Storytelling workshop with Jim May - August 28, 2008

Friends,



Tonight I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with Jim May in Jonesborough. That's one of the benefits to living in this part of East Tennessee - wonderful storytellers come through here all the time, and sometimes we are blessed with opportunities like the one I just had tonight.



There were about twenty of us, storytellers all, and we were a wonderfully diverse group with life experiences all over the map. Jim showed us that our life transitions are the rich places from which to draw personal stories, and then we were encouraged to think about our cultural place maps.



I thought about my place map, and realized that I still, after all this time, am fighting the path my family has always followed - good, stable, regular work - our family motto is 'I fight poverty, I work,' and a sure knowledge of our place in life. I have flown in the face of that as a non-traditional storytelling writer, yet I continue to work an everyday life to hold body and soul together. It just goes to show how strong our family traditions can be.



Have you ever thought about your family of origin and the influence your traditions have on the decisions you make everyday? Think about it - it may surprise you; it did me.

National Storytelling Conference - Doc McConnell

The conference, which was in Gatlinburg was an interesting opportunity to be among peers and also to see and hear the greats of storytelling. One of those great voices passed away just after the festival, but he lives on in our hearts and on his videos - that of Doc McConnell, the Medicine Man.

I was privileged to attend Doc's workshop on the business of storytelling and it was worth the flat tire I got and everything else just to be with that wonderful human being. Of course, I had heard him at festivals but to sit in the room with a small group and learn from the master was an honor I'll not forget. My mother's maiden name was Connell, derived from O'Connell and I always felt it gave me a connection to Doc.

Listening to Elizabeth Ellis' 'Connections' was another special reason to be at the conference. I could have probably taken that session away and learned a years' worth of knowledge in that short space of time. Her voice became dear to me since my time at ETSU and I have learned to trust her implicitly. The week before the conference, she granted me an interview for my book, Riding the Clouds, and it was all about storytelling and family, but very little of it was repeated in her talk. She is a rich repository of American Storytelling with much more to come in the future.

Speaking of the book, Riding the Clouds, in addition to Elizabeth Ellis, I have now interviewed Dot Jackson, the author of Refuge; ballad singer Betty Smith, and oral tradition storyteller Charlotte Ross. As I interview these special people, I hear of still more and I believe this could become a life work. The notion of what it means to be 'home' in the Appalachian Mountains; how these tellers came to story and how the land continues to influence them today is as intriguing as their answers. . .