Something just for fun!

Reece Museum Program by Ilene Evans
7/25/09

I did a family storytelling program at Barnes and Nobles over the weekend.
Mbira - the thumb piano that I played is an African American adaptation of the African mbira from Zimbabwe. To read some more about their significance in the culture in Zimbabwe here are to sites to visit:

http://www.mbira.org/instrument.html and http://www.mbira.org/shonaculture.html



Baba Jamal Koram has had an American artist make an African American version of the traditional instrument that is very nice to play.

Monday, July 27th Class

Today's class was fascinating. Here's what happened:

1) Because of some late people (who shall remain nameless), class began with a discussion about appropriate or inappropriate venues for storytelling. The discussion was prompted by Ilene's experience telling at Barnes and Nobles. We discussed how libraries and bookstores may not the best venues because they are not gathering places for people particularly interested in hearing stories. David likened the storyteller to a nudist who found freedom in a nudist colony, but then tried to take that concept out into the public. Somehow it just doesn't work. The discussion then went to what types of venues do work - whether or not venues might be created. We talked about "Applied" and "Platform" telling - the difference being that "Applied" was when storytelling is used as a tool for business or healing, etc. "Platform" storytelling is performance based. The question was posed: Does "platform" telling have a purpose as well? Should there be a distinction between the two?

2) David then told us the story of "The Raven." He introduced the story by telling us about his experience staying up with his young, teething son and how he found beauty in the dawn after a night of cutting teeth. "The Raven" is a trickster tale about a bird whose goal was to convince a Chief to share his treasures. The raven was also a shape-shifter and was able to change itself into a baby, appealing to the Chief's parental nature. The plan worked as the raven used a variety of common baby tactics to get its own way. The treasure became the stars, the moon and the sun. David's use of the balloon to represent the baby was great and he shared some suggestions about using objects in story. Note to self: Dry erase markers work best on balloons.

3) We discussed how stories connect us to our experiences and help us to have a fresh perspective or understanding of those experiences. We talked about how children have limited prior experience - how they relate concepts to objects. For example, if a ball is put into a box, from the child's perspective, that ball no longer exists. That perspective may be transferred even to people - if the child's mother leaves the room, the child may feel as though the mother no longer exists.

4) The discussion then moved to how stories have a life of their own and once heard, become part of the listener's life experience. The story affects the listener's memory and experience in some way. From this point, we went on to talk about whether it was appropriate to tell stories that are native to particular cultures. The distinction was made between telling stories in the educational setting - for cultural enlightenment, as opposed to telling those stories for professional goals. A sensitivity must be developed when dealing with stories that originated in cultures that have been imperialistically influenced. That being said, how does a storyteller that does not have strong ties to any one native culture find a place? We must consider that stories move in and out of cultures. The roots of those stories may be difficult to trace - but the messages may still be relevant and meaningful to our own experiences. The question was posed: Can stories jump boundaries?

5) David mentioned that, when choosing stories to tell, he asks himself the questions: What is it that I want to promote? Food for thought...

6) We talked a little about using costume while storytelling - or even creating a storytelling "look." David shared how he felt it important to dress in an ordinary way so that he could become extraordinary through each story he told. His goal was to be more than he appeared - to be unwrapped and full of surprises.

7) We were encouraged to develop "reading behavior." Listen to what goes on in our lives and our environment - read life. Learn to interpret behavior.

8) We played various association games to practice making connections. Using lines from our stories, we tried to make associations with various people in the class. We played a free-association word game to understand the concept. Taking this one step further, we put a rhythm to the association by clapping and then contributing a line or phrase from a story we were crafting.

9) Finally, Beth yielded to the process of exploring a personal story by looking at it from a wide variety of perspectives. By beginning the story at different points in time, or from different locations, the story naturally took different turns, produced different images, recalled different memories. It was a fascinating exercise to watch. At one point, David asked her to begin the story with a different word - "Imagine" - and see what effect that word had on her recollection. More details about this exploration in David's post.

10) Finally, David warned us to be careful about getting so involved with our own stories that we lose contact with our lives by ignoring the communal aspect of storytelling. Personal stories do not necessarily need to become public - they can lead us to other stories that may have more to offer the public. It is important to examine the culture at large and determine what is being forgotten and how can we, as storytellers, bring those things back?

Good day.

Beth's stories

Every story is made up of smaller stories. Today we listened to Beth explore her story and heard many little stories in the process. Here is a list-in-progress of the story fragments as I heard them (in no particular order):
The Bat & Rabies Shots
Neverland
Pirate Ship Cave
Wood Pile
Snakes
Corn Fields
Mountain v. City
Superman Dad
Big Mama Thumps
Brother Hook
Peter Pan
My Room Hideaway
...?

