pippin 1 - storytelling toronto

Pippin - Fall/Winter 2008-2009 1

Pippin

Vol.14, No.2 The Newsletter of the Storytellers School of Toronto

INSIDE

By Lorne Brown They were the most eagerly sought after of tickets. No advance public-ity, no media release, no advertise-ments. Good old-fashioned word of mouth (or maybe word of e-mail) and magically the news spread.

“Pete Seeger’s singing in To-ronto! Pass it on!” “He’s singing in Hugh’s Room with his grandson! Pass it on!”

Now how on earth could this happen? Mr. Seeger is 89 years old and vowed some years ago that his touring days were over. “I’m so busy at home with chores, answering mail, that I never think of leaving the (Hudson) valley,” he said, “My banjo’s hanging on the wall and if anyone vis-its I can take it down and play it.” As usual, Pete is being too modest. Peo-ple dropping in include the Boss him-self, Bruce Springsteen, who made a recording with Pete. And banjo vir-tuoso Tony Trischka, who did like-wise, thanks to the mini-digital re-corder.

But the question remains: how could this happen?

Well, it seems that Pete’s grand-son Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, with his folk rock group the Mammals on ma-ternity leave, recently performed a concert with his grandfather and Guy Davis at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Li-brary and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. "We had a really good time," said Rodri-guez-Seeger. "We got home and Grandpa was bouncing off the wall with excitement. 'Let's do that again,' he said."

(Continued on page 3)

Seeger Sings Again (in Canada)

A Note From the Editor

Seeger Sings Again ................1 Book Nook .........................6 Peace Theatre Camp 2008........7 Harmony Project ...................8 National Aboriginal Day ...........8 A Storytelling Journey ............9 Fall Gathering and AGM...........9

A Feast of Festivals ...............10 Some Thoughts on Appleseed.....12 Stories Going ‘Round ...............13 Centre for Digital Storytelling ....13 Travel, Folklore & Family..........14 Listings..............................15

A new name, a new home, new times. Yes, the times they are a-changin’. We are witnessing the end of one chapter in the

life of our organization and the beginning

a new one. That’s evolution for you. Sometimes it is born out of necessity and other times it is born out of wisdom and a demand for a greater vision. “Storytelling Toronto” is our official new name which is a little easier to get your tongue around than the old moniker. It also suggests a greater scope of en-compassing more than our work in the schools – a name that originally did very well to describe our original vision. But we have grown.


Pete Seeger at age 88 photographed on 6-16-07 at the Clearwater Festival 2007 by Anthony Pepitone

2 Pippin - Fall/Winter 2008-2009

**NOTA BENE**

PIPPIN is the newsletter of The Storytellers School of Toronto.

The Storytellers School of Toronto is a registered, non-profit organization that provides a creative home for a community of storytellers,

listeners, and story-explorers. Our mission is to inspire, encourage and support storytelling for listeners, tellers and those who have not yet heard. Since 1979 we have been providing courses and workshops; holding gatherings, festivals and events to celebrate and present the art of storytelling; supporting the creative work of storytellers; and producing publications about storytelling and storytellers.

Pippin Editor Deborah Dunleavy

[email protected]

Design/Layout

chris cavanagh

Book Reviewer Rheba Estante

Listings

Marylyn Peringer

Program Leaders Festival Artistic Director: Brian Hetherington

Course Coordinators: Marylyn Peringer, Lynda Howes Directory Committee: Bruce Carmody (Chair),

Laurie Malabar, Heather Whaley Appleseed Quartlerly: Brian Hetherington (Editor-in-Chief)

Website: Bruce Carmody

[email protected]

Board of Directors 2006-2007

Karen Blair (Treasurer) David Gladstone

Brian Hetherington (Past-President) Michael Lobraico (President)

Katherine Ramkhelawan Hildy Stollery

Paul Robert (Secretary) Molly Sutkaitis

Managing Director Jody James

© The Storytellers School of Toronto

720 Bathurst St., Suite 500A Toronto, ON

M5S 2R4 Phone: 416 656-2445 Fax: 416 656-8510

Email: [email protected] Website: www.storytellingtoronto.org

Just looking at this edition of Pippin we can see that we have expanded beyond the borders of the greater megalopolis. We are working as peace activists, as healers, as folklorists as musicians and more. We are taking our stories to festivals, gather-ings, fairs, events, parks and of course, to the schools. We bid a bittersweet fairwell (at least for the time being) to Appleseed Quar-terly. Pippin continues to be our brag rag and makes no pretense about being the intellectual read that AQ provided for so many years.

The last edition of Pippin got lost in the midst of summer frolic and I am as guilty as anyone else for not making it hap-pen. What can I say, there’s something about those lazy, hazy days of August that puts my mind on vacation. I’d much rather be metaphorically fishing rather than strapped to my computer. We’ll want to look at this seasonal distraction for the future.

