Storytelling Radio Program
KSVY-FM 91.3, Sonoma, CA
http://www.ksvy.org/home.htm
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 radio station 91.3 FM
PROGRAM 21:
Feb. 11 , 2007 - Love Stories
Ah, Love!
Today's stories are about that wonderful, fascinating thing we call Love.
Love stories are always delightful to listen to and especially at this time of year.
But love comes in many guises and sometimes we’re not even aware that
love is playing a role in the stories when we listen to them. So
today’s stories are about all those different kinds of love.
Featured storytellers:
Olive Hackett-Shaughnessy (California)
The Seven Ravens
Granny Sue (West Virginia)
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship; Pretty Saro
Erica Lann-Clark (California)
The Tale of Baram Gore
Kate Frankel (California)
The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy; Gudbrand on the Hillside
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Guest tellers...
• Olive Hackett-Shaughnessy (California) — The Seven Ravens
Olive Hackett-Shaughnessy is a storyteller, curriculum consultant and writer in San Francisco, where she has been an artist-in residence in public and private schools for twenty years.
Whether in a one-hour assembly or a long-term residency, storytelling is whole language learning brought to life. A school wide storytelling program is a process rather than a package. Because each school is like a little city, and each class a unique neighborhood, the skill levels, curricula needs and goals differ. After consultation with teachers, classroom programs can be shaped into thematic units that become connective links to geography, social studies, ecology, ethics and values,creative writing,literacy education,English as A Second Language,or theater arts. Storytelling can easily be the oral language component for an established lesson plan.
The oral tradition is our "first literature" world-wide. Both empathy and understanding are encouraged when students join together to hear stories of wonder and wisdom from a multitude of cultures.
Read more...
http://www.olivestoryteller.com/here_comes.html
Still more about Olive:
http://www.olivestoryteller.com/about.html
CD available:
Imagine Your Way Home With Olive
“Imagine you way home with OLIVE” includes the following stories;
The Queen Bee, Mother Holle, and The Seven Ravens, all from The Brothers’ Grimm.
Teeny Tiny and the Witch Woman. A Turkish Folk Tale collected and written by Barbara K. Walker. All rights reserved. Pantheon Books: 1975
A Bed Just So. Retold by Jeanne B. Hardendorff. All rights reserved. Four Winds Press: 1975
Olive’s comments.
The written text of the first three stories can be found in large collections of The Grimm Fairy Tales and each one has been rewritten in many versions that can be found in the children’s picture book section of public libraries.
My retellings have been shaped by lively interaction with audiences of all ages. The main characters are as familiar to me as good friends for whom I have a deep affection. As with any story that has lasted for generations these will be understood differently through the age and experience of each listener.
Barbara K. Walker first heard Teeny Tiny and The Witch Woman in 1967 while she was in Turkey. The teller was a 94 year old grandmother who swore she had heard it from her grandmother. Ms. Walker had the story translated into English and then “let it cook” as stories do until she wrote her version in 1975. With her enthusiastic permission I also “let it cook” for my own retelling. This story can be pretty scary to little children who are both relieved and proud when Teeny Tiny’s wits and courage save the family. Ms. Walker has 38 published works and is a good resourse for Turkish Folk Tales.
The origin of A Bed Just So remains a mystery to me. Ms. Hardendorff’s son Eric said his mother spent a tremendous amount of time in The Library of Congress finding obscure stories which she brought back to life as a librarian and storyteller. Both humorous and a lullaby in spoken word, this story is delightfully smart. Out of print as it is, I am so happy to have the permission to bring this little story to new audiences.
Notes on copyright. The three stories from The Brothers Grimm are in the public domain. If my interpretations remind another storyteller of the riches in these tales, I hope you will pass them on to other audiences with your own unique voices.
However, rights for use of Teeny Tiny and the Witch Woman and A Bed Just So are not mine to share. Copyright permission remains with Ms. Walker and the estate of Jeanne B. Hardendorff.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/olive
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What others say about Olive:
Olive’s stories entranced me. Her resonant voice and stunning images animate plots full of life questions and exotic circumstance. The pleasant feeling of being in a world that is both familiar and richly challenging lingers like the memory of a great feast."