Valerie's take on Schank Chapter 4

Schank is getting down to it - how do we find stories we wish to tell? By analyzing stories according to themes, we are able to file them away and then recall them as needed. Schank uses the language of Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding, Schank shows how themes are revealed according to the relationship of those four elements. Using the combination of a theme plus the application of the four elements, we can begin to relate and recall stories. Schank explains how to identify themes by associating them with things people talk about. He calls these things "personal preoccupations." Of course these themes may vary from individual to individual, but the important thing is that we recognize our own themes and be able to classify our stories accordingly for recall purposes. Schank suggests the best way to do this is to consider the lesson of the story as the over-arching catalyst to memory. If a story doesn't have an identifiable lesson, observable behavior might be a means of identifying a theme. Lessons and observable behavior are easily seen through the simplicity of Proverbs. Analyzing Proverbs would be a good way to understand Schank's Indexing theory more fully. This is good stuff for me - it defines a workable frame on which to hang stories. I'm not sure I don't do this already, at least to some extent, but my language is a little different. Stories stick in my mind in a different way, I think. My connections to stories are through sensory stimulants. I remember the way the grass felt in Fort Lauderdale, the weather, the colors, daily rainstorms. I seem to connect stories about my problems or people in my life to those things. It isn't difficult to come up with a lesson once I have remembered a story, but I don't think I categorize stories according to those lessons. I'll have to give that some more thought...

Reflection-Indexing stories?

Following Chapter 4, I am trying to indexing my stories but it is not easy. Examples of indexing in the book is like some kind of propositions. I wonder whether you find an easy way to do indexing your stories. To me, indexing stories is much harder to roughly jot down past experiecnes. Schank (84pp) says, "To tell a story, you must have labeled it properly, stored it away with a name that will aloow it to be found, possibly many years later, when some process calls its name." My problem is that "it is hard to find out a story to tell through my past experiences and it is much hard to craft details of experience to bring you up to imagination." I think we need to find out our own approriate and convenient way to tell a story somehow. How do you think? Of course, theoretical knowledge like Schank's idea will be helpful to make it up all by myself in the future.

Class Notes _ July 21, 2009 by Marian Kim

1. Announcement about storytelling rehearsal
Tues. July 21st: 4:40-5:20 pm “Rumpelstiltskin” combo w/3 personal tales. Beginng stages. By Racheal-one of ETSU Grad student.
Thurs. July 23rd. 4:40-5:20 pm. Group discussion “Mythical Storytelling Conference” Time and Money no object.

2. Spirit and Body rehearsal on the stage
I would call this rehearsal “mental and physical experience on the stage”. When we are on the stage, we certainly feel nervous. The purpose of this rehearsal may reduce this mental nervousness.
-Rearrange room by changing each other’s place
-stand and switch place with somebody
-Tray places: David calls one person to the other to ask to sit in front and takes turns.

David’s Comment
What do you feel when you sit in front? Become woodened, nervous, How is that affect your body? How does your body feel when you sit in front? Think of what body does you do when you sit in front. Cross-leg refers to being guarded? What’s going on in your body? Defensive? We are a little pressure. How do I guard myself? Nervous smile? Move Eyebrows?
-Go straight up and sit up.
-Rising and falling. Developing the center of your strength and do not lose your strength.
-Stand up and sit up with strength.
-exchanging thoughts about sitting in front.
-rotate sitting in front: everyone has a chance to sit in front. Everyone has a different pose and gesture in front.
- Maintain your balance when you sit. Turn around and come into a relationship. Look at the audience one by the other to determine whether everybody is ready. Check to see everybody else: walk to the stage, sit, and look at people.

3. Sonnet memorization
Identify your sonnet. The sonnet is not for you but for us (i.e.,the audience). It’s because you brought us something. Not because your assignment.

**Mi Ryoung_sonnet 18 “summer’s day”

XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

- Greet in Korean “An-Nyung-Ha-Se-Yo” “Hello” and a brief introduction about a sonnet
- memorize a sonnet in English and in Korean one line by another
- the sonnet is about the lover’s everlasting beauty

David’s Comment
-Be careful to break line by line with two different lanauges. Sometimes it can be interrupted because of continuing thoughts.
-It is good to memorize a sonnet in terms of syntactic and intonation structure. The first line is a question with a rising intonation and the second line makes an answer with a falling intonation. A comma means continuation with a rising tone, a colon means ending with a falling tone. The last two lines (before and this gives life to thee) needs to be one thought.
-Memorize a sonnet in English and then in Korean separately.
-the first two words is trocaic (strong-weak) instead of iambic (weak-strong) (e.g., Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?)
-David explains the meaning for each line of the sonnet.
-what does this mean in the last line and this gives life to thee? There were different thoughts among students. This refers to “eternal lines” which means poem. Writing poem about you will be eternal!!

