RECENTLY DISCOVERED THOUGHTS ABOUT STORYTELLING

Here are two wonderful perspectives on storytelling that I came across yesterday on the internet while researching ideas that storytellers have about the power of telling. Both perspectives are worth your time to reflect upon and perhaps each may prompt you to collect your own thoughts about why you tell stories or enjoy actively listening to them.

‘It is by telling our stories that we come to know ourselves, and whenever we hear another’s stories, we understand them. We come to appreciate their strengths and vulnerabilities, their joys and sorrows. Storytelling teaches us to listen and enables us to find our voice. It entertains us and challenges our thinking. Story continues to enhance our lives and bring us closer together.’ 

Annette Knowler in the Handbook of the New Zealand Guild of Storytellers (2004)

‘When I tell a story, an introduction of myself, I get in touch with my personal culture. In a sense I lay down a carpet so that others can come and sit on it. When I hear someone else’s story, I pick up something of their values, their beliefs, and the many wonderful things about them.’ 

Rebecca L. Copeland (2004) (Original source unknown)

THE SECRETS OF STORYTELLERS

When most people think of storytelling, they usually think of children.  But storytelling is an art form as old as mankind. And we’re all storytellers, young and old.

A story can be about anything – an event personal or worldly, real or mythological, trivial or epic, true or false, linear or not. And they don’t all have a happy ending. There is a magical thing that happens when a person tells a story to others, because storytelling is about listening as much as telling.

I suspect that storytelling lies at the heart of every artistic discipline.

The Peterborough Storytellers are one of 18 groups of storytellers in Ontario alone. Since 1992 they have met once a month to “listen, learn and tell.” A core group of members share their storytelling skills and perform, but all are invited to listen or participate if the spirit moves them. I was spellbound by Rita Grimaldi who told A Duppy Tale in mask and gripped by Hermione Rivison’s family ghost story.

Live storytelling is a fascinating study in language, as each storyteller shares the music of their own unique voice. I only wish this inclusive circle could happen in a location with a bit more ambiance. Although some of their events are child-oriented, many are only suitable for adults or children 12 and older.

If you’ve ever heard Stewart McLean on CBC, tuned into The Moth, attended a Digital Storytelling Workshop , been captivated by Native American stories of Coyote, listened to David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, delighted in the rhythm of Jamaican patois with Miss Lou or sat around a campfire telling ghost stories, you’ll know how many styles of storytelling there are and how deep our connection with oral literature can be.

Dare to suspend belief for an evening and engage your sense of wonder, fear, imagination and magic.

Posted with permission of A. Jaeger.

Author: Anne Jaeger, www.troutinplaid.com  (posted on November 3, 2012)

Our thanks to Anne Jaeger who writes of cultural, performance and literary events and reflections, for her recent blog post about us, The Secrets of the Storytellers. 

You can find this and other interesting and unique commentary in Annie's wonderful blog, www.troutinplaid.com. And as a bonus, there is a short video of our very own Hermione Revison telling the tale of Bel And The Dragon.