Rick Foster, co-author
How We Choose to be Happy
First of all...another GREAT session. The kids will be missing you every Monday. The moment you left, I put on the CD and have not been able to take it out. They have listened to the stories over and over and LOVE listening to you tell them....When it is on, the kids become very quiet and lots of work gets done. It is amazing.
Kristi Martin
Teacher. Second Grade
Meadows Elementary School
Millbrae, CA
As soon as Olive began a story, the inevitable fidgeting of eight and nine-year-olds would come to a halt, and they calmly and attentively took in and experienced these wonderful stories. Next, Olive was able to weave into her performances and subsequent discussions the themes and ideas which we had been grappling with as a class, such as: What are characters; setting, and good endings? What is the difference between a fairy tale and a folk tale? Finally, Olive facilitated an experience for the students and for me which empowered us as storytellers ourselves. In their evaluations of my class, my students said that one week with Olive was their favorite in the quarter.
Karen Heath
Language Arts Teacher
Barre, Vermont
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Articles by Olive:
1) A Fairy Tale Journey Through Critical Care
http://www.healingstory.org/articles/news_spring_7/olive.html
Also: http://www.olivestoryteller.com/articles.html
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Contact:
Olive Hackett-Shaughnessy
OHStory@aol.com
http://www.olivestoryteller.com/index.html
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• Granny Sue (West Virginia) — Captain Wedderburn's Courtship; Pretty Saro
Granny Sue is a storyteller from Jackson County, West Virginia. She is the mother of five sons, granny of twelve, and is herself one of thirteen children. She is a founding member of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild, and member of the Storytell Internet listserve, as well as its creator. Granny Sue is also a librarian in Kanawha County, WV.
She believes that storytelling can add a unique dimension to events. Stories bridge age differences, uniting audiences in a common experience of shared joy and delight. In a world of speed and technology, the ancient art form of storytelling opens minds to other times, other worlds and other people.
Granny Sue performs and presents workshops at events from Idaho to Virginia. She is versatile and in demand for both child and adult audiences. Her participatory style allows audiences of all ages to join in the storytelling fun. She often presents stories with puppets, and frequently includes songs and ballads as part of her presentation. West Virginia history, Appalachian traditional tales and ghost stories are strong components of her repertoire.
Interview with Granny Sue (aka Susanna Holstein):
How did you discover storytelling?
My family has always told stories. We did not have television on a regular basis until I was in my teens, and by then it was not important to our daily lives. We talked, and we told those "remember when" stories. At dinner, we all shared what happened that day. Dad had the rules, of course: Children should be seen and not heard" and "children should not speak until spoken to." Well, there were 13children, so it could be chaos without rules!
But after dinner, as we sat around the table, it was storytelling time. He'd tell stories about when he and Mom met in England during WWII, about his childhood in New Orleans, all sort of things. We'd tell about our day, and anything else that came to mind.
In summer, we had cookouts and picnics. We'd tell stories around the fire--not folktales, but family stories. It was part of our life, storytelling was. We continue to do the same thing today---the television is rarely on when we visit each other. Instead, we talk, tell stories and remember when.
When and how did you decide to become a storyteller?
When I became a librarian at age 42, teachers would ask me to come tell stories to their classes. I told them I could read to the kids, but not tell stories. I finally began to learn a few in self-defense! And loved it. I've been telling ever since, but only in the last 11 years have I considered myself a storyteller.
What were your first experiences like as a storyteller?
Wonderful! I told in a safe setting, at library storytimes. So I controlled the time, the space, and in a way, the audience. Later, as I ventured outside the library, there were some gigs I'd prefer to forget! But it's all grist for the mill, and I learned from those mistakes. It helped when I finally had a story bag big enough to be able to substitute stories when my plans were obviously wrong for a particular audience.
What obstacles have you encountered in your career as a storyteller? Has it been a rocky road?
Very few obstacles. Distance and isolation have been the biggest, I suppose, because for a long time there was no other teller nearby that I could communicate with easily. That's changed a little, now there are 2 or 3 within an hour's drive, and of course with email and the one-rate long distance plans, it's easier than ever.
I travel to conferences to get my fix and to get together with the members of the Storytell listserve. That group has been my online storytelling class!
