StoryTime 2: Strawberries

I lead my second family storytime this last Saturday. I don't feel it went quite as well as the last. I was less practiced with the books, story, and songs, and the audience was much less actively involved, but I think they still had a good time. The theme was strawberries and I told the creation story of strawberries from the book “The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story” retold by Joseph Bruchac (the same person who retold the Rabbit’s Snow dance from last week). But I found the same story in Pat Nelson’s “Magic Minutes: Quick Read-Alouds for Every Day.” Based on the attention span and interest levels of my audience I cut the story quite a bit (like the entire middle), but I think it was successful. Now I know to feel a bit more comfortable with my stories before telling them.
Here’s the audio of the story:




Today’s Reading Rainbow books are:

Bruchac, Joseph, 1942-. (c1993.). The first strawberries : a Cherokee story. New York : Dial Books for Young Readers.

Degen, Bruce. (c1983.). Jamberry. New York, N.Y. : Harper & Row.

Martin, Bill, 1916-2004. (c1983, 1967.). Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?. New York : Henry Holt and Co.

Molk, Laurel. (1998.). Good job, Oliver!. New York : Crown Publishers.

Nelson, Pat, 1925-. (1993.). Magic minutes : quick read-alouds for every day. Englewood, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited.

Wood, Don, 1945-. (1998.). The little mouse, the red ripe strawberry, and the big hungry bear. Swindon, England : Child's Play (International).

Finding Stories

One thing I've really enjoyed about the course so far is the opportunity we have to look for and enjoy different stories.
I've spent time perusing the 398.2s and Parent/Teacher collections and have enjoyed reading the different tales available. One of my favorite resources right now is Margaret Read MacDonald's Three Minute Tales: Stories from around the world to tell or read when time is short. It contains different situations one might be in when a story is just the right thing to fill time, or to make a point such as going on a walk, or on a museum tour. The tales are short (3 minutes or under, with the "time it takes to tell" estimated at the top.) From the discussion boards I can see that we have lots of Margaret Read MacDonald fans in the class, so you can now count me in as one as well. (I've checked out her "Twenty Tellable Tales" and will start on that soon.)

A publisher that I'm starting to notice is "August House" with their "American Storytelling" and "World Storytelling" series. Those stories are also nice at a couple of pages each with black and white pictures along with them. Something from the same publisher I ran across this spring break was called "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" which followed the school-yard chants, and camp songs that may not be appropriate for adult ears. I don't believe they count as Storytelling in any way (as they don't tell a story), but reading through the article on Folk Literature for class, most defiantly fall into that category, as they are passed from person to person with only slight modifications, and so fall into the storytelling tradition.

There are many other books I'm using as well that I pulled out of the 398.2s. Right now I'm searching for stories that I can tell to fit the story time themes "Days of the Week" and "pop corn". Any Suggestions? (The little Mouse, ripe red strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear was a great hit-- I used the book as the illustrations are what make that story.)

Today's Books:

MacDonald, Margaret Read, 1940-. (2004.). Three-minute tales : stories from around the world to tell or read when time is short. Little Rock, Ark. : August House Publishers. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0710/2004046257.html

Sherman, Josepha. (1995.). Greasy grimy gopher guts : the subversive folklore of childhood. Little Rock, AR : August House Publishers.

Rabbit’s Snow Dance: My First Planned Storytelling

My story time went really well today-- I was nervous that perhaps I had prepared to much to do and the story time would go on forever, but I had just enough. I felt very confident in the story of Rabbit's snow dance, having told it 3-4 times in front of people before, and twice as many to myself. I felt better about the words I used, (sometimes in practice I would repeat a word over and over as if I was stuck on it, like “snow”, and “dance") I'll have to listen to my recording to see how it really went, but I got a lot of complements on it, so Huzzah! We started with our opening song, then I read a story about dancing and we did the Hokey Pokey. Then it was time for my story. I had my rabbit with me, but I put it to the side after introducing it, and brought it back at the end. The kids seemed to get into the song, (as you can hear in the recording one kid wanted to repeat it every time, but we didn't). The rest of the story time went well, too, I read more books, and we sang more songs. I forgot to sing the closing song, but I did remember the crafts, so Success

Now I'm really excited for next week! It's going to be awesome!

