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.

The Art of Storytelling

Keeping an Age Old Tradition Alive

 By Denny Manchee

Finding the grace and place of oral storytelling in a smart-device world.

Not so long ago in the hills of Northumberland, a group of travellers, old and young, bearing books and colourful hats and instruments and food, made their way up the steep slope from Lake Ontario, past the stone fortress of luxury on the hill, and further north along a leafy road to a tidy house in a grove of fragrant evergreens. It was the month of June and her name was June. The house was brown and her last name was Brown. And the old and young were there to listen and tell and learn.

“New Voices and Old Wisdom” was the name of the gathering, a weekend devoted to the art and craft of storytelling. It was conceived by host June Brown and her fellow teller Brenda Byers. Forty storytellers came from as far away as the Bruce Peninsula and Ottawa to swap tales and build community and momentum among their scattered numbers.

You may well wonder who these folks are who practice this ancient art form in an age where texting and tweeting are the twin peaks of communication. And how can storytellers, with their talking sticks, possibly compete for people’s fractured attention with something as simple as a single human voice?

There is magic in a well told story, a spellbinding quality that takes us back to our childhood and the intimacy of a parent’s voice, a gifted teacher, or the collective thrill of a ghost story around the fire. We are hard-wired for stories, just as we are for music.

“For all of our modern technology, we are drawn to the campfire,” says Cobourg storyteller Marg Kropf. “We are drawn as a group to form circles around fires, whether we sing, whether we tell, whether we share. That’s something that’s universal. And you see kids love campfires and they love to be scared,” she adds, her crystalline voice rising and falling with an actor’s skill. Yes, she does that too, and before that she taught French. Just ask for her rooster imitation from the story “Chanticleer and the Fox” – en francais, bien sur!

June, a bright-eyed former camp counselor and early childhood educator, came to the art at a young age. “I had been telling stories most of my life because I was a camp counselor, then I told to my children, then started telling in the schools with my grandchildren, and kept taking more and more courses. I didn’t know you could tell to adults till 10 years ago!”

Like many people in this business, June and Marg are ebullient women of a certain age with huge hearts, a passion for the spoken word and a background in teaching. Not surprising, for teaching and sharing lessons – big and small – are at the core of this ancient tradition, a tradition that takes much practice and hard work. Just as a musician must play scales and practise, practise, practise, so too must a storyteller. Consider how you might tackle memorizing a 35-minute story!

Thankfully, June has a fabulous memory, toned from her experience with dyslexia as a child – “I found reading and writing really hard but had a great memory.” Like some other storytellers, she creates a story map to sketch the main skeleton of the story. People also use a story line with characters and events branching off to learn a piece, or learn them like studying for exams, memorizing pictures and scenes in their heads. “Then you tell it over and over and build detail on your skeleton,” says June. “You don’t have to remember it word for word because it’s a living thing and will change subtly with each telling.”

What makes this different from the written word is that the story is very pared down, like this, for example: “She walked into the room. She was very beautiful. They fell in love.”

This bare-bones narrative leaves lots of scope for the storyteller to invent and adapt on the fly. But you still have to have your wits about you to remember the chronology in a 30- or 40-minute story.

Way back, way, way, back in the day, “Irish poet-tellers studied their art for 15 years, and had to be wise in philosophy, astronomy, magic and conversant with 250 prime tales and a hundred subsidiary ones,” according to American storyteller Jane Yolen in her book Favourite Folktales from Around the World.

“Medieval troubadours,” she adds, “were expected to know the current court and countryside favourite tales as well as recite the latest in court scandals, play two instruments well, and further, to be able to repeat the noteworthy theses from the universities.” The Twitter of their times, as it were.

Nowadays, smart devices deal with the scrolling ephemera of life, but there’s still a place and an appetite for the deeper breath.

“Storytellers can be tradition-keepers, teachers, entertainers and all of the above,” says Dan Yashinsky, who was at the June gathering, and is one of the leading storytellers in Canada and founder of “1001 Nights of Storytelling” in Toronto (held every Friday night at Innis Café at U of T). Clad in hip black T-shirt and jeans and looking ever youthful, Dan says the revival of interest in oral storytelling may come from a feeling of being disconnected from the things that make and sustain community: gatherings of neighbours, good listening, living voices.

