Storytellers Road Trip

Wed. June 27, 2012 3 p.m. the phone rings. The call from my friend Norah Dooley, storyteller from Cambridge, Ma. "I have an outrageous proposal, want to hear?"

Of course I do, because Norah thinks like me. Her mind is in constant motion, and she puts herself  100% into what she is doing. If Norah has an outrageous idea, it's a good one!! The problem is I'm at work, "give it to me in a nut shell I have to get back to work." Little did I know where that would lead.

  Less than 24 hours later we are climbing into a car for an adventurous drive to the National Storytelling Conference in  Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, KY.  The drive across Connecticut rolls by quickly as we catch up with each others family and story news. New York rolls out clear and welcoming and darkness falls as we enter Pennsylvania. Fireworks on the horizon welcome us  and with smiles we drive on. Then the rain comes, then winds, hail, thunder and lightening, it's a weather war. We dodge trailer trucks and storm and drive out of the storm and through the night. Next morning I pull in to the National Storytelling Conference. I am still powered by my road trip energizer of a Butterfinger candy bar and Coke, and find a welcome cup of coffee!  It's Storytelling time!

If you attend a storytelling conference or festival it is like going to a well for water and drawing a bucket up inch by inch and that refreshed  satisfaction of the first long sip. Friends old and new, incredible performances, and ideas bubbling up like a fountain from all the stimulation.

The Oracle Award for Massmouth www.massmouth.org is the reason behind the  trip to the National Storytelling Conference Norah has come to accept the Oracle on behalf of Massmouth and Andrea Lovett her co-winner. The award presented by the National  Storytelling Network www.storynet.org

The two  days we had to partake of the festival flew by. We listened and told, networked and renewed old connections. We reveled  in Kevin Kling's keynote speech. http://www.kevinkling.com/  The music of Gamble Rogers flowed and his unique dictionary like storytelling flowed in his memory. It was a special weekend!

With final Free Hugs (http://www.storynet.org/conference/workshops.html  thanks Kristin Pedemonti  )  we were off to do the road trip back to CT.

 A goodbye view in pics

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig and sleep!

Storytelling a Team Sport

Red Sox or Yankees? Uconn or U. Tenn? Does it matter? Mass Mouth ( http://www.massmouth.ning.com/ ) or the Moth ( http://www.themoth.org/ ) no not in storytelling or really in sports. We can choose who we follow and root for, we just need to pick our game and be enthused. Put on your Storyteller t-shirt and become a fan of original entertainment. Let your friends know who you follow. Check out their webpages and make storytelling a prominent place in your life. Who's on your homepage? do storytellers rank their own column in your " Favorites", are we complaining that no one cares or listens but not doing our piece about cheering on the team?

Team Storyteller will be having lots of events through the rest of the year and I plan to support the whole team by promoting these venues and the people who bring their stories to homeplate batting for a homerun!

Here is one for the team and it looks like its going over the wall.....SPEAK UP! Spoken Word Open MikeEvery Wednesday 7 PM. Tatiana's Restaurant70 Market StreetLynn, MA 01901781-477-0700http://www.tatianasrestaurant.net%c2%a0/ ciao,Tony Toledo, SPEAK UP! hostJim's Big Ego Fan Club President, MA Division.PO Box 302Beverly MA 01915ToledoGoat@aol.com978-921-GOAT(4628)http://www.tonytoledo.com/

Next up at bat is Andrea Lovett and she swings and....The All Star Slam - Monday MAY 24th - 6:30 to 8:00PM in the Lecture Hall in the beautiful new Cambridge Public Library (Main Branch),cosponsored by StoryStream, Cambridge, a concert featuring 12 storytellers, each of whom will tell a 5-minute personal story; one of these tellers will win the chance to be the massmouth representative at the National Story Slam!!!
Windy City National Story Slam in Chicago - JUNE 13th, 2010, Sunday afternoon at Printers Row
For more information, check out - http://www.windycitystoryslam.com/wordpress/

With hitting power like that we can expect great things from Team Storytell in 2010 I'll be saving seats for a world series!