**Katie_sonnet 130 “My mistress”
CXXX
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.

-Begin with your sonnet without any introduction. You have to something to say.

David’s comment
-memorize two sonnets together, sonnet 18 by Marian and sonnet 130 by Katie.
-they are well related about the theme “admiring lover”
-still comparison.
-hidden messages in the sonnet and should be decoded.
-explicit vs. implicit meaning from sonnet to sonnet

**Ilene_sonnet 148

CXLVIII
O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's:
no,How can it? O! how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vexed with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

David’s comments
-Try to find out connection among sonnets. There are many O’s as emphasis in the sonnet
-a lot of thinking going on in this sonnet.
-Trochaic beginning instead of iambic. (e.g. Shall I or Oh, me).
- Ilene repeats sonnet 148 twice, one with complaining tone(?) and the other with arguing tone. See how thoughts are developed with different intonation.
-Involvement strategy while telling it aloud.

**Cited from one analysis from online since some meanings in the sonnet was not clear in class.

In Sonnet 148, a companion to the previous sonnet, the poet admits that his judgment is blind when it comes to love. Again his eyes are false and misperceive reality, and reason has fled him: "O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head, / Which have no correspondence with true sight." Acknowledging the possibility that love metaphorically blinds his judgment, he then attempts to rationalize his predicament. How does the world know that what he sees is false and that what the world considers false is not really true? Although the poet admits his failings, nonetheless he cannot surmount his unhealthy dependency on the woman and his driving passion to rekindle their sexual relationship.

4. a story told by David (after Katie’s sonnet)
While talking about the theme of ‘love” in the sonnets, David reminded a personal story of his childhood. He told his personal story and he also told a story in the story.
David began with his personal story when he was 9th grade. Begin with telling us an assignment about the comparison of two love stories, Romeo and Juliet vs. West side story. While he was telling a personal story, he told a story about two neighbors between the walls. They are like enemies. The story was about the two lovers in the neighborhood but it was not a happy ending like Romeo and Juliet. He told his love story about an unsuccessful dating with Sandy.
His personal story and the story in the story have a close relationship about the theme of love.

5. Wrap Up
-Announcement about Kim Weitkamp, Wednesday performance (July 22, 2009)
-Do not have to prepare for a personal story this Thursday and generate your story naturally in class.
-try to find out connection among sonnets
-David’s person preference in telling a story: interested in relationship between stories.
-reflection Shank’s book and discussion: stories and experiences are shared with each other. Behavior describes intelligence. Whatever we bring stories to class, they may be connected and related with each other. We need to store our experiences bring to mind to tell the story. Schank’s style may be too academic and too analytical. Think of the gist while telling a story (e.g. compiling and compressing the files in the computer-linguistic compression). The gist is like memories of zip file. All of us contain best body of the context more than we know. Discuss Schank’s term ‘Indexing’. Think of Ways of relating stories or experiences with each other instead of just indexing. Think of lines of relationship rather than indexing (e.g, high school, Latin poetry, teenage experience, Jewish etc). Each of these lines animates stories. Think of ways of thinking about fresh thoughts. Think of what skills are storytellers’ minds involved. What can you make of it? Reveal the problem. How do we as storytellers access to bring to mind? Choose a right story, right time to tell to your audience. Think of storytellers’ mind, one which you can do prompt yourself, and you don’t have to wait next stimulus. Looking for ways we can do that. The more stories we have, the more possible relationship we may have. The more stories we have, the broader mind we may have. Think of how we can choose our story to relate with other’s stories in the program.
-Think of Schank’s analysis and Kim Weitkamp about how she connects one story with another and what lines relationship she offers us.

THE END

My Finest Hour Date, Time, and Place

Hi Class,

I have scheduled my performance for "My Finest Hour" in our class to take place at the Cranberry Thistle on Mainstreet in Jonesborough, two doors down from the International Storytelling Center on Wednesday, August 12, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. that evening. Marian or Pricilla in our class will be videotaping me. Hope to see y'all there!

Thanks, Lorri