“Storytelling is like the slow-food movement,” he says in his Jewish-Detroit drawl. “Just like slow food can’t compete with a quick burger and fries, slow literature needs its own time – the time to enter the reverie of listening – and brings with it its own unique pleasures.” (To hear Dan tell a short, funny story called “My Bubbe and the Police,” follow this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnJ9B6PtZwQ)

The storyteller’s relationship with the audience – be it kids, seniors, hospital patients, festival goers or corporate types – creates an energy loop that affects both teller and listeners. “You bring yourself to the story and draw energy from the audience,” says June. “You want to see their eyes, their response. The energy goes back and forth and you tell the story together.” Hence June’s particular interest in participation stories.

Back in Marg Kropf’s cosy living room in Cobourg, we’re having coffee with another storyteller, Enid DeCoe. Both she and Marg are members of the Durham Folklore Storytellers and both have been telling tales for years. Enid, a model of elegant grandmotherhood in a classic navy dress, has the measured, sonorous voice of a kindergarten teacher – which she was for many years.

The two are riffing on the relevance of this art form amid the deafening noise of contemporary life. “Stories can teach, explain and entertain, sometimes all at once,” says Enid. Where once the art of story telling was about transmitting knowledge and news, today it is more about revealing larger truths to offer context and hope in our crazy times.

One of Enid’s favourite stories to tell is “The Story of the Three Kingdoms”, by Walter Dean Myers. “At the end it says only people have their stories, and in their stories they find wisdom, and in their wisdom they find strength.

“And that to me is so powerful.”

Ah yes wisdom, universal truths, the kind you can’t find on “Grey’s Anatomy” or gawker.com, the kind that cross cultures and time, that offer perspective on today’s news-obsessed world. Point taken.

Enid goes on to talk about the value of storytelling in the school system, where she spent her career: “Stories develop listening skills, imagination, comprehension and an understanding of relationships and cultures.” That’s a good basket of skills worth promoting, and they seem to be basic tools for the culture of “presenting” that most kids will experience in the workplace.

But beyond the obvious pedagogical benefits of storytelling in the school system lies our collective need for stories to help us understand the larger human narrative. Archetypes of the trickster and fool, of love lost and won, of good and evil transcend time and place. When I asked Dan about folktales that speak to the greed of our times and the likes of Bernie Madoff, he said: “All of the world’s folktales teach us that greed, hoarding, self-interest and exploitation of others, particularly the poor, are destructive forces. In folktales, the perpetrators of such evil acts usually pay for their greed in satisfyingly extreme forms of punishment.” Like a lifetime in prison, for example.

Still, the audience for this art form is relatively small, so what does the future of storytelling look like in Ontario? As the “New Voices and Old Wisdom” gathering wrapped up at June Brown’s Rivendell-like property north of Grafton, she and Brenda were heartened by the connections people had made and were forging ahead with a plan to launch a travel-and-billeting program this fall to allow storytellers to move around the province at little expense and continue to learn from each other, share their wisdom and expand their audience.

Dan, ever the storytelling ambassador, would smile at this. “What I hold onto is the passionate belief that knowing good stories by heart and telling them to a circle of listeners makes a haven for the human spirit. I have seen a genuine renaissance of this art all around the world. I guess people are discovering they just can’t double click on wisdom.”

Reprinted with permission of Watershed Magazine (www.watershedmagazine.com)

Appearing in the Fall, 2012 edition.

Author: Denny Manchee (Fall 2012)

REFLECTIONS ON JONESBOROUGH’S NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL 2012

I spent the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Jonesborough is the site of the annual National Storytelling Festival. This is the event’s 40^th year celebration. USA Today has described the Festival as “the leading event of its kind”. After attending many of the telling performances there, I can honestly say this is not an exaggeration. It is a total immersion in all popular genres, styles and personalities currently shaping American storytelling. The featured tellers are many and represent some of the best of the best among American tellers.

The Festival has four large performance tents spread around the small town. The largest tent holds 1,500 people! Jonesborough normally has about 5,000 residents but during this year’s Festival, that number swelled exponentially with over 12,000 avid and passionate fans of the art of storytelling flooding into the small downtown core. Organized by the staff of the International Storytelling Centre, located in Jonesborough, hundreds of volunteers ensured that all events, site logistics, visitor support and guest registration went very smoothly. Local and state police were in evidence, always friendly, helpful and courteous as they mingled with the visitors, coordinated complicated traffic management movements and even happily posed for the occasional picture.

