Storytelling Conference
This weekend is Sharing the Fire, the LANES Storytelling Conference; I will only make it to the first half of Saturday (today) due to holiday conflicts. But it was a lovely day. In some ways, the best yet, in terms of excellence of workshops.
The keynote was excellent; Jay O'Callahan was the speaker this morning. I resist summarizing, because summarizing an hour long story-filled keynote tends to feel vaguely blasphemous. Of course, lack of summaries leave you with no information, and make me wonder why I'm updating at all. As long as I'm telling you things you have little to no context for, Jim May, the keynote at my very first Sharing the Fire, is still my favorite keynote of all. He was also the first person I ever heard talk seriously about storytelling*, so this may not be objective.
*Storytellers who speak seriously about stories are very different from literature professors who speak seriously about stories. Both can be wonderful, but storytellers pay more attention to performance, pacing, and use of metaphor.
I went to all the workshops on using stories in mental health work. For some reason, I enjoyed these workshops more fully than I tend to enjoy the performance-based or story-creation based workshops. (Many of the story creation workshops seem to be focused on personal stories, and I don't really like writing pure personal stories. I like fiction.) But the workshops were both excellent. The presentations were clear, and I came away with (a) an understanding of the material and (b) a sense of how to begin to apply the material. Among other things, I now know much more about Celtic mythology, on any number of layers, than I did this morning. I can also pronounce Samhain properly now. Oops.
Of course, half the fun of Sharing the Fire is the loot. I like loot. I am now the proud owner of a Jay O'Callahan CD (Gouda!, a 2CD wild mystery adventure!); Elisa Davy Pearmain's extensive and detailed workbook, entitled Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Touch Character and Prevent Bullying; a used copy of Historical Walks in Cambridge; and one bid on a signed copy of Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, which I fully expect to win. *crosses fingers*
And now I need to go to bed, because I'm up at 7:30 am -- again -- tomorrow.
The keynote was excellent; Jay O'Callahan was the speaker this morning. I resist summarizing, because summarizing an hour long story-filled keynote tends to feel vaguely blasphemous. Of course, lack of summaries leave you with no information, and make me wonder why I'm updating at all. As long as I'm telling you things you have little to no context for, Jim May, the keynote at my very first Sharing the Fire, is still my favorite keynote of all. He was also the first person I ever heard talk seriously about storytelling*, so this may not be objective.
*Storytellers who speak seriously about stories are very different from literature professors who speak seriously about stories. Both can be wonderful, but storytellers pay more attention to performance, pacing, and use of metaphor.
I went to all the workshops on using stories in mental health work. For some reason, I enjoyed these workshops more fully than I tend to enjoy the performance-based or story-creation based workshops. (Many of the story creation workshops seem to be focused on personal stories, and I don't really like writing pure personal stories. I like fiction.) But the workshops were both excellent. The presentations were clear, and I came away with (a) an understanding of the material and (b) a sense of how to begin to apply the material. Among other things, I now know much more about Celtic mythology, on any number of layers, than I did this morning. I can also pronounce Samhain properly now. Oops.
Of course, half the fun of Sharing the Fire is the loot. I like loot. I am now the proud owner of a Jay O'Callahan CD (Gouda!, a 2CD wild mystery adventure!); Elisa Davy Pearmain's extensive and detailed workbook, entitled Once Upon A Time: Storytelling to Touch Character and Prevent Bullying; a used copy of Historical Walks in Cambridge; and one bid on a signed copy of Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, which I fully expect to win. *crosses fingers*
And now I need to go to bed, because I'm up at 7:30 am -- again -- tomorrow.