Thanks to all of our contributors this time ‘round. Without you there would be only blank pages. Let’s keep the pages dancing with your news.

(Continued from page 1)

AWARDS PUT ON HOLD The Alice Kane and the Anne Smythe Awards will not be presented this year. With the economic downturn our invest-ment with the Arts Endowment Fund has been affected. In the past interest on this investment was used for the awards. Unfortunately the fund has actually lost value recently making it necessary to postpone the awards.

CITY DEDICATES NEW PARK IN HONOUR OF

DR. RITA COX Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Park-dale-High Park), representatives of the City of Toronto, prominent Torontonians and community members joined Canadian icon Dr. Rita Cox to dedicate a new park in her honour on Wednesday, October 22 at 14 Machells Ave. Dr. Cox joined the Toronto Public Library in 1960 as a children’s librarian conducting storytelling sessions at the local branch in Parkdale. As chief librar-ian, a role she took on in 1974, Dr. Cox instituted literacy programs, promoted multiculturalism throughout Toronto, and pioneered the library’s Black Heritage and West Indian Resource Collection. In 1998, the collection was renamed the Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection. It has become one of the most compre-hensive collections of its kind in Canada.

BARNS UPDATE: Exciting news! Although plans are still in the works for our actual move, we are picking up the keys to our new home on Nov. 1st. The official opening cere-mony for Artscape Wychwood Barns will be on Thursday, November 20. After that the Barns will be open to the public. At the time of Pippin going to the print-ers, a special event was slated for No-vember 15th. Storytelling Toronto is planning to hold an event to celebrate the move and raise some money to help offset moving expenses. You are all invited! More in-formation will be available soon.


A Canadian tour was quickly arranged – Montreal (River’s Edge Community Church), Toronto (two nights in Hugh’s Room), King-ston (the Grand Theatre) and Ottawa (Library and Archives Canada). No airplane travel; they would drive in a van. No large venues, only small intimate ones. The tour would be a benefit for the Unitarian Ser-vice Committee of Canada, which assists farmers in developing countries. ($35 000 was raised!) The tour sold out immediately.

So I find myself arriving with my wife on the evening of July 7, 2008 at Hugh’s Room. The problems I had with a kidney stone - which caused me to cancel all sorts of gigs, including one in Saskatoon – had finally passed, so to speak, and this was my

“First Night Out”. There was the Seeger van parked outside Hugh’s Room. The mar-quee billed tonight as the “Seeger Family Concert” That would be Pete, grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and “honorary cousin” Guy Davis, son of actor/activists Ossie and Ruby Davis.

Already Hugh’s Room was filling up with diners. People waited in line, some carrying banjos, which I thought strange. Turns out they were hoping Pete would sign them af-ter the show. He didn’t; he went up one flight of stairs to the Green Room and down another and out the door to his van. Eventually we got seated at Bram Morri-son’s table, a table for nine directly in front of the stage. Unfortunately, Bram and Ruth were unable to attend, but Sharon

Hampson and her daughter were there, along with other friends and relatives. Larry, a table mate, said that Pete Seeger was just ahead of him when he came in. “There was Pete Seeger with his banjo!” he kept repeating, like some teenage girl talk-ing about the latest heartthrob band hero. In fact, the whole room seemed to be filled with old friends and relatives. It was “Old Home Week”, with Toronto’s folk commu-nity out in full force, all feeling, truth to tell, somewhat teenage-ish.

There was banjo wiz Arnie Naiman and his singing wife Kathy Reid Naiman. They were sitting so close to the stage I sug-gested Arnie could re-tune the 5-string banjo lying on a chair on stage. Tao’s banjo,



Seeger Sings Again (in Canada) cont’d

Washington, D.C. Pete Seeger, noted folk singer entertaining at the opening of the Washington labor canteen, sponsored by the United Federal Labor Canteen, sponsored by the Federal Workers of American, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).” Photograph by Joseph A. Horne, February 1944


since Pete never appears anywhere without his banjo. Ken Whitely was there with his wife Ellen. Guitar virtuoso Paul Mills walked by. The “Backseat Balladeers” were there, four storytellers with a love for the tradi-tional ballad. Jerry Gray of the Travellers was greeting old friends. Alumni of the leg-endary Camp Naivalt, some in Camp Naivalt t-shirts, were everywhere. Gordon Lightfoot sat in relative obscurity. Seeger fans are passionate; Bob Biderman of the Common Thread Choir was there, having also attended the previous night’s concert, where See-ger invited Sylvia Tyson to help sing “If I Had a Ham-mer”. Pete’s step-brother Rufus Dickinson, who lives in Toronto, attended both performances. In fact, Pete had lunch (an egg salad sandwich) at Rufus’s home today and discussed politics and family. Lilian Wauthier of the Acoustic Harvest folk club sat near me. The place was alive with excite-ment. Wordsmith Holmes Hooke, who books acts for Hugh’s Room and MCs shows there, was talking to vari-ous people. “I’m glad to see you here!” he said to me, “I was hoping you’d make it.”