Each day begins at 10am and continues with special storytelling events drawing enthusiastic fans to the tents and an intimate, indoor performance studio until almost midnight. By my count, there were 25 top premiere or ‘featured’ tellers and 6 new-comers to the Jonesborough stages, each of them having their loyal fans. Each event was emceed by one of six well-known tellers who kept the audience entertained and hyped for the featured performers. 

An event lasted one hour. Sometimes there were several tellers performing in one show while a few of the featured tellers were given their own one hour gig. Between shows, fans had a half hour to make their way to the next tent venue, visit the porta-potties, grab some food from the vendor tents while mixing and mingling with other excited and eager fans. Some of my most memorable moments in my visit were talking to other fans about specific tellers they had heard that day or more often, we traded stories about our own interest in storytelling and some of our telling adventures.

I was surprised to learn that for many who come to Jonesborough each year, the average number of Festivals attended by a fan is six. However, I met many who had been coming for 10, 20 or in one case, 30 years! Just as the featured tellers come from all around the US and two were from Canada, the fans often travel huge distances to sit at the Holy Grail of American storytelling. While Jonesborough is the ultimate event each year for many, I quickly learned that storytelling festivals are hugely popular all over the United States. I lost track of how many Festivals I saw displayed on the T-shirts and fleeces of the fans.

The weather in north-eastern Tennessee at this time of year can always be a bit tricky to predict with confidence and this year was no exception. Friday and the early part of Saturday started off sunny and warm but quickly changed to cloudy, colder, windy and rain for the rest of the time. While most Festival goers came prepared for the changeable weather, I am sure the sale of fleece and windbreakers in the Visitor Centre did a brisk business.

Would I make a pilgrimage to Jonesborough again, I am often asked now that I am back home? Absolutely, no doubt about it. It was an amazing learning experience, hugely entertaining and lots of fun. From where I live in Ontario to Jonesborough, it is a fourteen hour road trip. There is the cost of hotels or B and B’s, meals, Festival registration fee and gas but I don’t regret the expense at all. At least not until my Visa bill arrives next month!

In Part Two of my Jonesborough blog posts, I will introduce you to some of my favourite tellers at this year’s Festival and reflect on lessons learned for me as an aspiring teller.

To be continued…

Written by Don Herald (A member of Peterborough Storytellers)

October 18, 2012.

JONESBOROUGH 2012, PART TWO

Experienced Canadian tellers had told me before I went to Jonesborough, that while the American tellers cover all the genres of popular stories, the most popular remains a skillful and humorous mix of ‘real life experiences re-told’ and ‘Liar’s Club Anonymous’. And that is what I found at this year’s National Storytelling Festival.

While all the popular genres were professionally demonstrated on the tent stages and in the performance hall, the featured tellers who did what I could best describe as a ‘standup comedy’ act often attracted the most enthusiastic, loud and thoroughly engaged and devoted fans. One teller, Bill Lepp, filled the 1,500 seat tent venue to overflowing a couple of times and his often self-deprecating stories, superbly delivered in an ‘aw shucks’, laid black West Virginian accent, had the audience laughing continually and roaring for more. It reminded me of the devotion of Stuart McLean fans here in Canada as heard on his CBC Radio show, The Vinyl Café. Lepp has his unique and quirky cast of country characters drawn from his family and rural neighbours and all are well known to his thousands of fans. The standing ovation at the end of each of his performances was deafening and well-deserved.

Aboriginal and First Nations tellers were skillful and used the flute, drum and song to moving and dramatic effect in their stories of legend. A number of tellers used musical instruments as important elements in their stories. This year, the banjo and guitar were almost always active players in the tales being told. Myth, legend, children’s stories, fantasy and fables were all shared by professional tellers with amazing repertoires of stories carefully nurtured and crafted over the years of many tellings. Very popular in Canada, these stories as told and performed in Jonesborough, powerfully demonstrated their lasting power to entertain and educate all audiences.

Another popular American genre is the purpose-built story that mixes true facts with fiction and fantasy to create a powerful and emotionally compelling tale. Perhaps Jay O’Callahan is one of the best practitioners of this difficult art alive today. At the Festival, Jay told his now famous ‘Forged In The Stars’, an anthem to the fifty years of achievements by NASA and more recently his epic story about the history of Jonesborough. Both of these stories were told by Jay to sold out audiences.

