Where do Fish Stories Come From?

         Where do fish stories come from? How do we find the vehicle to tell a story and make it compelling for the listening experience.  I am a performance storyteller for all ages, my current project is for a curriculum guided school based program. Whose voice should the story represent and what message do I need to focus on? Will children grasp the complexities and what new vocabulary will be introduced and  explained via the storyline. Do I have adequate research on my topic to tell the story?

          I was inspired by Mark Kurlansky's book Cod to delve further into the world and history of fishing and fishermen. Then an opportunity presented itself to construct a story for performance to  third grade children around the  topics of  Wildlife, Water, People and more specifically immigration and the ecology of the sea. Cod would be the perfect vehicle to  help tell this story. At the outset I was not even aware of the children's version of this book and was so excited to find it! Here is a look at that version from Amazon http://amzn.to/Q4xdcL 

        That was just the beginning, a story is a complex intertwining of facts from multiple sources. Cod gave me my background knowledge. Then I needed characters, I found mine on the list of passengers on the Mayflower voyage to the New World in 1620. Here I researched the children of the Ancient Time as it was called and selected two. The characters themselves required more research as they are historical not fiction. My characters are Remember Allerton and Richard More, each have left a long lineage and a place in the history of the founding of our nation.

My next question to answer was, What does Cod fishing look like? How do you fish for Cod in the old ways and the new?

      I journeyed into the realm of salt water fishing and the life and habits of Cod. Here is where You-Tube came in handy to give me some visual reference. Here is a link to a story about the decline of Cod populations. http://youtu.be/cLE56imBjJs  This next link is a moving video full of the visuals I needed to be able to tell my story with an accuracy and  true representation. http://youtu.be/Git-48_CPww  From you-tube it as a long read in several nautical history books and a visit to  Mystic Seaport http://www.mysticseaport.org/  and the Essex Shipbuilding Museum  http://www.essexshipbuildingmuseum.org/  . I got to know the Cod itself by drawing and painting them so I would remember their distinctive fins and chin barb.

Cod Watercolor on textured paper by Carolyn  Stearns '14

      This is heavy material and  my focus audience for the premier of this story is third grade. I need a way to take the  depth of history and content and make it memorable and fun to hear and retain. I have added music to the story, interspersed to introduce new sections of the story and as a culminating piece to  spark conversation about the ecological and financial damage done to the Cod legacy by over fishing the waters. The music I chose for this is an old sea chantey "Cape Cod Girls", hear a version at this link; http://youtu.be/VQ_rFz9djz4  As with all chantey music there are many versions and arrangements so I took the liberty of adapting this song to fit the story a bit more and have our sailors/ fishermen bound for a "New World". The music to close this piece is one verse of a sea ballad called " Peter's River"  by Mary Garvey (c) 1995 and used with  her permission. The sheet music and lyrics are available here: http://www.timberheadmusic.com/disc/boatspetersriver.htm      I heard this song  a few years ago and it haunted my mind but in a weekend filled with music I could not remember the melody. Then in June 2012 I shared the stage at Mystic Sea Music Festival with Mary Garvey, it was from that meeting that I learned the song that has become one I hum often when working.

      Spring of 2014 this story will debut and be added to my regular repertoire of stories to tell. The story has such depth I will be able to offer an adult version with more content as well.

My review in 2013 of the book Cod is here: http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/09/rape-of-sea-book-review-cod.html

Interested in booking this story and other sea tales? www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com
    
     

 

Snow Day...Again

      Another Connecticut snow day has me locked away in my home office. I had work to get done, but since I was up early my long day included some arts. 

       I had a fun time exploring the new set of watercolors, they are fancy, in little aluminum tubes. I painted  this Cod, that must seem to be a funny art subject but I am working on some stories for a storytelling performance, Cod fishing and immigration are the core of my research.

       On the subject of Cod I highly recommend the book by that title, written by Mark Kurlansky. Here is a link to my review of the book in an earlier post. http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/09/rape-of-sea-book-review-cod.html
 

      I stirred a big pot of chili and watched the snow assault the windows, my mind wandered. I grabbed my pad and penned the thoughts of snow, nothing fancy just a bit poetic, a rare journey for my mind.
 

 

Here is a piece of my writing from today

 

Singing

 

I hear you singing

Soft and distant

 

I hear you singing

a whispered tune

 

I hear you singing

 voice now bold

 

I hear you singing

crescendo to forte

 

I hear you singing

a herald to multitudes

 

I hear you singing

 lament to freedom

 

I hear you singing

Wrap me in your cloak of white

 

I hear you singing

all day and all night

 

I hear you singing

a song of centuries

 

I hear you

old friend and enemy

 

I hear you sing

Nor'easter

 

 

 

  

Another snow post you might enjoy or find useful if it keeps snowing! : http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2014/01/8-things-to-do-when-it-is-wicked-cold.html

Here is a post about singing:
 http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2013/06/singing-chesapeake.html

Rape of the Sea - Book Review "Cod"

Cod  

by Mark Kurlansky

A Cod fish, seems innocent enough, yet has created international fighting, gunshots,  territorial wars and innovations that have indeed raped the sea.


 This book is a incredible cross curriculum look at what on the surface is simple, in reality
is a complex issue stemming from centuries old fishing practices to politics of today. The pre 20th century fisherman of the Grand Banks and Georges Banks,could never have imagined the calamity
 that over fishing would create. Their system of hooks and lines,fisherman in a dory boat, was a slow and tedious task I first learned of from "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling. The new system, so efficient it stripped the sea and population of a simple fish that fed the world.

Bottom draggers became the economical way for fisherman to take a great haul of fish. So great a haul that few remain of a species. Disbelief that the Cod and a way of life was disappearing the fisherman continued to fight over the fishing grounds that lay off shore their native lands. The fish are so depleted, I feel a sense of guilt when seeing Cod listed on a menu, or offered in the market fish case.

Mark Kurlansky has  researched and gathered the history of Cod fishing into a very readable book. It's pages filled with the everyday lives of fisherman and  a timeline of world history as it relates to Cod. Kings and Queens, revolutionaries and enterprising men of the sea, all took part in the story of the Cod's demise.

A favorite quote ( there are many from history in the book) from the book Cod by Mark Kurlansky:

"Salt fish were stacked on the wharves, looking like corded wood, Maple and Yellow Birch with the bark left on. I mistook them for this at first, in one sense they were, - fuel to maintain our vital fires - an Eastern wood which grew on the Grand Banks."
                                                     Henry David Thoreau  Cape Cod 1851

Yes, Cape Cod, all of a sudden the name makes such sense, for her shores were lined with the fisheries, and her cities built on the sales of Cod. So innate to life on the Cape was Cod  that the sea chantey singers  had a tune about it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUf56i5EfBkme


Let me add these few words Mark Kurlansky quoted in the book to entice you to buy and read:

"The Codfish lays a thousand eggs
The homely hen lays one.
The Codfish never cackles
To tell you that she's done.
And so we scorn the Codfish
While the humble hen we prize
Which only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise.
                                        anonymous American rhyme

Mark Kurlansky has written a great book. I was so impressed with it I just had to share everyone.

Looking to buy or download Cod? Go here: http://amzn.to/Q5OYm3