Here are a couple of sound clips from story time. Because of privacy and technology issues I cannot video record them, but this should work well.

Here is the story of Rabbit's Snow Dance:


This is one of the best Storytime songs there is (in my opinion). When I did toddler storytime they all got a huge kick out of snapping the monkeys.



Today's Reading Rainbow Books are:

Bruchac, Joseph, 1942-. (c1995.). The boy who lived with the bears : and other Iroquois stories. New York : HarperCollinsPublishers.

Durango, Julia. (c2006.). Cha-cha chimps. New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Ford, Bernette G. (2008.). Ballet class. New York : Boxer Books.

Jones, Bill T. (c1998.). Dance. New York : Hyperion Books for Children.

London, Jonathan, 1947-. (c1999.). Wiggle, waggle. San Diego : Harcourt Brace.

Nancy Wang

This morning I was able to see Nancy Wang tell the story of how her family immigrated to America from China 5 generations ago. It was very different from the performance that I saw her and her husband do last night as Eth-Noh-Tec, as this was a very serious piece, and rather than short stories that had a beginning, middle and end, her story created more vignettes of the lives of these people, and even were stories with in stories, as the performance started with the story of her great aunt Mary telling her these stories of their ancestors. The images were very strong even through the physical motions she used were small, and while her voices did have us traveling along the Ocean in a Junk Boat, the words were not the musical memorized and repeatedly rehearsed words from last night, but more like a spontaneous storytelling rather than a theatrical performance.
(During the Q and A it was reviled that this was her first performance telling this particular story as the Hearing Voices festival was wanting some immigration narratives to go along with the Stubborn Twig Oregon Reads book, and through personal events in Nancy Wang's life (the death of her mother last week) the story was not as well rehearsed as she would like), although it was still moving, and very educational.

For myself I felt more compelled to learn about the people she was telling us about because the were REAL people with complexities, not one dimensional "bird" and "monkey" that we were told about yesterday, and because I knew that their story continued it make it much more exiting, and more like my own life, or people I know.

Because of time constraints we only got through a about a generation and a half of her family line, (1849-1871ish). Because the show was so different the audiences Q and A were also different, rather than wanting information about storytelling they wanted to know more about her family’s experience, her father's side, her personal experiences, the laws and prejudged they faced, and the audience wanted to share their own stories of when their family's came to America. It was a very interesting experience, and, were I setting up the event I probably would like to have more discussion time-- but we were already running at over an hour and a half (and I had to run to get to work!). I believe there were different discussion groups that met throughout the festival as well.

Eth-Noh-Tec

I just saw Eth-Noh-Tec at the Hillsboro Library for part of the Hearing Voices Storytelling festival, and it was amazing. Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang are a husband and wife story telling team, some comes from a dance background and he from music so they incorporate much kinesthetic movements and music use of flutes and recorders to their stories, and also vocal music (certain words had a singing quality even if they couldn’t really be said to have been sung).

Tonight they told 6 stories of varying length. The first was a origin story (like the one I’m going to tell tomorrow about rabbit) but this was called “trouble talk” about how human has to work where as no other animal does. Each animal and human character was clearly defined, as well as each scene’s mood. It was a very good story to open with.

The second story was from China about Long Haired Girl and how she saves her village by finding fresh water. The physical gestures were amazing in it, each character having a particular pose to express themselves.

The Third story was a sad one from Japan about a Willow Tree. This one incorporated audience participation with song and movement (like I’ll do tomorrow with Rabbit’s Snow Dance). It was a graceful story and very different from the next from India about an enormous Dog that ate everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) it was really funny, and had the entire audience laughing along. The contrast between these two stories was remarkable.