Some of the most compelling and powerful stories were told by tellers of African American heritage, often using both the spoken word and music to engage the audience in an intimate and emotional experience. A stand out for me was the work of Rex Ellis, not only a storyteller but also a teacher, historian, author and minister.

I understand from regular attendees at the Festival, that a major attraction for them is the unique Special Events which showcase particular themes, trends or tellers of distinction. This year was no exception to the tradition with special events such as Ghost Stories or a ‘back-by-popular-demand’ evening of Naughty, Bawdy Senior Stories, or another that was promoted as exploring ‘the lighter side of multiple personality disorder by a world-class storyteller and expert at large on all things strange and slightly unhinged’!

Three, one hour performances on Sunday morning had twelve of the featured tellers demonstrating another important aspect of their diverse and rich genre repertoire: sacred stories. While many festivals devote time to this very popular type of told story, there are some events both in the US and here that focus exclusively on biblical stories. For many of the Jonesborough fans, these tellings are one of the highlights of their time at the Festival.  

A storytelling genre that has been sweeping the United States for several years is the Story Slam contest. For the first time in its forty year history, the Festival held a Story Slam competition, featuring seven tellers chosen from hundreds of auditions received from both the US and Canada. This was a hugely popular event with conference goers and the post-event buzz was that this Slam event had to become an annual offering. If you don’t know much about the Story Slam phenomenon, check out our August 22^nd blog post for a quickie orientation to this new genre modeled after the Poetry Slam contests that have been around for many years.

I was pleased to see that all performers made it a point to credit the source of a story, even if their version tweaked the original, and in some instances, the tellers told of getting the author’s permission to tell it. Sometimes that was an interesting mini-story all in itself!

For me there were so many ‘ah ha’ moments of insight, delight and amazement at not only the skills of the teller but the theatre of the performance and the passion with which the stories were told. So many of the stories were superbly crafted and shared, that after a while if one of them fell somewhat short of the high mark set by others, I found myself examining what had gone wrong in my engagement with the teller or the story or both. It was an unexpected but welcome bonus for me in shaping how I would select, write, tell and perform my own stories when I returned home.

In Part Three of my Jonesborough blog posts, I will provide you with links to some of the featured tellers so you can check out the individual artists themselves.

To be continued…

Written by Don Herald (A member of Peterborough Storytellers)

October 18, 2012.

JONESBOROUGH 2012, PART THREE

Here are links to the websites of some of the featured tellers. Most of these folks also have video clips on You Tube that are worth checking out. Often their websites have links to the videos to make it easier to find them.

These professional tellers are entertaining, motivational, inspiring and often very funny. Their body of work is significantly shaping the face of storytelling in the United States. I encourage you to check them out and enjoy their unique styles and personalities.

Bill Lepp.  www.leppstorytelling.com.

Kevin Kling.  www.kevinkling.com.

Barbara McBride-Smith.  www.barbaramcbridesmith.com.

Jay O’Callahan.  www.ocallahan.com.

Connie Regan-Blake. www.storywindow.com.

John McCutcheon.  www.folkmusic.com.

Michael Reno Harrell.  www.michaelreno.com.

Roslyn Bresnick-Perry.  www.RoslynBresnickPerry.com.

Donald Davis.  www.ddavisstoryteller.com.

Rex Ellis.  www.yourfavoritestorytellers.org/ellis.

Michael Harvey.  www.michaelharvey.org.

Andy Offutt Irwin.  www.andyirwin.com.

Beth Horner.  www.BethHorner.com.

Syd Lieberman.  www.sydlieberman.com.

Willy Claflin.  www.willyclaflin.com.
Judith Black. www.storiesalive.com.
Alton Chung.  www.altonchung.com.
Carmen Agra Deedy.  www.CarmenAgraDeedy.com.
Kim and Reggie Harris.  www.KimandReggie.com.
Hannah Harvey.   www.covestory.com.
Kevin Locke. www.ixtlanartists.com.
Laura Simms.  www.laurasimms.com.
Jeanne Robertson.   www.jeannerobertson.com.

You may still be able to find the Schedule of Events of this year’s National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough on-line. It’s worth checking out just to see the depth and variety of the events that were offered this year. While you are on the site for the International Storytelling Centre, check out their blog which is over on the right hand side of the page. It always has interesting posts on the creative art of storytelling.