The wait staff was a perfect example of grace under pressure, and by 8:30 pm everyone had been fed and watered. People were still coming in and excite-ment was mounting, if that were possible. (The show was billed to start at 8:30.)

At 8:50, Hooke mounted the stage and started speaking into the microphone. Alas, what he said will never be known, for at that exact moment applause started at the back of the room as people started to stand and clap. The trio of performers had appeared in the back of the room. Everyone else now stood and applauded, and Tao, Pete and Guy made their way to the stage, walking directly past me. Pete, toting his banjo, looked frail; his grandson carried

Pete’s 12-string guitar. They mounted the stage to a prolonged standing ovation. Pete Seeger was here and all was well with the world.

Pete stood, looking a bit bewildered. Of course he has always been bewildered by applause meant for him that he feels should rightly go to others. But tonight he looked like an 89-year old man, not quite sure what to do next. Then he stepped to

the mic and started to sing, “One day, one day, sir, I was walkin’ along, and I heard that Special singing a lonesome song …”

We all quickly and silently sat down, like obedient pupils when the headmaster appears. Meanwhile, on stage, 5-string banjo, 6-string and 12-string guitars all started to play, and the three singers sang, “Oh let the Midnight Special shine her light on me …” By the repeat of this line, the whole room was singing and clapping along. I

doubt there’s a performer in the world who can have such an instantaneous effect on an audience.

And so the unbelievable evening un-folded. Guy Davis sang blues and told sto-ries, using his mouth harp to great advan-tage. Grandson Tao played his 12-string as to the manor born, and frailed a new tune on his banjo he called “Hugh’s Tune”. He told a story of how, after living in Nicara-

gua for nine years he came home to Beacon, New York, fluently bi-lingual, and told his grandpa that he should-n’t sing Spanish songs since his Spanish was so bad. “I was sixteen years old and thor-oughly objectionable,” he said. “Grandpa said, ‘Well, if I sing Spanish so badly, why don’t you join me on stage and help me do it better?’ I did, and we’ve been singing together now for nineteen years.” Great applause, during which we calculated that Tao must be 35 years old now. “Too bad,” said Tao, “That we couldn’t deal with George Bush like that – tell him he’s doing a bad job and have him ask you to join with him to make it better.” He then sang a Cuban cow-boy song with a Spanish refrain we all joined in on, albeit no doubt in bad Spanish. Despite how well Guy and Tao performed –

and they were excellent; in fact Guy invited “the unofficial mayor of Toronto”, Ken Whitely, on stage to help out (superlatively) with his mandolin – we were all waiting for Pete’s turn. Forget any thought that an 89-year old would only lead us in some romp of old nostalgia; Pete kept singing one new song after another. “Take It from Dr King”, which he wrote after 9/11, has a tricky refrain to sing which




Pete taught to us so simply and naturally that in less time than it takes me to write, he had us all singing it as if we’d known it all our lives. He is a great teacher.

2008 is the year Jim Brown’s documen-tary “Pete Seeger: the Power of Song” was released. It played nationally on PBS and closed Toronto’s Jewish Film Festival. The phrase “power of song” was used to show how songs can change the world. Pete is a great believer in that sentiment. But as I watched this concert, I had a new appre-ciation for the phrase “power of song”. Song transforms Pete. (Historical note: back in the 1970s, Pete decided to quit singing. He actually became physically ill because he wasn’t singing. He decided to resume singing, and his illness was cured.) Song transforms Pete; let me explain:

Watching Seeger on stage tonight was most interesting. When not leading the singing he sat quietly at the back, picking his banjo in a sparse style. Single notes played on a single string. For the most part he seemed almost uncertain of what was happening. His eyes were the watery eyes of an old man. His hearing has deterio-rated. “What key are we in?” he asked Guy. “G,” replied Guy. “B?” asked Pete. “G,” said Guy.

At one point, when Pete was introduc-ing a song, Tao spoke in his ear, “Grandpa, don’t you play the guitar for this song?” “Oh, yes,” replied Pete, and exchanged banjo for guitar.

But when he starts to sing he is trans-formed. His eyes are pure fire, shooting sparks. His whole boy radiates energy, the energy of his convictions. His voice grows stronger as the evening progresses. He throws his head back and cuts loose, a fa-mous Seeger gesture. The audience sings its heart out and Seeger is ageless. For a brief shining moment we all believe we can make the world a better place.

It is almost certain that Seeger will not sing in Toronto again. As the evening draws to its conclusion, I start concentrat-ing on the words Seeger is singing, realizing that he is giving us a profound lesson on Life.

