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Storytelling Provides a Means of Transmitting Culture, History By Diana Cunningham Staff Writer In Germany it is said that “Handsome words do not butter the cabbage.” Popular Chinese folk wisdom affirms that “Talk does not cook the rice." In the United States, culinary references aside, “talk is cheap.” But these proverbs may be underestimating the significance of words, and stories in particular, in society. “Stories from across the world deal with the core of what it means it be human,” said Professor Glenn Hinson, chairman of the UNC curriculum in folklore. People tell stories to give a moral to the listeners, to observe a phenomenon and to deal with the unknown, Hinson said. Folk narrative provides a way of communicat ing from generation to generation. And storytelling and folk narrative have a special importance in Southern history. “The artfully crafted word is part of the rich heritage of the South,” Hinson said. According to Hinson, there is a respect in the South for eloquent speech and well told stories. It’s therefore no surprise that the capital of the storytelling world is located deep in the South. Jonesboro, Term., is a mecca of folk stories, modem stories, children’s sto ries and every kind of story. People from all over have gathered there since 1973 for an annual October festival to listen to and tell stories. Listening to stories is different from Local Storyteller Makes a Living Out of Building Community By Ashley Atkinson Arts & Entertainment Editor “Fm not saying that storytelling all by itself is going to change the world,” said local storyteller Louise Omoto Kessel. But when it comes to binding cultures and communities together, or helping individuals heal, storytelling comes close. “I think when people are going through a difficult experience, the opportunity to tell their story is part of the healing process,” said Kessel, who has used storytelling at domestic violence centers and can cer support groups. “It’s the oppor tunity to use mythic imagery to rework those experiences, and kind of transform an injury into learning or into a point of empow erment.” During an April Fool’s Day per formance at the Skylight Exchange, Kessel spun tales while a mime in red long underwear pre tended to be a chicken - set to tunes played by a man in a frog shaped hat. While this silliness was intended to entertain children, all in atten dance from ages 3 to 83 were obvi ously enthralled. Aid Kessel doesn’t see stories as something only children can enjoy. “I don’t know where that idea got start ed, because I don’t see it as ever having been true,” she said. “Traditionally, sto rytelling has been done for adult audi ences. Something like ‘The Odyssey’ - that was told out loud. That’s not chil dren’s stuff. “Adults love storytelling. Children love storytelling, too. I love telling sto ries for the whole age spectrum.” Half of ■pgll Me a Sfory reading literature or the passive entertain ment of television, said Professor Brian Sturm, who teaches a performance class on storytelling at UNC. He explained that “oral stories are actually picture based.” Storytellers involve the listeners’ imag inations and capture them emotionally by talking about the scenes that form a story. “Stories are more than plot,” Sturm said. “The plot is a coat hanger for the emotions of a story.” North Carolina in particular has a his tory of storytelling. The Appalachian Jack Tales, including the classic “Jack and the Bean Stalk,” have endured and spread into modem culture, said Charles Zug, profes sor of English and folklore at UNC. “The jack Tale traditions are very famous but very few people tell them,” Zug said. According to Zug, immigrants from Europe brought the Jack Tales to the Appalachians and retold them to fit their new lifestyles. They are still told in the original form by a select and dedicated group. Orville Hicks, a resident of Boone, is renowned for his ability in telling the Jack Tales. “He is the Hemingway of folk nar rative,” Zug said. The Appalachianjack stories served to instruct youthful mountain dwellers with morals of kindness and hard work. “All stories have a purpose,” Zug said. Stories develop from the needs and enthusiasms of a society. “They might have her work is with adults, she said. Kessel makes her living as a full-time storyteller - “It’s my livelihood,” she said. She started telling stories as a vol unteer while at Goddard College in Vermont. “I just wanted to do something to be involved in the community instead of being on campus. I really loved it a lot and it snowballed,” she said. - Hi|B Although her career in storytelling “just kind of fell into place,” the art is more than a form of entertainment for Kessel. “There are a lot of things I love about storytelling, and I wanted to do some thing I love for my work,” she said. “It builds community and brings people together. It’s a way I can explore ideas and values that are important to me without giving a big lecture. It’s kind of a nice, openhanded way to share ideas.” Kessel has been telling stories full time since 1981. The revival in story telling that is now in full swing was just getting started at that time, she said. With or without a revival in popular ity, Kessel believes that storytelling has an important place in human activity. “Though it might not be in the same form people used 100 years ago, 500 years ago, it’s kind of an innate human thing to do, to tell a story. And people tell stories all the time. In that sense there’s a con tinuity,” she said. “In the sense of professional ization of storytelling, and people coming out to hear stories as a for mal thing instead of on their back porches or in their communities, there are many more people involved now than then. There are a lot more opportunities.” Kessel, who has ajapanese- and Russian-American background, employs her culturally diverse her itage in her storytelling. “I have stories that draw from both sides of my family background, and more and more I’m asked to present sto ries in that context,” she said. “I enjoy doing that.” Kessel will pre sent Japanese Buddhist stories as part of