Community
Storytelling Is My Passion
By Caren S. Neile, Ph.D.
My
father, my stepbrother and I were involved in community theater down in Fort
Lauderdale. The lead actress had so many lines that she was always forgetting
them. So you would be in the dressing room, which was upstairs and down the
hall from the stage, and suddenly you would hear your cue half an hour before
you were supposed to go on! She would forget a different part every night, so
castmembers ran back and forth trying to make the performances work.
-Community
storyteller
There’s one thing I like even better
than telling stories: giving others the opportunity to tell theirs. For two
decades, I have worked with dozens of organizations and thousands of people to
provide engaging ways to give voice to their stories. After all, don’t we, as
storytellers, know that everyone has a story? Don’t we know the value of
listening, and being listened to? Here is a gift we can give others that
definitely keeps on giving.
What follows are stories from some
of my experiences that may inspire you to engage in community storytelling.
Storytelling slams: One of the hottest tickets in community
storytelling is the storytelling slam, a friendly competition that invites
people to tell their true stories in a performance setting. I have held slams in
coffee shops, a bar, and most recently online. My current sponsor is the local
library.
One Sunday evening I was tired and
frankly not in the mood to host the event, but it was advertised, and of course
I went. One of the tellers who signed up turned out to be a ninety-year-old man,
who was helped to the stage by his younger cousin. Was his story going to be
relevant to the college students in the audience, I wondered? He proceeded to
tell a story from his days in a Nazi concentration camp. I thought the man was
nervous because his eyes were shut; it turned out that he was nearly blind. Yet despite his age and infirmity, he kept the
crowd, some of whom were seventy years younger, absolutely spellbound. I was in
awe.
Professional storytelling series: What could be better than bringing
great storytellers to perform in your hometown? Courtesy of local theaters,
schools and libraries, I have invited dozens of nationally acclaimed
storytellers. I generally take care of airport transport, and they stay at the
homes of generous storytellers, friends, or at hotels.
Early on, I was able to invite one
of the foremost storytellers in the country to my town. Not only was she one of
my favorites, but I also had a special feeling about her from her performances.
Other than briefly introducing myself at the National Storytelling Festival, however,
we had never met. From the moment I picked her up at the airport, we clicked.
Since then we have worked together on several projects, I have been her guest
in another state a number of times, and we have maintained a rewarding personal
and professional relationship. More importantly, she has shared her talents in
my area through workshops and performances with storytellers, story listeners
and others several times. What an unexpected gift!
Local public radio: Public
radio stations are often seeking local content. Since 2009, I have co-hosted
and produced a segment that invites people in the listening area to tell brief,
first-person local stories. These are edited by my co-host, who is an employee
of the station. My co-host and I then discuss the story on air. The excerpt with
which I began this piece is from that segment.
Storytelling workshops for non-profits: As more non-profit
administrators learn the benefits of storytelling, we have an increasing number
of opportunities to help them assist their clients by offering workshops. I
once led a workshop for a homeless organization. I entered into the project
with some trepidation, having no idea what to expect. One man emerged as a
leader in the group, paving the way for others by speaking up often and
eagerly, thereby demonstrating that I was not going to judge or criticize. It
was not the first time, and certainly not the last, when my “students” taught
me how to be more open, honest and humble. We followed the workshop with a slam.
While the stories of hardship and endurance that emerged were amazing, the
looks of pride on the faces of the storytellers, listeners and administrators
were priceless.
Senior communities: They may
not always hear so well, but seniors sure know how to listen. In fact, the longer
people have lived, the better acquainted with storytelling they often are. I
started leading a story-sharing group at a senior center in 2001; as the group
changed, I found myself telling stories and doing the TimeSlips technique (timeslips.org)
more often than listening. Nevertheless, I always gave the seniors time to tell.
Assisted and independent living facilities, as well as women’s and cultural
groups, are other great venues that need programming.
Storytelling performances for non-profits: Not all community
storytelling is exclusive from performance, of course. I have also interviewed stakeholders
and created corporate stories for non-profits. I once told a story for Goodwill
Industries from the perspective of a client. Afterward my aunt, who was in the
audience, told me she became so involved that she thought I was talking about
myself!
While I haven’t gotten wealthy from
these endeavors, helping people get their voices heard fills me with joy. And
hey, I’ll never run out of stories!
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| Caren S. Neile |
