated with the stories of spirits who seemed to act very much in character with the once-living Shakers. Folks heard singing, shouting, stomping in the 1820 Meeting House. They saw Shaker-dressed figures on the old village pike.

As I performed my ghost stories program I included some true tales along with the fanciful entertaining fictional tales. I found kids no less interested in the true tales despite some of those seeming a bit less high-impact than fiction stories. I created a number of guitar songs to accompany my tales of witches, ghosts and other creatures. In live performances of mixed ages I noticed children mesmerized by true ghost stories.

In planning discussions with some teachers or librarians I was intrigued to see that some basically requested “the scarier the better” whereas others wanted assurances at least concerning the younger ages, say up to Kindergarten or first grade. I think a number of scary tales can be done successfully and without undue “trauma” at younger ages but the teller’s environment makes a difference. I sing a song to normalize the fear of ghostly stories at the beginning of my program. What I find fascinating also is that whatever the age of the audience, younger children through adult, one can find individuals sitting side by side of the same age where one is wide eyed with participatory “fear” and the other smirks and says, “That’s not scary enough!”

Please join me for this Podcast as I consider the topic with several professional hats, ghost story author, storyteller and professional counselor and therapist. My credentials include BA Psychology, MA Expressive Therapies, LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, ATR-BC (Art Therapist Board Certified). In addition, I have worked as a Psychic Counselor and I can tell you that some things kids see are not “just their imagination”! Check out my books, first one mentioned above, and also Fog Swirler and 11 Other Ghost Stories and just released Strange and Wonderful Things: a Collection of Ghost Stories with Special Appearances by Witches and Other Bizarre Creatures. [email protected]

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28. How to collect true scary stories for Halloween.

This Tusday at 8pm September 16 ET Dale Gilbert Jarvis will be speaking
on How to collect true scary stories for Halloween. You are welcome to join the call - just sign up for the event alert list on the top of this page before September 13th, 2008.

Near to where I live is a small lake with the delightfully ghoulish name of Deadman’s Pond. According to local legend, the pond is bottomless, and I’m sure many people know of similar stories for lakes near where they live. These lakes and ponds offer us tantalizing doorways to another realm. Peering into the reflective surface of a still body of water and wondering what lies beneath provides us with a link to the unexplained. Perhaps this is why they fascinate us. It is not so much that we think they actually are bottomless, but that part of us wishes that they might be.

So too with ghost stories. I’ve told ghost stories to literally thousands of people over the past 13 years, and they continue to be the stories most often requested when I do work with school kids. Most of the stories I tell are true, or at least were thought to be true by the people I learned them from. I love collecting stories that are tied to specific places, and sharing them with people who love that delicious shiver that runs up one’s spine when they are well told.

“A teller of spine tingling tales that are so convincing, that even if you don’t believe in ghosts… you soon will!”
‑Wayne Rostad, On the Road Again

Bio of storyteller Dale Gilbert Jarvis:
Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a storyteller, professional folklorist, and writer living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
Dale tells ghost stories, faerie stories, legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland, Ireland, the United Kingdom and beyond. Dale is the founder of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle, president of the annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival, and a member of the board of Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada.

As a storyteller, Dale has performed locally and at
international festivals, but is perhaps less well known than his alter ego, the distinguished Reverend Thomas Wyckham Jarvis, Esquire. Since 1997, The Reverend has been the host and guide of the St. John’s Haunted Hike, a walking ghost tour through the haunted streets of St. John’s. Under his supervision, locals and tourists have been introduced to the vengeful lovers, murdered soldiers, and mysterious fires which await those brave enough to explore the secrets that lie in wait in St. John’s darkest corners. Mixing history, humour, and traditional storytelling, Dale has been winning over audiences and throwing in the odd scare here and there, and has been covered by a wide variety of local, national and international media. Over the past years, the Hike has grown from a small idea to a fixture in the St. John’s tourism industry.

Dale is the author of two books of local ghost stories,
“Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories of Newfoundland and Labrador” and “Wonderful Strange: Ghosts, Fairies and Fabulous Beasts of Newfoundland and Labrador” both published by Flanker Press, and a collection of world ghost stories for young adult readers, “The Golden Leg and Other Ghostly Campfire Tales” also published by Flanker.

10 Comments on How to collect true scary stories for Halloween., last added: 9/18/2008
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29. Jeff Gere’s Tour of Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

MArch 9- April 2, 2008

BRIEFLY: I had a BLAST in an exhausting collage of faces and places starting with Atlanta, Kennesaw (curriculum mixes drama and storytelling) with Irish teller Eddie Lenihan. Then up through the Smokey Mountains: Cleveland, Knoxville, and Jonesborough (SUCH A LITTLE TOWN!) Connie Gil hosted me. Met with NSN (Bobbie) and ISC (Susan/ Jimmy Neil) about a national story radio show. I did a workshop & tell there, then did lotsa ghost tours with my daughter in Savannah, and caught my breath at her house in Jacksonville, Florida. Then a wonderfully intense long weekend at the Florida Storytelling Camp and home on one of the last ATA flights. (more…)

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30. On the Power and Responsibility of Comedy: My lil’ Soapbox

By David B. Epley talks on the conference call tonight at 8pm about storytelling with comedy.

Comedy is one of the most effective tools for imparting any information:

  • It actively involves the audience; laughter is not passive.
  • It encourages the audience to focus on the process; you must pay attention to the setup in order to get the punch line.
  • It makes the process fun.

All of these aspects conspire to make an event, an individual, or a particular subject matter, more memorable. Think of your favorite Teacher, Storyteller, Pastor, Politician, Actor, Choreographer, et cetera, and you will see the truth of what I’m saying. Comedy can be used to educate, to alleviate tension, to ease stress, to help in almost any situation.

Unfortunately, comedy can also be used for ill. It is a powerful tool, and like any tool, its effects, and the responsibility for those effects, are in the hands of the user. It is used daily to hurt, to degrade, to destroy. Sometimes with intent, often without. This places a great moral responsibility on the comedian.

When using Comedy, one must make a conscious effort to gauge its consequences, and take corrective action when necessary. Not all laughter is positive, or even acceptable.

Years ago the US Military enacted its infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuality in the Armed Services. My partners in Theatre in the Ground and I wrote a short bit designed to mock it. The bit was about 30 seconds long, highly interactive, and generated 3 very solid laughs. (That’s a laugh every 10 seconds, each one building in effect, and that’s great. Vaudevillians used to shoot for a minimum of one laugh every 23 seconds.) Unfortunately, after performing the bit a few times, we realized that the audience wasn’t laughing at Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Most were actually responding to our comedy by laughing at homosexuals as a whole. This was far from our intent, and was generating laughter that we felt was actually bad for the world. We cut the piece immediately. It is a lesson I will never forget.

Enjoy the gift of laughter. Use it. Revel in it. Share it.
Just remember its power, and respect it.

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31. Plums in general

Plums in the hedgerow ready to pick



Plums for a woodland breakfast



Plums for snacking




Plums for jam




- with homemade bread




Plums to store for cold winter days when summer is gone.






A brief note about rabbit stew.

It was the kind of stew which involved not only Mr Bunny, but also a stripped roast chicken carcass, some leftover boiled potatos, a bowl of gravy I found in the fridge, various herbs, garlic and chutney, a handful of garden carrots and the all important 'this and that'. So not so much a recipe as a medley of odds and ends, all popped in the slow cooker for about 15 hours. And with excellent results.

23 Comments on Plums in general, last added: 8/21/2007
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