the Acki and Art Museum’s DTH/ASHI£Y ATKINSON Five Faiths project April 29. While it might seem that faith plays a large role in storytelling, Kessel main tains that it’s the other way around. “I think storytelling plays a big role in faith,” she said. “All of the religious tra ditions have storytelling as part of their heritage, sacred stories and teaching sto ries in a religious context. “Those are some of my favorite sto- a moral, like no matter how big you are there is someone bigger, or be kind to strangers,” said Sturm. All stories are reflections of a particular culture, and oral traditions have been a part of human societies since ancient his tory - from the 1001 Arabian Nights tale to the Odyssey. The Grimm Brothers first recorded folk narrative in their collection of fairy tales in the 1800s, preserving them in their original context. But the stories of modem culture have evolved to fit the times. The urban legend, the anecdote and the well-told joke require shorter attention spans than stories. This is consistent with the fast pace of communication and transportation in modem society, Zug said. “People don’t have the patience to listen to an entire fairy tale anymore.” People all tell stories every day, almost unthinkingly. But the well-trained story teller brings the art alive. “There is a dynamic between listeners and teller of trust and vulnerability that breaks down boundaries,” Sturm said. Sturm has theorized from his own expe rience as a storyteller at schools and libraries that the “entrancing power” of stories can actually be measured. He plans to use the new MRI scanning equipment at UNC to monitor brain waves and prove a changed state in listeners. Professional storytellers use facial expression, gesture, tone and movement to I ~ ~ ~j jipyk' Hb Mjjwß f.oH| iaM . . H fTfivfiEv" " 'fir/ /'* /■ fm . 1 Hr .- Jl vi Wm/Mii |T if 'iS ' 4 . itJk '•VHEvII . HU; a* raHir .ViIPPH DTH/ASHLEY ATKINSON Louise Omoto Kessell and mime Jef dance to a song about bellybuttons as part of a storytelling performance for children at the Skylight Exchange on April 1. Kessell has been telling stories professionally for 20 years. ries - they’re really about what you believe and what you value.” Kessel rarely makes up her stories from scratch, “but sometimes they drift pretty far from the source,” she said. Although she gets a lot of her mater ial from written sources, oral and written stories are “almost two different medi um, like sculpture and painting,” Kessel said. “Oral language is so much different from written language. There’s eye con tact, and facial movement and the sound of your voice. It’s really complex and rich just to say a single sentence when you’re live in a room with someone. It’s almost hard to compare them in a way.” When Kessel finds a story in a book, “There’s a whole translation process Thursday, April 12, 2001 Page 5 deliberately capture the audience. If Sturm’s theory is correct, the semi-hyp notic state that these techniques create make listeners highly suggestible. This “entrancing power” gives story tellers a certain amount of power that may have been previously overlooked as the technological advances of the 20th centu ry overshadowed traditional storytelling with other forms of entertainment Storytelling has only recently made a comeback. “The last 20 years have seen a renais sance of the art of storytelling,” Sturm said. It is now possible to make a living as a pro fessional storyteller, making die art a StorytelHng'irT lortiiCarollna^^*^^” April 29 Five Faiths Project The Adcland Art Museum presents a program of Buddhist stories. April 27-29 Mi Echoes University of North Carolina at Asheville Storytelling Festival for more information, call: 1 (800) 626-5356 June 1-3 NCSG Annual Wildacres Retreat Center Storytelling Retreat Little Switzerland, NX. For more information, call: (336) 643-7523 June 1 Festival Wilmington's Greenfield Park Amphitheater Third Annual Wilmington, N.C. Storytelling Festival For more information, call: (910) 341-7855 where it changes into an oral story,” she said. “There’s a process of lifting it out of text and into the body.” Kessel performs traditional stories as well as those from contemporary authors. And if you ask five different story tellers what makes a good story, you get five different answers, she said. “All of us are motivated by a lot of dif ferent things. I like storytellers that speak direct from the heart and really care about what they’re saying as far as the content of the story, the message in it” Kessel doesn’t make a large distinc tion between professional storytellers and back-porch yam-spinners. She’d even rather hear storytellers in the com munity than go to a festival, she said. “It’s very heartfelt, and it’s exciting to ■ Kt* the Girts,* Again Morgan Freeman returns as a detective investigating the murder of a young woman in “Along Came a Spider." t p career instead of a hobby. Folklore, and storytelling with it, have become more valid in the academic world as well. It is possible to get a degree in folk lore at UNC and many other universities. The N.C. Arts Council presents its Heritage Preservation Awards to story tellers along with other traditional artists. According to Hinson, stories are a nat ural reflection of society: “The essential human conflicts - rites of passage, fear of the unseen - these things invite drama and stories.” The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdeskQunc.edu. watch people be culture bearers for their own communities," she said. While Kessel used to spend half her time on the road, she’s stopped travel ling in the last five years and put her focus on telling stories in this area. “The wonderful thing about commu nity storytellers is that they have an ongoing relationship with their audience so they have the opportunity to find the story that that audience needs at that time,” she said. “And once they’ve told the story, it becomes part of the language of that community. It becomes a common ref erence point for everyone.” The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdeskQunc.edu. ... page 8
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