With the poor people of this earth I want to share my fate. One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shores,

One earth so green and round, who could ask for more? And because I love you, I’ll give it one more try, To show my rainbow race it’s too soon to die.

I’ve long believed these next are the

wisest words I know, the words of a name-less preacher a long time ago:

A time to be born, a time to die, A time to plant, a time to reap,

A time to dance, a time to mourn, A time of love, a time of hate, A time of war, a time of peace.

A time you may embrace, a time to re-frain from embracing,

Grandson Tao says that “Turn! Turn!

Turn!” is a metaphor for Pete’s career: early on he was declared “Un-American” and sentenced to jail (1955). While the jail time was only a few hours, for 17 years Seeger was blacklisted and couldn’t appear on American television. But now he has re-ceived his nation’s highest artistic honour, the Presidential Medal of the Arts (1996) and is one of the most revered of artists.

I was pleased when Pete sang a verse especially for me and my kidney stone problem:

A time to cast away stones, a time

to gather stones together. And I nearly forgot this important line: When will they ever learn? The evening was over. To delirious ap-

plause, the four singers (Ken Whitely had joined them) left the stage and made their way through the standing audience. A stage crew member shone a flashlight ahead of Pete so he could see his way through the darkness. They climbed the stairs but the applause wouldn’t cease, so back they came. Pete looked transported. He went directly to the mic and started in:

This little light of mine, I’m gonna

let it shine … Three hundred people joined in before

he finished the line. For over seven dec-ades, Seeger has let his light shine all over

the world. The world hasn’t always wanted to see it; bushels come in all shapes and sizes.

But Pete Seeger never hid his light un-der a bushel.

Aftermath: The immediate aftermath was a room

full of transformed people, hugging each other, laughing, weeping. Old Ecclesiastes had it right. We were reluctant to go out into the night.

The Seeger Family Concert was back on the road in their van, travelling to Kingston and then to Ottawa – five concerts on five consecutive nights for an 89-year old!

Pete Seeger so enjoyed this mini-tour that on August 5, he and Tao and Guy are giving a concert in Sellersville, PA. On Sep-tember 13 the three give a benefit concert in Brattleboro, Vermont in aid of “The Strolling of the Heifers” to help New Eng-land farmers.

And then what? Every week Seeger drives to the Staples parking lot in Wap-pingers Falls, Dutchess County, New York, slings his banjo on his shoulder, and goes to the intersection of Rte 9 and 9D, the Hud-son Valley POW-MIA Memorial Highway, about an hour north of New York City and not far from the Seeger home in Fishkill. He picks up some litter – “That’s my relig-ion now,” he says – and holds up a PEACE sign. The weekly peace vigil against the war starts again, with a few determined pro-testers. Pete’s been at it for four years. Drivers speed by, most of them unaware of who is holding up the PEACE sign. A small group in favour of the war gathers on the other side of the highway.

And the future? Will this world ever learn? Can we right our environmental and social ills? Pete, himself, is optimistic. “Children give you hope for the world,” he says when asked if he’s optimistic about the survival of humankind. “If there’s a world here, it will be because of people learning how to work with children.”

This little light of mine, I’m gonna’ let it shine.

Lorne Brown is a Toronto storyteller and ballad singer and a former editor of The Canadian Folk Music Bulletin.



Book nook

Review by Deborah Dunleavy While driving into the endlessness of a late November night I turned on the car radio and randomly selected the company of CBC. I heard a man’s voice. He was speaking English with a Spanish lilt. He was talking about storytellers in society. This eloquent man was Alberto Man-guel delivering his work, City of Words, for the CBC Massey Lecture Series. It was a Wednesday evening and I was catching the middle of the third presentation of five. I knew that my busy schedule would not allow for more cozying up to the radio on future nights of the week so I ordered the book and waited anxiously for it to arrive by post. The wait was well worth it as this would prove to be an exhila-rating read. Manguel is an an-thropologist, translator, essay-ist, novelist and editor. He is passionate about language, its place in reflecting society, and in shaping the future of that very society out of which it is born. In the introduction Manguel asks some thought provoking questions. “Why do we seek definitions of identity in words, and what is, in such a quest, the story-teller’s role? How does language itself determine, limit and enlarge our imagination of the world? How do the stories we tell help us perceive ourselves and others? Can such stories lend a whole society an identity, whether true or false? And to conclude, is it possible for stories to change us and the world we live in?” By examining literary works in their historical contexts Manguel offers the reader insight to his arguments. As in Plato’ writings and those of the Epic of Gilgamesh fictional cities become mirrors for society, sometimes reflecting the truth

and sometimes distorting it. As far back as the telling of the great flood in the book of Genesis and as far forward as the artificial intelligence of the computer Hal in Clarke and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the stories suggest that “our better, happier world lies always just beyond our reach, in

another time or place, in a long lost past, in the fabulous Golden Age longed for by Don Quixote, or in the future on a distant planet.” Manguel offers the reader a glimpse of the Inuit film The Fast Runner where the story is both “allusive and non-linear”. The author goes on to explain that “the telling of a legend is always a voice from the past and contemporary of the teller.”

