Storytelling Radio Program
KSVY-FM 91.3, Sonoma, CA
http://www.ksvy.org
Sundays, 5-6 pm Pacific time (adjust for your time zone)
Live audio streaming: Go to the KSVY website. In the upper
right-hand corner, click on High or Low Speed and find
yourself listening to the program in progress.
Theme music: Special thanks to Petra Koch in Germany (she works with Storyteller Richard Martin), who performed the beautifully haunting alto recorder music of Como Podem from the 13th century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria (copy of Kynsecker, Mollenhauer & Co.). Used on this program with her kind permission.
Engineer: Brodie Giles, KSVY
PROGRAM 19:
Jan. 28 , 2007 - The Adventures of Our Spindly-Legged Friends
Today we continue celebrating the lives of some of our
fellow travelers on this planet...our spindly-legged friends...
who hide in the corners of our lives and spin their magic webs.
Here are a few of those stories.
Featured storytellers:
Mike Lockett, the Normal Storyteller (Illinois)
How Anansi Got His Big Bottom
Next time you see a spider, take a closer look at its body structure;
after hearing this story, you'll know why it is the way it is.
Sandra Weissinger (New York)
Why Anansi Has a Small Waist
If you've ever felt pulled between two irresistible forces,
you'll relate to this story of how Anansi got reshaped.
Vera Oyé Yaa-Anna (Washington, D.C./Liberia)
Spider at the Weddings
You can't have it all! Even though you think you can...
this spider definitely bites off more than he can chew!
Jackie Baldwin (California)
Anansi and Turtle; Anansi and Tiger; How Anansi Got His Eight Thin Legs;
How Anansi Came to Own All the Stories in the World
The trickster Anansi gets in trouble wherever he goes. In these stories, he
goes head-to-head with Turtle, Tiger, Hornets, Python, Leopard and others.
And he doesn't always win in the end! But sometimes he does...just ask Tiger!
Crystal Trutmann (New York)
The Story of Arachne
Look out if you decide to take on a goddess—especially if her name is Athena.
The contest will be definitely one-sided!
Rick Hall (California)
Ananzi and Turtle's Feast
Turnabout's fair play in this tale of a trickster who gets his comeuppance.
Revenge is sweet...just ask Turtle!
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Guest tellers...
• Mike Lockett, "The Normal Storyteller" (Illinois) — How Anansi Got His Big Bottom
Dr. Michael Lockett is an accomplished storyteller. He travels throughout Illinois and the midwest telling stories to audiences of all ages from pre-school through senior citizens. He is known for his audience participation stories and his use of dialects when telling traditional folktales.
Dr. Lockett is also a motivation speaker and workshop leader for teachers and school administrators, church organizations and community groups. He is a frequent storyteller for schools and libraries. He has given more than 1500 presentations and storytelling sessions nationwide. Dr. Lockett's goal is to bring more stories and storytelling into schools, libraries, churches and homes in order to merge the gap between the tools of teaching and the power and history of storytelling.
Since the dawn of man, humans have communicated and relived history through storytelling. Today this is accomplished on mass scales through television and the world wide web (as you see here). However throughout today's accomplished technology, our culture has lost the power of "the storyteller." Dr. Lockett believes storytelling is a priceless and timeless tool for teaching that needs to be preserved He tells his stories with a joy that is contagious. Audiences love his tales.
Dr. Michael Lockett lives in Normal, Illinois with his wife Rebecca. He is a lifelong educator. He retired in June 2005 following 33 years of working in public education and began working full-time as a storyteller, keynote speaker and educational consultant for Heritage Schoolhouse Press, which produces storytelling materials, including auditory CDs. Soon, Heritage Schoolhouse Press will begin to publish children's books and storytelling books. Lockett's wife, Rebecca, retired as the Principal of Tri-Valley Elementary School in Downs, Illinois at the same time Dr. Lockett stepped down as Principal of Greeley Alternative High School in Peoria, IL. Dr. and Mrs. Lockett have two married sons who have blessed them with three grandchildren. Once son owns Stardot Home Automation The other owns Creative Sites Media. Son, Mark, does the audio engineering and music for Lockett's CDs.