My full-time job, of course, presents challenges. I struggle to keep the job and storytelling from conflicting with each other. If I had my druthers, I'd be storytelling full-time. But my library job (I'm Branch Services Manager for the library system) provides retirement and health benefits, and I'm the breadwinner in those areas for my family. So I need the job, but storytelling, and writing stories and poems, are my real loves.
What thrills you most when you are telling?
The audience's eyes and face. Watching them "get it." There is no substitute. And after a telling, when they come up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed the stories and share their own stories with me. It's humbling, you know, to realize you can have that impact on people. And a responsibility--I have to be very honest with them, or the trust they place in me is violated.
Any particular "telling" moments stand out in your memory?
Many, many--the little boy that the teachers had never heard laugh (he was handicapped) who laughed and laughed at Lazy Jack. They didn't know he could understand at that level of listening. The family from Maryland who talked to my husband and I for over an hour after a performance in a park shelter (no electricity, just us, the fire and the woods) about their love of stories and their West Virginia roots, the many people who have shared their own ghost stories and encounters with me. The kids who run up to tell me "you told me that story!" The adults who do the same. It's so rewarding, and makes me realize how valuable storytelling is.
Have any endearing comments come from the kids you've worked with?
Oh yes. I was visiting a school I'd been to before. I commented on how much the children had grown. A little boy said, "Not me. I didn't grow at all this year." I told him, "That's okay, I haven't grown since I was fourteen, except to get fatter." He said, "that's okay. My mommy said that when women have children, it just happens to them. They get fatter and there's not a thing they can do about it." I loved that kid!
Another one saw me in a hall at school and shouted "Granny sue rocks! You're my favorite storyteller!" Which made me glad to think he knew more than one! He gave me a fuzzy brown toy that I named Quinton after him.
What was your funniest experience as a teller?
Probably the one above. Or maybe it was changing clothes in my car. I have a Nissan Sentra, and my husband was driving. We were behind schedule, so I decided to change in the car. I had to open the windows and stick my leg out to get my clothes changed, and managed to get stuck somehow climbing over the seats. We won't talk about the seatbelt I didn't have on at the time! Never tried that again.
If you were doing it over again, would you change anything?
Yes, I wish I'd discovered storytelling earlier and had started telling stories sooner. I remember when the National Storytelling Festival started. I wanted to go every year, but couldn't afford to, and I was unsure of what to expect. What a dummy!
What advice would you give beginning storytellers?
Do it! Just find an audience, and do it. Learn a story and tell it. Find a storyteller or join Storytell and start talking to other tellers. You'll never have as much fun in your life.
What are the biggest problems in the storytelling world?
Copyright, ethics, and lack of standards. I see storytelling as oral tradition--if I copyright a story, it will die because no one can tell it. I respect the stories others have copyrighted, but if someone likes one of mine enough to want to tell it--that's what oral tradition is. I'd like to be asked first, but that's not as important to me as the story being told.
Ethics---that's respecting where you find a story and how you tell it--and a lot more that basically comes down to respect.
Standards--every profession, if it wants to be considered as such, needs standards. This is an ongoing debate in the storytelling world. I am on the side of some professional ethics and professional standards. How to develop them? That's the question.
More from Granny Sue...
I recently started a blog. I'm finding my way with it, but it has my performance schedule, thoughts, links, book recommendations etc. It's at
http://www,grannysu.blogspot.com
If anyone is interested in my newsletter, I'd be happy to add them to the mailing list. I publish it quarterly. I usually include stories, poems, booklists, reviews, and so on.
Just email me at
susannaholstein@yahoo.com
Publications include:
CD, Mountain Story, Mountain Song featuring stories, songs and ballads of the Appalachian region.
(Granny Sue's stories heard today are found on this CD.)
Four chapbooks:
"Granny’s Ghost Stories" with original, historic and personal ghost stories;
"Tell It Together," a collection of participation stories with notes for telling;
"Homeplace," a collection of poems and photos.
"Natural Views," a second poetry and story collection.
"Zinnia Tales," an anthology of strong Appalachian women stories contains two of Granny Sue’s stories.
