General Interest Articles from our 2007 Grapevine Newsletter
Goals and Changes for the Coming Years • Grant Awards • Northlands-Wear in China
Goals and Changes for the Coming Years
Kevin Strauss, President
As the year came to a close, your Northlands Storytelling Network Board of Directors were working hard to get ready for April. But to make our conference and organization as effective as possible, we need your help.
25th Annual Northlands Storytelling Conference
With 2007 being our 25th conference, we want to celebrate this milestone. If you have any ideas on how you would like to see Northlands celebrate its 25th conference, please email the 25th Annual Committee via Jenifer Strauss at jenifer@storybetold.com. Also email the committee if you would like to help out with decorations and preparations for our quarter-century celebration.
Goals for Northlands: The Next 5 Years
Five years ago, the Northlands Storytelling Network board of directors created a five-year plan for growing the organization and better serving our membership. That planning process has led us to hiring a Business Manager, revamping how we choose conference workshops and concert performers, creating the Northlands Storytelling Journal, balancing our budget, providing grants for area organizations and improving our communication with membership with events like “Breakfast with the Board” at our conference.
But as you know, five year plans only last so long. We are now in the process of putting together our roadmap for the next five years and we’d like to hear from you.
- What would you like to see Northlands doing in the next half-decade?
- What would help you grow as an artist and professional?
- How could Northlands help our organization to be more successful?
- What changes would you like to see in the conference?
- How can you help Northlands grow and better serve its members?
Please email any suggestions to Long-Rang Planning Committee Chairperson Yvonne Healy at stories@yhealy.com.
Defining Storytelling
After two years of articles in the Northlands Journal, a call for storytelling definitions from the members and from Board members, four months of email conversations and three hours of discussion at our November board meeting, the Northlands Storytelling Network Board of Directors has just approved the Northlands Definition of Storytelling.
Northlands took on this mission for at least three reasons:
- Right now, there is no artistic definition of storytelling, and without a definition of what we do, it is difficult to explain what we do to others. Most people think “storytelling” is reading books to kids in a library. A definition will help us explain how storytelling is different from book reading, theater monologues, novel writing, and movie-making (all art forms called “storytelling” by some people). If we don’t define our art form, others will do it for us – and we may not like how they define us.
- Having a definition will make it easier for us to explain and “sell” our art to schools, organizations and other groups. As artists, if we don’t have a definition that describes the essential elements of our art form, it can also be difficult to know when we are doing it well and how to improve our skills. Storytelling is more than making people laugh or being popular. But without a definition of what we do, it is easy to confuse “success” with “artistic quality.”
- If we have a definition of storytelling, it will be much easier to get arts boards to recognize storytelling as a distinct art form and not a sub-category within theater or literary arts. To that end, the board has worked hard on an “essential definition” for storytelling. This definition does not seek to include every single aspect of our art form, since they are many and varied. Instead, it focuses on what makes our art form different from other literary art forms.
So here it is, the Northlands Storytelling Network Definition of Storytelling: “Storytelling is the art of live narrative performance, dynamically shaped by audience response.”
What does this mean? Well, to be storytelling, the event needs to be “live.” A video or audio recording of a story performance is different from a live event because part of the creation of a story involves audience feedback, and the teller adjusting her/his story to meet audience needs.
In addition, every time a teller shares a story, it is just a little bit different, because the audience and certain environmental circumstances are also just a little bit different. In storytelling (unlike what happens in traditional theater and movies) the audience (no matter its size) has a hand in shaping the story, and a good storyteller reads the audience for verbal and nonverbal cues as to how things are going. Other art forms like novels and movies may “tell a story,” but they aren’t “storytelling” in that they are static and don’t adjust to audience needs the way a performing storyteller does. “Dynamic” reflects this unique nature of our art form, and simultaneously addresses its malleable, extemporaneous and interactive qualities.
As always, we want to know what you think. If you have questions or ideas, contact us through the Northlands website: www.northlands.net or email me directly at kevin@naturestory.com.
Grants Awarded in 2006
$500.00 – Sterling (Illinois) Public Library – to offset the cost of storytellers at their 4th annual festival.
$500.00 – Twin Cities Storyfest (Minnesota) – to fund the promotion of this new event.
Northlands-Wear in China
Northlands donated t-shirts to be given as gifts during the Nu Wa Storytelling Exchange Trip to Gengcun, China. For over 600 years the people of this village have passed on their tradition of folk tales and myths from generation to generation. A group of American storytellers traveled to China to hear Master Tellers in their homes, sip tea and swap stories, hear folksongs, partake in folk dances and arts projects with the people, as well as share with them our diverse American traditions.
Jo Radner was fortunate enough to be a part of this trip, and she sent photos and a report of where one of our t-shirts found a home:
“Before we left Beijing for the village of Gengcun (pronounced “GUN-TSWUN”), we made up gift bags for all the master tellers, and each bag included one t-shirt. (Everyone agreed that none were as snazzy as the Northlands ones – which happened to be in yellow and red, the colors of joy and aristocracy, earth and heaven, in Chinese culture, so were especially appropriate as celebratory gifts.
“I’m not sure where three of the t-shirts wound up, but I did manage to snag one of the bags with a Northlands shirt, and I presented it to a master teller.
“I was glad to give a Northlands t-shirt to this teller because he had told us a story that cleverly poked fun at the whole storytelling situation we found ourselves in. We were working with two interpreters! One to translate the local dialect into Mandarin, and the other to translate the Mandarin into English. It was cumbersome and often funny, and our Beijing (Mandarin) interpreter kept missing phrases or getting them wrong. In this situation, this storyteller chose for us a Chinese folktale about how a series of dialect misunderstandings led to a legal case! It was very funny, especially in our situation.
“Many, many thanks to Northlands for this support of the Gengcun trip. It was great to be able to give such a terrific gift.” --- Jo Radner