And the final story they told was called Monkey Moon from Tibet- this was a story in rhyme, and with a particular rhythm to it as well, it would have fit right in a Seuss book.

During question and answer portion Nancy Wang discussed how story was different from theater, in one reason because in theater there is the 4th wall separate the audience from the performer, where as in storytelling the 4th wall extends behind the audience. I had never thought of it that way before. The audience as participating in the story-- I like to think about it like that now. I did notice that with eye contact with these performers- they were always talking directly too audience members. It was very personal.

One difference I noticed between these story tellers and our story telling experiences in residency were the ways that these stories were defiantly memorized-- there were moments of slight improvisation, but for the most part these stories were choreographed and had a precise language to them that certainly added to the performance aspect, but did cause a few “slip-ups” that may not happen in non-memorized pieces.

I’m really excited to see Nancy Wang perform tomorrow at the Beaverton library, and to perform my own story at Family story time. I was so pumped after the performance tonight that I told it to myself out loud in the car on the way home, and then to my father when I got home. He said it was very long, so we’ll see how it goes (now he has me doubting myself, but there has to be a first time for doing a story with out a book to protect me!)

Another thought that struck me during the performance tonight was that none of these stories ended happily ever after. They all came to a fulfilling conclusion but it wasn’t a happy one. It did make me feel better about Rabbit’s Snow dance, which, too, does not end exactly happily. Why do I have it in my head that stories for children have to end happily?

You can check out Eth-Noh-Tec here http://www.ethnohtec.org/

The ball is rolling

I’m very excited for this coming Friday and Saturday! It’s going to be a storytelling filled couple of days.
Friday I’m going to see my first storytellers "Eth-Noh-Tec presents Of Sojourns and Shadows: Asian American Message In the Myth" for part of the Hearing voices Storytelling Festival, then Saturday morning I’m checking out "Nancy Wang - Lanterns on a Dark Moon Night: The History of Chinese Americans in Monterey"
Saturday afternoon I’m covering Storytime at the library where I work and I’m going to throw a story in there. The theme is Dance and now I like the story “Rabbit’s Snow Dance” a native American story about how rabbit lost his tale, and gained big ears and basically how he looks today. This is my first non-spontaneous story telling in front of an audience, is I’m going to be practicing all I can on friends and family (and in my head).
Tune in next weekend to see how these events are!

Time for Story 1

While the regular librarian is out I'm in charge of Saturday's "family storytime" at the BCL on April 18th, and 25th. (I'm also taking a couple more in May)

The themes she is giving me are "Strawberries" and "Dancing" so I'm looking stories that pertain to those themes. (any suggestions?)

I've found the zen one about the man being chased by tigers and hanging from a vine off the edge of a cliff on the brink of death and tasting a sweet strawberry-- It's good, action-packed, and thought provoking, I'm not sure it's conclusive enough for 2-7-year-olds. (I mean, "a strawberry never tasted so sweet"? If I were five I'd be upset the strawberry didn't give him the energy he needed to climb the vine and make the tigers his friends (or make them into tiger pancakes)).

I think "Dancing" will be fairly easy to find stories about.

I'm a bit nervous to be up in front of everyone without a book to protect me, so I'm inclining towards using a puppet or two for props. When I've used puppets in songs I've had good experiences, so this may be a good way to ease into storytelling for a new audience.

I know that some would say that using props is cheating, but, oh well...

I'm also working on figuring out this digital voice recorder I got for Christmas, that way I can record my storytimes, and post them here!

Welcome!

Welcome to my Digital Storytelling Journal created for LIS 561 Storytelling: Art & Techniques through the ischool at the University of Washington.
Here I will blog about my experiences as audience, researcher, and teller of stories, and anything else that relates.
I'm excited to see where this course will take me, and what I will learn about the tradition of storytelling, and how I can use technology to capture it.
Thanks for stopping by!