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For more information, contact Granny Sue at:
Granny Sue
Stories from the Mountains and Beyond
R2 Box 110
Sandyville WV 25275
toll-free telephone: 1- 866- 643-1353
susannaholstein@yahoo.com
http://members.tripod.com/storytellerwv/id10.html
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• Erica Lann-Clark (California) — The Tale of Baram Gore
Erica grew up listening. In a Brooklyn apartment, the tiny yellow kitchen brimmed with laughter and tears as her immigrant mama and papa spun tales to bring their history alive. For Erica's family, everything that happened was good starter dough for future stories. These kitchen tales inspired in Erica a passion for the healing power of story.
In her twenties, Erica worked in New York's off-Broadway, trained at the HB Studio and studied playwriting under Edward Albee. One of her plays won a prestigious prize. Then along came a divorce and economics silenced art for twenty years. Erica raised a family, supporting them as a teacher and an alternative healer.
Her children grown and gone, Erica threw caution to the winds. She became a storyteller. In the sixteen years since then, she has entertained audiences across the country and in Canada, Thailand, Singapore, and Hawaii. She's been a featured teller at many storytelling festivals, including Timpanogos Festival, Bay Area Storytelling Festival, Sierra Festival, and the Exchange Place at the 2006 national Storytelling Festival.
As as Artist in the Schools, Erica has performed for thousands of children and taught them to tell their stories. As a scholar in residence, she has worked with congregations of many faiths, leading workshops and telling tales of compassion in action and respect for diversity. Erica is the Associate Director of Storytelling for Stagebridge, a senior theater company based in Oakland, where she teaches and coaches seniors in storytelling. She hosts a storytelling radio show on KKUP Cupertino, 91.5 FM. Her work has been published in anthologies of prose and poetry. Her plays have been produced in New York, Ashland, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Erica's way of telling brings her audiences into the immediacy of storytelling where the teller disappears from view as the story takes hold. In her work, she blends traditional folklore and original stories, spicing her tales with an instinct for rembunctious humor and an ear for authrntic voices. She loves to work at the crossroad where story meets theater.
For the past three years Erica has been working on a major storytelling piece, SHOPPING FOR GOD, and is now "telling" that story in performance at The Marsh Berkeley Theater, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. One of her dreams as a storyteller has been to bring storytelling and theater together. For the past seven years, she has explored a number of ways of doing this. SHOPPING FOR GOD grew out of those explorations.
More information about Erica at:
http://www.ericalannclark.com/
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What others say about Erica:
Librarians say:
"At our branch, it is hard to attract boys to a storytelling program, much less keep them there. What I noticed was the number of boys in the audience who were giggling their heads off during the entire performance. You have a true gift of rapport with an audience and your modernized stories kept them enraptured."
–S. Jones, Pleasanton Pt., CA
Teachers say:
"My students, even the ones who lose attention the easiest, were glued to you. You are a totally unique and vibrant person. Your sense of humor is delightful and the stories' themes are so valuable today."
–J. Hickok, Hyde School, Watsonville
Audiences say:
"I found a piece of myself I had long forgotten. I feel renewed!"
–R. Bristol, Calvillo College
"Scandalously funny woman!"
–S. Ford, Artistic Director, Strawberry Storytelling Festival
"You made my imagination go bonkers!"
–Nicole, 4th Grade
Interview with Erica:
How did you discover storytelling?
1987. I took a "little class" at Cabrillo Community College in Storytelling taught by Ed Sundberg, one of the people instrumental in bringing about the California renaissance of storytelling, and a delightful Danish poet. I took the class because I was stressed out and needed to do something just for fun.
When, why and how did you decide to become a storyteller?
When I told my first story in Ed's class, I had the experience of the transmission -- you know, Shaktipat! I'd been searching for that moment of enlightenment in all kinds of spiritual paths, but it came to me in the path I'd followed in my youth -- the path of telling and acting out stories!
What were your first experiences like as a storyteller?
Amazing, thrilling, mysterious, terrifying, exhilarating, embarrassing, depressing -- in other words, the usual array of human experiences.
Has it been a rocky road?
It's been a delightful and challenging road.
What thrills you most when you are telling?