It is with pleasure that Dr. Lockett announces the latest product that he has created, "Tales for the Young at Heart." The new Cd with seventy minutes of stories and songs is being launched during January, 2007. Two other CDs by The Normal Storyteller are "Tales from the Hills" and "Tales from Around the World." You can find them on his website at http://www.mikelockett.com or on Amazon.com and CD Baby.
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Excerpts from telephone interview:
Q. Mike, tell us how you first entered the storytelling world.
A. Oh, I entered the world of storytelling in Sunday school years ago. I had some little old Sunday school teachers. I went to a Swedish Covenant church...and there were two ladies who would tell us stories. Sometimes they'd let their emotions get carried away and they'd have trouble completing some of the Bible stories. So I started telling Bible stories and all kinds of other stories as a child.
Then my parents brought home a series of encyclopedias, thinking that I would start reading encyclopedias, but instead I dove into the storybook collection that went along with those old World Books and started reading the stories from cover to cover. It was the old Richard Chase stories.
I started telling Jack Tales and I grew up with a lot of folks who talked with a southern twang. They all came up to the northern end of Illinois from southern Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee to get jobs and to escape poverty. Before long, I could twang with the best of them and started to pick up other dialects, too.
Q. Did you sound authentic?
A. Well, I tell you what. When I was down south, some of the people down there for the National Storytelling Festival considered me one of the "folks."
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You may read and download Mike's stories at:
http://www.mikelockett.com/stories.php
CDs available:
Tales from the Hills is Dr. Michael Lockett's first storytelling recording and is now available to purchase online! This album includes all of your favorite Jack tales and more! This interactive CD will also help demonstrate how to get your listeners involved in your storytelling. Dr. Lockett is famous for his luring tales that keep his audiences glued to their seats! This CD includes such tales as:
Available from:
http://www.mikelockett.com/merch.php
Tales from Around the World is a collection of ten stories from different areas around the globe as told by Dr. Michael Lockett, "The Normal Storyteller." Each story is told in a dialect that is representative of the area from where the story first was told. Area musicians helped Lockett add rich folk music after each song to add to the fun and beauty of this CD.
Available from:
http://www.mikelockett.com/merch.php
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• Sandra Weissinger (New York) — Why Anansi Has a Small Waist
• Crystal Trutmann (New York) — The Story of Arachne
Both Sandra and Crystal have worked withMartha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss in New York and have become master storytellers. Listen and be thankful that Martha and Mitch are encouraging young people like these two to enter the storytelling world and helping them gain the skills necessary to be successful in this art form.
• Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss (New York) —
Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss work together as tandem storytellers under the name Beauty and the Beast Storytellers.
Who's the Beauty and who's the Beast?
We never tell - You decide!
'Beauty and the Beast' tell stories for all ages, and in settings ranging from elementary school assemblies to theaters, college coffeehouses, and senior citizen centers. They bring to life traditional folktales from around the world, works by contemporary authors, stories from their own experiences, and tales based on historical people and events. Drawing from their large and varied repertoire, they tailor each performance to suit the specific audience. In their performances, Mitch and Martha use gesture, song, mime, and audience participation. Their specialty is tandem storytelling where they combine their contrasting styles, swapping lines and impersonating characters.
Mitch and Martha have traveled as far as Taiwan and Hong Kong to perform and teach others to tell. All of their books have been published in Taiwan because it is such a priority to learn English on the island, and teachers of English have found that storytelling is one of the best ways to get students excited about a new language. "Beauty and the Beast" have also completed numerous tours of European International Schools. Among the places they have told stories are Prague, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Milan, Genoa, Madrid, Moscow, London, and Budapest.
