First Summer Session:

                STOR 5830 Storytelling Institute. June 7-10. Guest Instructor: Diana Wolkstein. 1 Credit hour.

                Topic: Sacred Storytelling

This Institute will be an exploration of both content and technique in the telling of sacred tales from many traditions. We will encounter stories from Biblical, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Hasidic, tribal, and Sufi backgrounds. Class members will tell stories from their own birth and adopted traditions, and also one anothers’. We will consider the universal and culturally specific aspects of particular tales. What outward and inward facets of a story make it Christian rather than Taoist, Hasidic rather than Sufi? What are the teller’s responsibilities towards the faith traditions reflected therein? We will experiment with different modes and styles of presenting sacred stories, and we will explore critical aspects of the storyteller’s voice and persona. There will be daily offerings of voice, movement, singing, and breathing exercises to ground participants in story.

STOR 5830- Storytelling Institute: Guest Instructor, Bill Harley. June 11-14. 1 Credit hour

Topic: Storytelling and the Art of Performance
                Institute Description:  
Performing artists display skills they have developed over a period of years - they play music, or dance, or juggle balls, chainsaws, or words.  Successful performers use their particular talents not just to demonstrate prowess, but to communicate with the audience - this communication is the art of performance. This class will use group and solo improvisation and theater exercises, readings, and video, to foster an understanding of the special relationship between the performer and the audience.  Special emphasis will be placed on understanding the different roles the storyteller takes during a performance.

Second Summer Session:

                STOR 5830 Storytelling Institute. Aug. 2-6. Guest Instructor, Judith Black.

Topic: Storytelling for Children.

                Institute Description:

                For teachers, librarians, ministers, rabbis, imams, storytellers, religious educators, parents, grand parents, adoring aunts and uncles... have you thought about putting the book down, looking your children in the face, and creating a world of imagination, delight, challenge, and learning in the space between you?  This is the power of storytelling, the world’s oldest yet still-greenest tool for education and communication. And it's yours for the asking. In this class we will:

-Contemplate the many applications of storytelling in educational, social, and familial settings.

-Experience how to take a beloved tale from its literary container and imbue it with life and breath for telling.

-Shape personal experience into tales that will resonate for young listeners, reinforcing both learning, culture, and the strong social web that binds teller and listener.

-Discover the many options for including and empowering young story-listeners.

-Explore your personal reservoir of expressive telling tools.

STOR 5830 Storytelling Institute. 2009 ETSU/Umoja Storytelling Festival/Institute. Aug. 7-10. 1 credit hour

                Topic: Storytelling in the African-American Tradition. Institute Leaders/Featured Tellers, Linda Goss and OthersTBA

Institute Leaders Bios

BILL HARLEY

A Grammy award winning artist, Bill uses song and story paint a vibrant picture of American life. Poignant and hilarious, his work spans the generation gap, reminds us of our common humanity and challenges us to be our very best selves. A prolific author and recording artist with twenty eight recordings and eight books to his credit, Bill is also a regular commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered and featured on PBS. Harley joined the National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence in 2001 and tours nationwide as an author and performing artist.  Bill lives in Seekonk, Massachusetts with his wife, two large dogs and two bee hives.

DIANE WOLKSTEIN

Diane is more than a storyteller. She is an interpreter of life. Whether recounting epics, trickster stories or sacred stories, Diane enters and speaks from the heart of each story she tells. Throughout her more than 40 years as a storyteller, Diane has been known for her meticulous research as well as her great range as a performer. She tours giving worldwide performances, keynote speeches and workshops on myth and storytelling. She is the author of 23 award-winning books of folklore including The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales and Treasures of the Heart: Holiday Stories that Reveal the Soul Of Judaism. She has recorded numerous CD’s and DVD; her latest is A Storyteller’s Story. In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City named June 22nd, 2007 Diane Wolkstein Day in honor of Diane’s 40 years of storytelling for the people of New York.

JUDITH BLACK

Judith Black's traditional and original stories have rocked laughing audiences to their feet for more than three decades. Her work is informed by a rich background in theater, early childhood development, political activism, and the wryly examined life. Judithgraduated from Wheelock College with a degree in Early Childhood Education. She has worked as an artist-in-residence in hundreds of schools around the country, and has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University for more than twenty years. She has been featured eight times on the stage of the National Storytelling Festival and is a member of the National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence, the most coveted honor in contemporary storytelling.  For more information about Judith's work, visit her at:  www.storiesalive.com  and  www.tellingstoriestochildren.com .

  LINDA GOSS 

A pioneer and one of the leading experts in contemporary storytelling, Linda co-founded "In the Tradition..." National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference.  She is also a co-founder of The National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS), and was the first president of NABS (1984-1991).  She is a founding members of Keepers of the Culture, an affiliate of NABS.  Her many books include the anthologies Talk that Talk and Jump Up and Say.  Talk that Talk was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best paperbacks of 1990.  Linda has performed throughout the United States, at such venues as the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Lincoln Center, Wolftrap Farm Park, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution (Discovery Theater), Walt Whitman Cultural Art Center, Anacostia Museum, National Archives, Baltimore Museum of Art and Newark Art Museum.  “Linda Goss Day" has been proclaimed by the Mayor of Washington D.C.  and the Mayor of Alcoa, TN.  In 2005 she was Visiting Professor of African-American Storytelling at ETSU, where she helped to inaugurate the first annual ETSU/Umoja Storytelling Festival-Institute.