September 2007

Upcoming Events

October 29th - Spooks and Spectres at Haynor Public Library 6:30-7:30 pm Fun Halloween Stories

October 26th - Witches' Brew at the Edwardsville Public Library 7:00-9:00 pm Fun and Scary Halloween Stories.

November 17th - Tellabration! at the Collinsville Memorial Library (Bloom House?) at 7:30-9:00 Stories for the adult heart.

First Night - Dec. 31 at the Lewis and Clark campus is still in question.

Ron needs a firm commitment for these events.

Please let him know.

In case you missed the interview that Wally Spiers did with Phyllis Hostmeyer regarding the St. Louis Storytelling festival, you can access it here. Great article, Phyllis!!

Belleville News Democrat - Plenty of Tales to Tell at the National Storytelling Conference.

Some of you know that a fellow storyteller has passed on to her greater story. Her name is Leanne Johnson from Byron, IL. I knew Leanne through the Storytell Listserve, Northlands, and the Fox Valley Storytellers. She was a delightful, impish, loveable, kind, talented storyteller who will be sorely missed in our storytelling family. I'd like to share just one of the many posts that were sent to Storytell with you. If you'd like to receive all the posts, Karen Chace will send them to you on-line. Her email is storybug@aol.com

First, I'll share a poem that Leanne wrote and that was in a previous newsletter a couple of years ago...

How did you know when it was time

 to call yourself a "storyteller?

When everything you hear,
    tells you a story,
When everything you see,
    reminds you of a story,
When everything you taste
    conjures up a story,
When everything you smell,
    evokes for you a story,
When everything you touch,
    summons up a story,

You might indeed be a storyteller.

But it is not until
you release those stories,
Allow the images to free form into the
imaginations of others,
Spilling their seeds
    into the creation of more stories,
Funneled through the love and cares

of family and friends,
    who will love you
    regardless
Enriched, enhanced,
    amplified with the hopes and dreams

of strangers
    who have no other reason to love
    or care for you,
Nestled into the unconscious mind

of a growing child
    where they will grow

with goodness and strength.

Ahh, then, call yourself a storyteller

And when they offer you praise,
    compliments,
    bravos,
    endorsements,
    money...

Remember,
    the sounds,
    the sights,
    the tastes,
    the smells,
    the touch,

         Of the Love of Story

Here is a post all the way from Hungary...

            WE ALL KNOW

I woke up, and I felt, I knew,
Like a shadow creeping through
You and me and all our kind:
Something good is left behind...
All the streets and silent, still,
Wait and watch and pray I will,
All the clouds are cold and gray...
A Storyteller passed away.

She and I, we've never met,
Never talked - I know it yet,
Written in the wind, the sky,
All the trees I'm passing by,
Pulsing in the very core
Of the world - I can't tell more,
All the tellers feel this way - 
One of us has passed away.

Her harp is silent; what she wore - 
Her light is scattered on the floor,
Wherever we are walking now
We all stop and know somehow,
All our stories shake in pain...
Then we sigh and start again
We take all her scattered sparks
And when our new journey starts
We take her along in our hearts.

I think stories keep storytellers alive,

and it is the best thing that can happen

to a Teller: if she becomes a story herself.

Zalka Csenge Virág
Budapest, Hungary
macsek_mesemondo@yahoo.com

"Az igazi meséknek soha nincs vége"

Sidebar: Csenge recently came to the US for a year

to study storytelling. She received a grant from her

country to come here. She has been a regular

contributor to Storytell. Be sure to visit her website

 by clicking on her name..

For the tribute I wrote for Leanne,

                                       click HERE

"You've got to be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?"

--Bernadette Peters

For the latest I'll. Tell E-newsletter, just click HERE. If you'd like to be on the list to receive this free newsletter, let me know. There is news about storytelling from all over Illinois - individuals, conferences, workshops, concerts, festivals and guilds.