The discourse of how religion, race, and ethnicity are perceived through storytel-ling and story writing is at the heart of book. Manguel was born in Buenos Aires, became a Canadian citizen and now resides in France. He has a global citizen’s perspec-tive. He understands religious and political

strife and appreciates the frailty of society. “The story that grants a soci-ety and each of its individuals an identity must, in order to serve its purpose of bringing a certain con-sciousness to our existence, not only shape itself throughout time what society legislates and consid-ers proper, but also upon that which it considers alien and ex-cludes.” At times the book is a dense read making it an effort to stay with Manguel as his philosophy unfolds. He espouses that it is the carrier of the stories that we need to acknowledge in order to understand our role and place in society. Poets, visionaries, novel-ists and even filmmakers reveal the secrets to our way of life. Indeed his own poetic command of words and his complex sentence structure takes the reader on an intriguing journey. “Language lends voice to the storytellers who try to tell us who we are; language builds out of words our reality and those who inhabit it, within and without the walls; language offers stories that lie and stories that tell the truth.” The City of Words by Alberto

Manguel is one of the CBC Massey Lec-tures. It is published by House of Anansi Press Inc. and distributed by Harper Collins Canada Ltd. 1-800-387-0117 ISBN 978-0-88784-763-9 Deborah Dunleavy is a storyteller and au-thor constantly seeking philosophical sup-port for her storytelling propensities.

CITY OF WORDS by Alberto Manguel


By Molly Sutkaitis The seasons repeat themselves rou-tinely. Stone Soup is one of the routine rituals that takes place at 305 Dawes Road on the last Friday of the month except for Solstice days when the solstice is cele-brated. Canada Day this year brought ex-citement to enhance the rhythm of my life. Canada Day signals for me that the time has come to prepare for Children's Peace Theatre Camp. This year Guide Training took place on two days the week before the opening of CPT Camp. Have you ever felt so completely at home in your body that you experi-enced the oneness of inner peace? Have you ever felt so completely at home that you didn't feel even the slightest urge to fix anything or plan anything? Have you ever felt that all your senses grabbed you and made you think that this moment in time was meant to be? That you were at one with the world? That is exactly how I felt on Thursday July 3rd when the Guides assembled for training for CPT Camp 2008. We had a title for the play "Hero under Construction". Some Guides had experienced the beauties of the environment before. There were those who had previously been camp-ers and were looking forward to taking on the responsibilities that becoming a guide entails. Then there were the Artist Guides who had heard of the wonderful transfor-mations that had taken place in the lives of campers in previous years. There were the Artist Guides who had already tasted the results of hard work and team co-operation. THE FIRST WEEK The first week was spent in encouraging the children to explore their own stories. The campers came from different cultures yet they spoke a universal language, in dif-ferent guises of the oral traditions of many nations. The rhythm of the flow of creative juices started once circles were formed. At these times the participants worked on

theatre games and exercises which allowed the creativity to surface. The campers started to leap over fear. Life at CPT is positive, it responds to fellowship rooted in love. The uniqueness of each individual opens up as ideas, agreeable and disagree-able emerge. This was my sixth year to participate at CPT. The mission is to change the culture of war to a culture of peace through thea-tre games and exercises. CPT was insti-gated by the United Nations when the Peace University was brought to Toronto. There was a need for a feeder system that

would provide future peace leaders. Friend-ship at camp was a recurring theme this year. July 7th saw the first circle take place at the Gathering Place, a flat area in front of the Great Hall. The first week we tried out ideas. There was a collection of news-paper and magazine from which Artistic Guide Leaders selected pictures and arti-cles to share with their groups. Adam Paolozza the Artistic Director, brought in posters from his visit to China. These were the springboard from which the play "Hero Under Construction" would be created. Another feature of CPT is Global Per-spective. This involved bringing in outside speakers who talked about specific topics. One Global Perspective dealt with volun-teering in Kenya, another afternoon an American war resister told us about how

when he came to realize that the war in Iraq was unethical he walked away. Along with another Raging Granny I did a workshop on the art of storytelling. The most talked about Global Perspective took place the first Friday of camp. We elec-tronically hooked up with a group from In-dia. Our children spoke live and on camera with children who had made a film dealing with corporal punishment at an evening tutorial school. Excited cries of "We spoke with India today" was shared with parents at pick-up time.