Here is the link for the Event Schedule. Just copy it and paste it into your browser, then click on it when it appears on your screen.

www.storytellingcentre.net/news/2012-festival-schedule-announced/

We would invite you to share your comments about our three Jonesborough blogs here on the Tales and Tips blog of the Peterborough Storytellers. If you have a personal experience with the Jonesborough Festival, we’d love for you to share it with us as a blog post comment.

Written by Don Herald (a member of Peterborough Storytellers)

October 18, 2012

UNSPOKEN CONVERSATIONS

For the past couple of years, I have been working at trying to become a more skilled, confident and versatile storyteller. When I was working as a corporate trainer and consultant, one of the hallmarks of my style was telling real life stories about the people I had met who were experiencing personal, professional and organizational change. Based on the feedback I got, it would seem that most folks felt I was good at it.

When I retired, I joined a local storytelling group in my city. At my first meeting, I unexpectedly found myself telling an anecdotal story from my work life that listeners found entertaining. But as a teller now in a non-business environment, I experienced it differently. I couldn’t really put my finger on what was exactly different about the experience. Over time I began to realize that not only was I a teller at each of the meetings, but more importantly, I was now an active, engaged listener to told stories. And my colleagues in the group are very good tellers and performers. I realized that I was actively learning from each of them and trying out some of the lessons in my own telling. Some of the techniques worked nicely for me; others didn’t suit. For me now, our meetings are sometimes more about the listening and less so about the telling.

I have now told many times in my local venue. I have taken a creative storytelling course by the ocean near Cape Cod. There, I watched two master storytellers at work, enthusiastically sharing the skills of their craft but also being wonderful coaches to nine aspiring storytellers. I am starting to branch out a bit, taking more risks in the types of stories I tell and the audiences that come to listen. I am now doing more self-reflection and critiquing of my stories and performances than I ever did when I was in the corporate world. But, in spite of all of this gradual, welcome growth, I still felt as if there was still a piece that I was missing to the art of storytelling. Until today.

I was watching a video by the American motivational speaker and storyteller, Les Brown. He mentioned ‘the unspoken conversations’ that go on between the storyteller and each listener in his or her audience. It was one of those ‘ah ha’, ‘the light suddenly goes on’ moments for me.

As a listener, I realized that I was indeed having unspoken conversations with the teller during their story. I was having unshared expectations about what the story was going to offer and do for me. I was having unshared emotional reactions to the story and to the teller. Sometimes I find myself having unspoken conversations with the story’s characters. Other times, I was resisting the urge to interrupt the teller and talk with her about the complex, layered experience her telling was creating for me.

As a teller, I realized that I am also having unspoken conversations with each of my listeners. There are as many conversations going on in the room as there are listeners and tellers. Up until today, I haven’t really thought much about having unspoken conversations with my listeners. Whether I am telling a story well or not so well, the unspoken conversations always happen and shape the experience for all of us.

Now I have to figure out how to effectively use this ‘ah ha’ realization in my storytelling. This could be difficult as it’s really a new skill territory for me and to do it well will certainly push me out beyond my current comfort zone. But I am game to try.

Since I am a social worker by training and by nature, interested in what makes people tick, today’s ‘ah ha’ has also encouraged me to think about the role of ‘unspoken conversations’ in other aspects of my life. Intellectually, it makes lots of sense to put words to those silent conversations and voice them to others. But, further thinking on that will have to wait for another time and perhaps another blog post.

And what about your ‘unspoken conversations’?

Author is Don Herald, a member of Peterborough Storytellers (September 19, 2012)

THE BENEFIT OF STORY INTERPRETATION                              

For me a story is enriched by exploring its meaning. Storytellers like Sam Keen, Robert Bly, Marion Woodman and Carissa Pinkola Este are available on CD and tape, telling stories and also exploring the meaning of the stories they tell.

Here is how this combination of story and meaning helps me.

1. When the storyteller provides interpretations, I use the story in different ways. For example, psychological interpretation (perhaps in line with the works of Freud or Jung or Bettelheim) adds to my ability to use the story to resolve psychological situations in my life that are similar to the situations in the lives of the story characters.

2. Meaning puts the story into a broader mythic context. It allows me to compare the story theme to stories in other cultures, giving me a broader reference of the human experience in the story. This broader story context gives me the enjoyment of increased understanding of other cultures.