For more information on their performances, go to:
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/performances.html
New Books Just Out and More on the Way!
If we ruled the world, children would be encouraged and given numerous opportunities to tell stories - folktales from various cultures, stories written by their favorite authors, and, of course, their own stories. This would be done formally and informally, to one person and in front of a group, in school and at home. Teaching children to tell stories helps them to find their own voices. It also creates excitement about reading and writing their own stories. When we work in classrooms teaching students to tell, teachers note that students are really excited about reading and telling more tales from our books. They love all kinds of stories - from silly to serious, from pourquoi tales that explain something peculiar about an animal or natural phenomenon to "noodlehead" stories about fools from which children, surprisingly, learn a great deal. But if we had to choose their most beloved genre of stories for telling, it would undoubtedly be scary tales. Stories such as "Tilly," "The Golden Arm," and "On a Dark and Stormy Night" from Stories in My Pocket: Tales Kids Can Tell have always been huge favorites in every classroom where we've taught student tellers.
For a full listing of books and recordings by the Beauty & the Beast Storytellers, go to:
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/whatsnew.html
or
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/booksrecordings.html
Contact:
Beauty & the Beast Storytellers
Mitch Weiss and Martha Hamilton
954 Coddington Road Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: (607) 277-0016 Fax: (607) 277-0968
info@beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/
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• Vera Oyé Yaa-Anna (Washington, D.C./Liberia) — Spider at the Weddings
Known affectionately as "Auntie Oyé," Yaa-Anna is one of Washington's leading storytellers and has also been teaching the art of personal narrative to at-risk Washington-area youth in the tradition of her native Liberia since 1996. This cultural educator and accomplished culinary artist, takes children and adults on "Journeys to Africe" through storytelling food, dance and theatre.
Since 1993, Yaa-Anna has been bringing to life the hopes and despair of her continent to the people of America through an educational cultural enrichment dinner theatre program entitled Palaver Hut. Yaa-Anna magically transforms schools, colleges, churches, special events and other performing venues into West African villages.
She is a master storyteller, who weaves stories about food-ways and background of ethnic groups into a culinary experience, which includes cooking and enjoying "food arts pieces" served and displayed in beautiful, uniquely created environments. The Culinary Griots Workshop emphasizes the significance of culture, eating rituals and the power of food to unit people.
In 2003, Yaa-Anna joined the Artist-in-Residence program at Smith Farm Center for the Healing Arts through which she works at the Washington Cancer Institute and Howard University Hospital with cancer patients during all phases of treatment to inspire them to tell their stories.
She is currently teaching traditional African storytelling, the ancient spiritual and ancesestral rituals of libations, the traditional African "greeting of elders", drumming on the African drum the jembe and dancing her sensuous dance movements to the drum of her Creator and Ancestors "her heart."
Her story Spider at the Weddings is accompanied on authentic African instruments by master musician Mongezi Ntaka.
Contact:
Auntie Oyé
may be contacted at:
oyepalaver11@verizon.net
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• Jackie Baldwin (California)
Jackie has been a storyteller all her life but she got serious about it in the mid-'80s when she began and later graduated from the Dominican University Professional Storytelling Credential Program in San Rafael, created by the wonderful Ruth Stotter.
In the late '90s, Jackie launched the Story-Lovers website and with the generous assistance of tellers all over the world has helped the site grow to be one of the largest on the Internet providing story ideas and sources. Story-Lovers will soon become a podcast, available to anyone in the world 24/7. She also began teaching storytelling and creative writing in the late '90s and is working currently with both adults and children to bring the joy of storytelling into their lives, personally and professionally.
Jackie wrote/directed/produced award-winning educational television programs and series for PBS for 25 years, based out of San Francisco. She recently began concentrating on radio with a weekly, one-hour program Story-Lovers World! on KSVY Sonoma 91.3 FM, in which she welcomes storytellers from around the world to share their ideas and stories through live streaming, which makes the program available to anyone with a computer, no matter where in the world they live. Plans are underway to syndicate this program on international radio.