THE SECOND WEEK The second week was set aside for shaping the scenes in groups and con-centrating on the opening and closing scenes which involved the entire com-pany. Here we were led by a musical genius, Mathew Adam Smith. Matt not only had the children singing in a rhythmic pattern, he saw to it that enjoyment was built in to his lessons. While Matt was doing music Karen Emmerson the Camp Director was with the other half of the company who were designing shoes for our hero. These shoes were later dis-played in the Great Hall on a set of marbled steps fashioned from card-board. We were aiming for perfec-tion; each person was prepared to

give of their best. Mother Nature kept us on tender hooks regarding the weather. Come 1p.m. Thurs-day our audience arrived, the sun came out and dried up all the rows of seats. We were ready; the first performance went off well. PEACE PARADE AND GALA On Friday the Peace Is Possible (PIP) Parade took place. Day Cares from the sur-rounding neighborhood paraded their chil-dren from the Danforth to the park oppo-site 305 Dawes Rd. Banners and visuals which would later decorate the Gathering place had been fashioned by a group of high school and college students. Saturday July 26 was the Gala, a fund-raiser for CPT. It provided a glorious end to three weeks of hard work, much learn-ing, and much fun and laughter.

Peace Theatre Camp 2008


By Molly Sutkaitis As storytelling is one part of the oral culture, I thought I would share with you a project that has been ongoing since Janu-ary 2007. It is called the Harmony Project. The aim is to get young people inter-ested in storytelling through theatre games and exercises. This project is in-spired by the Children's Peace Theatre whose mission is to change the culture of war to a culture of peace. The participants make up their own play with the guidance and direction of artist guides. I have been, storyteller in residence, there for the last five summer Peace Camps. During the rest of the year we keep

in contact. The last Friday of each month we meet for Stone Soup, we tell stories, and entertain each other after a pot luck supper. The meeting place of the Children's Peace Theatre is 305 Dawes Road, at the old Massey Golding Estate. This estate was a wedding gift to the youngest of the Massey girls, Anne Massey, somewhere around the start of the twentieth century. When the family was finished with it the mansion became a boy's school. When the boy's school was finished with it the vandals moved in. It was then that a neighbour formed a committee to save the mansion from the hands of the developers. Against all odds

when this committee went to the Ontario Municipal Board, they won. The Children's Peace Theatre became the first tenants. At the end of each session of the Har-mony Project, I tell a story and we encour-age the children to tell their stories. The Harmony Project has been held in librar-ies, schools and a community centre. The participants are between the ages of eight and thirteen. I plan on expanding the Har-mony Project to the downtown area in the fall. My hope is that because the children are participating in an exciting project they will not be come involved in gangs. Maybe some will even become storytellers. Mira-cles do happen.

By Pat Bisset Several years ago, af-ter doing volunteer craft making for the Buffalo Jump Artist' Collective, I criticized the choice of entertainment. “You or-ganize it” was the re-sponse. I'm still organizing it. 2008 was the 10th an-nual event. It started with a parade from City Hall to Trinity Bellwoods Park led by women hand drummers and folks carry-ing our Sacred Hoop. The parade was smaller than the last few years. Ominous clouds threatened. We arrived at the park to the heartbeat sound of a giant drum. We were smudged as we walked through the Sacred Hoop, then formed a giant circle to be addressed by the Elders, and were welcomed by huge wild animal puppets played by Shadowland Thea-tre. People went off to the various circles. I hosted the White Circle, Loonhawk (Ron Cook) led at the Black Circle Crafts. The administration formed the Yellow Circle, while Native Elders and Teachers were at the Red Circle. Two of our guests in the Red Circle were lively storytellers, Joe Paquette and Scott Debasige.

The acts demon-strated a variety of ways to tell a story. My circle began with the Metis Quartet, four Delbare-Sawchuk siblings, descen-dents of Louis Riel, rang-ing in age from ten to early twenties. They are fine musicians. Tunes changed from a lively Red River jig to a heart-rending song about missing Mama at boarding school. There was a short play

about White Buffalo Calf Woman and some misguided young people. Part way through the play the rain came – first sprinkles, then heavy. The play was halted and while we waited folks crowded under two small tents to hear Donna Dudinsky perform for her first time in French. She sang a beauti-ful 17th Century ballad about a 15 year old Quebecois girl forced to marry a sea cap-tain, followed by a story about Ti-Jean, who wins the day with his naivety. The play resumed after Donna and the showers ended. Norma Araiza and her partner danced a beautiful solemn Yaqui dance. It concluded with an attempt to light a candle, but as the rain began once again to stream they and the audience broke down laughing. The next performer would have been

Lorne Brown, but he had to cancel due to health problems. We all wished him a quick recovery. Lorne had been contracted as a singer as I had filled my storyteller quota rather quickly. Bob Snider was in Toronto, and he was gracious in joining us on short notice. As we crowded under tents in the dripping rain, Bob scrapped his planned programme to honour requests for audience favourites such as “What an Idiot” and “Bob's Protest Song”. Yusuke Tanaka of the Katari Tellers told next. In respect of Aboriginal Day he told an amusing story of “The Last Ainu Bear” and sang an Ainu lullaby. Norm Perrin told “Tall Tales of the Ottawa Valley” in Ron's circle. Truth is relative, and Norm likes to tell tales of his Uncle Norm. Metis singer Paul Chaput ended my cir-cle for the day. The night before, he had performed a musical theatre piece about Champlain to a packed audience in Montreal. Now he brought the same intensity to our much smaller audience, singing then trans-lating a poignant song about Native and French first contact. The day rounded off with a closing cir-cle, with Ojibway songs sung by the Wolf Woman Singers. Joe Paquette led a round dance. After helping with the packing up, I sat and waited for the tent truck. I was struck by how there was no place else on Earth I would rather have been that day than exactly where I was.

