Storytelling Thursday - ME!

Well, I have two passes to Saturday, March 31st show at StoryFUSION.  Any takers?  This is no longer a blog Giveaway.  This is a First Person Gets It Giveaway.  Just post a comment and the passes are yours.

The Battle of the Books update is at the end of this post.

I am performing - with Larry Sceurman, who is amazing and magical, - on Sunday afternoon, 2 pm, at Godfrey Daniels, 7 East 4th Street, Bethlehem, PA 18105.  I will bring my accordion, just for fun.  Larry will bring his magic.  We plan to tell a story together, too.

So, my storyteller of the week is...ME!  I am awesome.  Actually, I am pretty good, even if I say so myself.

Here I am as Monsieur Maurer (Mah-ray)

Here is my storytelling history.
30 years ago,  I had only seen two actual "storytellers" at that time, Kathy Pierce and Ed Stivender.  The idea that anyone could actually make money doing something I just did naturally - honestly, try to shut me up when I get going - was amazing!

So I began to tell stories everywhere I could - in storytimes, to church groups, at Halloween bonfires.  I made up a flier and sent it out - cut and paste since design software was very expensive back then.

A year or two later, a F(f)riend asked me if I would be her storytelling partner, and Ollie Ollie Infree Storytellers was born.  We told at schools and camps and church groups and retirement dinners and ladies' clubs, in PA, West Virginia and Ohio.  We even told at Mayfair, which was a brand new festival back then.

Before or during this partnership, I started an intergenerational storytelling troupe at the library where I was the YS librarian.  Storytellers' Circle, the group was called and it was a lively fun group.  We put on shows for the library, visited senior groups and nursing homes and nursery schools and day cares.  We had parents and children join together.  And children who joined without parents and parents who joined without children.  We were all learning together.  Chaz Kiernan and his daughter, Emily, were members of this troupe.   YAY!

This is how the Black Rose Tellers began - and that is Kelly on the right!

  I started the Black Rose Teen Tellers in 2004.  And it continued until I resigned from that library in 2011.  The Teen Tellers did reader's theater, planned and performed for Dr. Seuss Birthday Parties and Teddy Bear Costume Parties, Tellabration, for benefit events, and BEST of ALL, these teens helped plan and carry out annual workshops for younger tellers.  In Fall 2010, I started Tellers2 with tellers in grades 3 through 5. 

Over the years, two of the Teen Tellers qualified to compete in the National Youth Storytelling Showcase, Aleah Goldin and Josh Langman.  (Three if we count Emily Kiernan but she wasn't a member of any troupe when she competed.)  Two of them starred in the YouTube below, the amazing Kelly Fitzpatrick and Erik N.

Me?  I tell stories with and without my accordion. I have visited West Virginia, Ohio, Texas and PA, telling stories at festivals, schools, parties, church groups and leading workshops for young tellers and teachers.  Like reading and reviewing children's books, storytelling is what I do, who I am.  Join me - at StoryFUSION, at Godfrey Daniels. I will gladly tell you a story - anytime.

BoB Update:
 Chime goes on to the next round, just as I said it would.  Tomorrow's winner, I predict, will be Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  However, Dead End in Norvelt did win the Newbery and just might win again.