Here at the end of January in Minneapolis it is cold. -9 with a predicted high of 9 above and good news, February will climb into the double-digit teens. What did I expect, it is winter. In fact, Imbolc / Candlemas – the marking of the winter half gone, comes in two days – so as those days are marked by bundling up with layers of thinsulate and wool outside, and sipping something soothing before the fire inside, let me turn to a preview on the next few months.
On the performance side, my calendar marks two in February, On Monday the 6th, I’ve been asked to tell a ghost story in a Zoom fundraising concert for the Houston Storytellers Guild, Details are here: https://www.houstonstorytellers.org/events/february-6-2023-hsg-fundraising-concert/ Then on Wednesday, the 8th, I am at the Briar in NE Minneapolis with the teller of always exquisitely crafted tales, Richard Rosseau, for the American School of Storytelling’s monthly series. Here’s the link for that one: https://americanschoolofstorytelling.com/event/briar-02-2023/
On the class side, In February, I’m teaching a three session “Introduction to Storytelling” class on Zoom. https://americanschoolofstorytelling.com/event/intro-storytelling-02-2023/ This is for anyone who wants to develop their crafting and presentation skills and it includes a one-hour individual coaching call.
March, however is not just the arrival of spring but a joyous intensification of my work spread over the first three weekends of the month. Starting off with the Tejas Storytelling festival, March 9-12th. https://tejasstorytelling.com/festival/ I’m closing the Thursday night, Ghost Story concert with an old story that is both funny and creepy, memory and contemporary all at once. Then if I am lucky, I’ll be telling in the Story Slam and maybe in a reversion to the ‘90’s, the Poetry Slam as well.
The next weekend (17th-19th) I am in Atlanta with Elizabeth Ellis for a two day “Difficult Stories Workshop” hosted by Doug Lipman and Pam McGrath. We have been able to do this deep dive into “stories that are hard to hear and harder to tell” for many years now and frankly it never gets old but often gets intense. If you are in the Atlanta area (or willing to travel) and working on a difficult story – personal, historical, traditional – this is the one for you. https://americanschoolofstorytelling.com/event/difficult-stories-03-2023/
On the weekend of March 24th-25th, I am at Northeast Storytelling’s “Sharing the Fire” conference in Portsmouth, NH where I will be performing “Fata Morgana”. As always, the audience selects where we start and how we end, but since it is a 90-minute slot it allows me to tell so much more of the 2.5 hours of text that is the essential story of the Barker, Contessa, Mapmaker and Widow in search of their destinies. I haven’t told a 90-minute version of this one in over a decade, and I am so happy to do it. I will also be offering a conference workshop - :A Rose by Any Other Name: The Erotic in Stories" on Saturday @ 10:30 AM.It explores the limits of the sensual in personal and traditional stories without resorting to porn or cliche. You'll have to be there for the details. Here’s the link to STF: https://www.nestorytelling.org/stf-2023/
And as they used to say in Victorian novels, you dear reader, are welcome to join me at any one of these gatherings of storytellers doing what they love. There is more good stuff coming in April and May but I’ll let that wait a bit. Between now and the more news, stay warm.