Those moments when the audience and I really fly together, both of us deeply in the story, both of us co-creating the story, both of us sharing the images and the feelings and the characters.
Have any endearing comments come from the kids you've worked with?
My favorite: "You made my imagination go bonkers!" from Nicole in 5th grade.
And from a second grader, "Thank you for your sory." ( I love that mis spelling.)
And from another child, "I want to be like you when I grow up. I want to tell stories."
If you were doing it over again, would you change anything?
Probably.
What advice would you give beginning storytellers?
Do what you love and love what you do.
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What Erica has to say about A Tale of Baram Gore:
A Tale of Baram Gore comes from a large cycle of Persian stories about this ancient king. I first encountered the story when I heard Ashley Ramsden tell it. Upon my request, he sent me his version of the tale and gave me permission to tell it, for which I am very grateful. The story is on my CD, THE GOATS KNOW THE WAY, Stories from Lore, Stories from Life, which was recorded in concert in 1995. I am in the throes of making a second CD and hopefully it will be out in a couple of months. It's a collection of ghostly tales of love.
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Contact:
Erica Lann-Clark
132 Alturas Way Soquel, CA 95073
(831) 479-1874
lanntell at cruzio.com
http://www.ericalannclark.com
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• Kate Frankel (California) — The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy; Gudbrand on the Hillside
Kate created and for many years published Storyline, which is now the newsletter of the Storytelling Association of Alta California. However, Storyline predates SAAC. In its infancy, Storyline was the primary way storytellers kept up on what was happening in the local storytelling community. Kate was instrumental in providing a valuable connection for those who needed a local connection to the storytelling community. Kate is currently involved in an effort to create a statewide storytelling organization in California.
Kate was born in the Year of the Tiger. She spent near 20 years taming the wild life -- the students - with her stories .. as a librarian in Berkeley elementary school libraries, and then nearly another 20 spreading her stories and writing about stories, more widely for audiences of all ages.
Kate has been storytelling all her life, but only recently, working to recreate her gradual awareness of the social problems that led to the Civil Rights movement, has she discovered the exciting possibilities of personal stories. She grew up in San Francisco in the 30s, in a white community with no awareness of blacks, w/discrimination against "foreigners"--(Chinese, etc.) She'll share with you her Learning Curve, from a San Francisco childhood with no awareness of discrimination, to working in Harlem, experience in the South, and back to Berkeley in the 50's before Berkeley was ... "Berkeley."
Interview with Kate:
How did you discover storytelling?
Library school class by Mae Durham.
When, why and how did you decide to become a storyteller?
Tried to talk people at San Leandro Public Library -- my first library job -- into a regular story hour, but no interest. So.. told stories as soon as I became a school librarian -- captive audience. Even told them in a junior high school. And then more and more in elementary school. Twelve classes a week provide great ways to polish stories.
What were your first experiences like as a storyteller?
Varied. I had a regular following from the beginning, and crowds at Halloween. My principal allowed low lights and pumpkins and skulls with candles inside -- very spooky.
What obstacles have you encountered in your career as a storyteller? Has it been a rocky road?
After retirement it was sometimes hard to convince teachers of what stories could accomplish.
And always -- setting up venues -- often hard to find a suitable affordable place.
What thrills you most when you are telling?
The connection with the audience.. when it's good it's like live electricity between the teller and the listener.
Any particular "telling" moments stand out in your memory?
Amazing attention in an engrossed High School class ..
Have any endearing comments come from the kids you've worked with?
Well, like the time my co-teller couldn't show, so I asked the kids for requests from past storytelling hours. A number wanted "The Tinder Box" -- a long literary tale I hadn't told for months. But ok -- they loved it. And after it was all over, one of my most ardent fans said, "Oh, I just love that story, and I remember when you knew it."
If you were doing it over again, would you change anything?
I seldom look back. If you could change the past, you'd have to give up something -- I just feel that what happens, happens -- and try to find the good in it.
What advice would you give beginning storytellers?
Listen to lots of different storytellers. And explore and read from the folklore section of the library.
What are the biggest problems in the storytelling world?
Public addiction to electronic entertainment.
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Contact:
katefrankel@earthlink.net
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(Page created 2/6/07; updated 2/8/07)