Harmony Project

National Aboriginal Day – June 21st, 2008


Celia Lottridge Jennifer Cayley and I were able to at-tend this conference in Gatlinburg, Tennes-see representing SC-CC as part of an ex-change between SC-CC and the US National Storytelling Network. The exchange only covers conference registration but SC-CC made a contribution to our travel and it happens that my mother and sister live not far from Gatlinburg. Some things are meant to happen. Jo Radner, the president of NSN, wel-comed us and we had the chance to talk with many people who were interested in hearing about SC-CC and Canadian storytel-ling and storytellers. Although the NSN is a much larger organization than SC-CC, having over 2000 members, we share many concerns such as how to be more effective in getting audiences and how to find venues beyond festivals and concert series. The internet, both as a promotion tool and as a venue for storytelling, came up many times. There was much less focus on the NSN organization itself and on national projects than we experienced at our SC-CC confer-ences. This may be a function of our small population and our large space. We really

need each other. This conference featured a lot of sto-rytelling, including eight daytime concerts given by south-eastern state organizations. We were fortunate to attend the South Carolina and Georgia concerts. The telling was really good and gave us a flavour of these regions that we would never get in Canada. Our most moving encounter with story-telling came on the Saturday evening. We were going home before the concert and the corridors of the convention center were nearly empty but we met up with a man in a wheel chair who was clearly looking for something. When we asked if we could help he said, “I’m supposed to be here for a sound check but I don’t know which room the concert is in.” We then realized that he was wearing a storytellers badge and he was Doc McConnell, a man who has been a mainstay of the Jonesborough Festival for decades and is a famous teller of tall tales and humorous stories of all kinds. In the very few minutes we talked with him he told us two good stories. Then his wife came and took him off to the sound check. The next morning I got an email from a

Tennessee storyteller I know saying that Doc had had a stroke after the concert. He died a few days later. Jennifer and I felt very fortunate that we had spoken with him in that deserted corridor. He was a storyteller to the end. While this conference did not focus on the physical surroundings of the Smoky Mountains we could hardly ignore Gatlin-burg, “Gateway to the Smokies” and con-summate tourist town. Just outside the door of the conference center we had a choice of visiting Ripley’s Believe it or Not or witnessing the Struggle Between Good and Evil at the Miracle Theater. We ate dinner while looking straight into the gaping mouth of King Kong (fortunately in the next building). And, as we walked along the crowded street we overheard one man say to another, “Do you think I can find a mer-maid here?” “Yeah,” said the other, “there’s bound to be a mermaid.” Later I did take Jennifer beyond Gat-linburg and into the beautiful Smoky Moun-tains. We saw no mermaid but we almost met a bear. But that’s another story.

October 25th was a glorious autumn day and like leaves being blown down the street, people made their way to the cozy comfort of the Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church to take part in the Fall Gathering and AGM. That morning an enthusiastic handful of tellers participated in Storywalkers – Stepping into the Emotion, led by Deborah Dunleavy. A recipient of the Anne Smythe Award, Deborah had recently returned from Scotland, bringing with her a re-newed inspiration which she freely shared with her fellow tellers. That evening a generous audience gathered to hear Deborah performed BEA-VER HATS & BAGPIPES: Amazing and Sometimes True Stories of New Scotland. Annual General Meeting 2008: David Gladstone, on behalf of the Board of

Directors. At the Annual General Meeting, that was held on October 25, 2008 there was the usual pleasant ambiance and the meet-ing covered a variety of topics.

One of items is of particular importance to us all. The new name for The Storytell-ers School of Toronto is “Storytelling To-ronto”. It will take awhile for all of us to get used to it, but everyone at the meeting agreed it was a change for the better. - A special thank you to Paul Robert, chairper-son, for his leadership in this matter. A report was received from each of the following committees: Appleseed Quar-terly, Pippin, Awards, Memberships, Courses, Festival, Storyfire and Legless Stocking. The “Appleseed Quarterly” has been discontinued so the last issue of the “Quarterly” will be the fall “08 edition. The membership report indicated that our membership was slightly down. If you have any ideas on how we might increase


A STORYTELLING JOURNEY Report on the National Storytelling Network Conference, August 6 to 9, 2008

FALL GATHERING and AGM

Deborah Dunleavy performs Beaver Hats & Bagpipes.