In 2000, Jackie began publishing the thematic Bare Bones books, which reduce stories to their "bare bones" and include stories from the last 100 years. Nine books comprise this series so far, with more to come, and many of the the stories are contributed by international tellers. A published author, her latest book, An Enchanted Garden of Seeds and Stories, includes eight world folktales involving plants and eight packets of seeds to go with the stories. It is available on amazon.com or http://www.story-lovers.com .
A board member of the Storytelling Association of Alta, California (S.A.A.C.) and the Bay Area Independent Publishers Assn. (BAIPA), Jackie was awarded the National Storytelling Network's prestigious 2006 ORACLE Award for Distinguished National Service.
She produces San Francisco Bay Area regional events called Teller-to-Teller, which are designed to provide behind-the-scenes, professional information, advice and sharing about the field to all storytellers, from beginning to advanced.
Contact Jackie at:
jackie@story-lovers.com
http://www.story-lovers.com
707-996-1996
P.O. Box 446
Sonoma, CA 95476
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• Rick Hall (California) — Anansi and Turtle's Feast
Rich performs onstage and on television in such shows as Curb Your Enthusiasm and 24. Rick's film appearances include Three Fugitives and the Hallmark film Audrey's Rain. Rick's story, Anansi and Turtle's Feast, is included in a CD written by Amy Friedman, with music by Laura Hall, and titled Tell Me a Story.
• Amy Friedman (California)
Biographical information on Amy Friedman
Tell Me a Story writer and co-producer Amy Friedman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Barnard College and received an MA in Creative Writing from City College, New York, having had the great good fortune of studying with Donald Barthelme and Manuel Puig.
Amy worked in film production in New York and LA before moving to a sheep farm outside Kingston, Ontario where, for eight years, she wrote a weekly newspaper column, "Hard Lines," in addition to serving as "The Bedtime Story" writer and editor for The Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada’s oldest daily newspaper. Her memoirs, Kick the Dog and Shoot the Cat, and Nothing Sacred: a Conversation with Feminism were published by Oberon Press in Canada. In addition Amy writes fiction and personal essays and has won several writing awards and published stories and articles in magazines, newspapers and journals across the US and Canada.
Amy also is a longtime teacher. She currently teaches writing the personal essay and creative nonfiction at UCLA Extension and The Memoir at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After writing for and performing at several spoken word venues, Amy designed and teaches a course on how to write and perform spoken word. More about Amy’s From Page to Stage can be found at http://www.frompagetostage.com
Amy lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the writer Dennis Danziger.
•••••
An interview with Amy at:
http://www.bookpleasures.com/
•••••
Tell Me A Story — CD
Winner of a 2006 Parents' Choice Silver Honors Award and NAPPA 2006 Gold Medal, not your standard schmaltzy kids' stuff. These are classic multicultural tales accompanied by music ranging from jazz to classical and read by hard-hitting talent.
Amy Friedman (author) and Laura Hall (music)
Buy at:
http://www.mythsandtales.com/
http://cdbaby.com/cd/friedmanhall
Tell Me a Story
by Amy Friedman
From Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review
A wide range of listeners of all ages will relish TELL ME A STORY: TIMELESS FOLKTALES FROM AROUND THE WORLD, read by eight talented actors and covering tales from Africa to Scotland. From an African Anansi story ANANSI AND THE TURTLE'S FEAST to the frightening THE BOATMAN'S HOWLING DAUGHTER, over seventy minutes of vivid description pack a fine gathering which will be a ‘must' for folktale collections for any age group.
Diane Donovan, Editor & Sr. Reviewer
Bookwatch/California Bookwatch
•••••
Contact Amy at:
kellsmom@ca.rr.com
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(Page created 1/25/07)