3. Listening to the storytellers who share meaning gives me the bond of experiencing the teller as a teacher and mentor. They are saying to me not only will I share a story with you but I will also take the more personal step (and perhaps the more risky step) of telling you what I think the story means. This kind of mentoring bond is quite special to me as a listener of stories. I respect the effort and thought that went into the storyteller finding meaning.

Overall, providing interpretation and meaning deepens a story and enriches my ability to use the story in my life. A storyteller, giving both interpretation and story together, allows me to identify with both the story and the teller in a deeper way.

Author is Rita Grimaldi of Peterborough Storytellers, September 2012

HEADING TO JONESBOROUGH TN

As Storyteller643 who curates this blog, I missed the annual Storytellers of Canada conference this summer in Ottawa. By all reports it was a wonderful event of telling, workshops and meeting up with old and new friends, all of whom share a passion for the spoken word in all its various genres.

Mark it on your calendar for 2013: July 4 to 7 in Ottawa. As the event approaches, check out the Storytellers of Canada website for more information. Here's a suggestion. Build your summer vacation around the event as Ottawa itself is a major Canadian tourist destination (and our national capital). Lots to see, do, eat and explore.

But at the last minute, I decided to head out on our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (October 5-7), to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. This year is their 40th anniversary so the many planned events will be well worth the effort of getting there and participating in their celebrations. The NSF is to American storytelling what The Grand Old Opry in Nashville is to country music. Put the Festival on your storytelling Bucket List for sure!

Once I am back from Jonesborough, I will put up a post or two about my Festival experiences and some of the personalities, trends and styles I saw performing there. This year's confirmed event program should be up on their site by September 23rd so even if you are not able to go this year, check it out. I made my plans too late this year so finding accommodation in or near Jonesborough is almost impossible, but I had some luck finding a hotel room about 45 minutes away from the center of the storytelling action.

Remember to Learn, Listen and Tell in your community.

September 14, 2012

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PETERBOROUGH STORYTELLERS

In the fall of 1989, after taking two Oral Narrative University courses, Rita Grimaldi was inspired to request space in Trent University‘s Sadlier House for a monthly storytelling gathering. The group met under the name of The Peterborough Storytelling Guild. In 1992, Kate Jarrett joined Rita as a founding organizer of the group. Between 1992 and 2008, monthly meetings continued at various locations around the city that offered space to community groups. The number of participants ranges from 8 to 10 people.

Public storytelling performances by the Peterborough Storytellers took place at the Peterborough Folk Festival between 1992 and 1999 and individual members also performed at public venues like First Night, the Ecology Park and the Peterborough Museum.

In 2008, the Peterborough Storytellers (the word ‘Guild’ was dropped from the name) began to meet in the auditorium of the Peterborough Library. This fantastic support by the library allowed the growth of a larger audience (between 14 and 30 people) and range of tellers. In 2009, an educational segment was added to the beginning of each meeting. This allowed the Peterborough Storytellers to support their three part aim of - Listen, Learn and Tell.

A small group of active tellers directs the planning of activities and continued growth of Peterborough Storytellers. In 2012, they are: Rita Grimaldi, Betty Bennett, Angelica Ottewill, Hermione Revision, Diana Primavesi and Don Herald.

Author: R. Grimaldi

August, 2012

IN HONOUR OF NEIL ARMSTRONG

There are many tributes now appearing in the media about Neil Armstrong who died this past weekend of complications arising from heart surgery.

Since this is a storytelling blog, there is a storytelling video about Neil and the moon landing that you may not have seen. It is definitely worth checking out.

The storyteller is Jay O'Callahan on the best professional storytellers now writing and performing in the United States. Jay was commissioned to create and tell a story that commemorated NASA's 50 years in space exploration. Jay's now famous story is called 'Forged In The Stars'. He has told this story all over the world and at many of the NASA sites in the United States. The audience response to Jay's story is overwhelmingly positive.

There is a brief ten minute segment within the story in which Jay dramatizes the moon landing by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It is powerful watching and even a more powerful telling performance by Jay.

Here is how to find this story on the internet.

Go to Jay's website, www.ocallahan.com. In the top banner, click on Forged In The Stars. Several videos will appear. Click on the top one which is captioned 'watch an excerpt of Forged In The Stars'.

While you are on Jay's site, check out his other storytelling videos. This a Master Storyteller at work and you will become a fan, just as I have.  I am The Storyteller who curates the blog,  Peterborough Storytellers Tales and Tips.