FOS – FESTIVAL OF STORYTELLING Brockville, September 2008 FOS was held at the Brockville Museum on September 26 and 27 with four events designed to attract a varied demographic. This included youth, families, teachers, storytellers, history buffs, the multicul-tural commu-nity and more. On the Fri-day night the program “Monsters, Beasts and Dragon Tales” was hosted by Deborah Dunleavy with guest tellers, Ruth Stewart-Verger and Donna Stewart from Ottawa, Bob Barton from Toronto, and Elinor Ben-jamin from Newfoundland. The event at-tracted a nearly full house with a number of young people between the ages of ten and fourteen. On Saturday morning FOS presented “Stepping Into The Story”, a workshop led by master teller Bob Barton. It attracted a small but keen group with participants from Toronto, Kingston, Napanee and Brockville. A large and enthusiastic audience of children and their parents came out on Saturday afternoon to hear John Bohusz, Dee Tingley, Bill Lalonde and Deborah Dunleavy tell tales from Japan and to see story mime Noriko Yamamoto beautifully perform “The Funny Little Woman”. That evening Bob Barton performed “Saved By The Sinking” to an intimate group of twenty and everyone was greatly impressed with the telling.

FOS 2009 takes place in historic downtown Brockville on September 25 & 26. Come to the magical land of the 1000 Islands and enjoy a weekend of storytelling charm and adventure. Contact Deborah Dunleavy at 613-342-3463 or [email protected].

LATITUDES STORYTELLING FESTIVAL Downpours Didn’t Dampen Spirits By Lori-Ann Livingston, Chair of the Lati-tudes Storytelling Festival Board It rained. It poured. It hailed. It thun-dered. And while the two other festivals in victoria Park in Kitchener packed up and went home during the thunderstorm on June 22, Latitudes Storytelling Festival carried on. Held on Roos Island, Victoria Park, in Kitchener, on June 21-22, Latitudes Story-telling Festival celebrates stories from around the world, for children and adults alike. Latitudes is a festival of spoken word, music, image, theatre and poetry. For the

second year, Latitudes joined the K-W Mul-ticultural Festival and Anishnabeg Out-reach Centre in the park to celebrate our community, its stories, its traditions, and its food. This year, Latitudes’ global coffee-house, serving organic coffee and tea, was

a popular des-tination. (Apparently coffee is in short supply at the other festivals!) Our adult stage was the bandstand on the island, an idyllic setting for an imagi-native and creative fes-tival of sto-ries. The Lati-tude line up included Juno Award winner David Francey, who appeared with Craig Werth on both days of the festi-val. At the Old Chestnuts Folk Club;

stories by rych mills, local historian, by spoken word artist Kevin Sutton (aka Un-struck), by Mandippal Jandu, and many oth-ers. It was David and Craig who closed out the festival on Sunday night to a full house, in the spirit of community, goodwill and good umbrellas, even though bands of thun-derstorms continued to move through. Dan Yashinsky also pulled in a crowd. The curious came, they heard, and they stayed. Also on the adult stage the New Quarterly, a Waterloo-based literary magazine, hosted a panel of writers regal-ing the audience with their stories of “heart scrunchies.” That’s the feeling you get when you catch the eye of your loved

A FEAST OF FESTIVALS

Bob Barton at FOS - Festival of Storytelling in Brockville. Elenor Benjamn and guest sitting inthe background. Bob Barton at FOS - Festival of Storytelling in Brockville. Elenor Benjamn and guest sitting in the background.


one across a crowded room, or arrive in a city you haven’t been to in a long time, or get a letter from someone you haven’t heard from in years. We were joined by Pauline Grondin, Brad Woods, Rukhsana Khan, Sarah Gran-skou, and Midhele Braniff. The list of stel-lar professional storytellers was a big rea-son to come to the festival. Latitudes prides itself on drawing sto-ries and storytellers from the community, too, and so this year the children’s tent featured stories told in Farsi by Mehran Rad and translated into English by his daughter. Mehran is a teacher at the local Persian school, and his stories were accom-panied by music played on traditional Ira-nian instruments. Rose Ong’ech from Kenya, and local au-thor and poet, Erin Noteboom, were among the amateur storytellers appearing in the children’s tent. We also have ongoing sup-port from the Guelph Guild of Storytellers, and both Maryann Bailey and Brian Holstein joined us for the third year in a row. Two artists, Sheila Diemert and Alex Van Gaalen, joined Latitudes this year for the first time. Their work, in part, deals with multicultural themes, telling its own stories with vibrant colours. Francey, who won his third Juno for roots-traditional music for his latest al-bum, Right of Passage, in April, also ap-peared in concert at Trinity United Church, 74 Frederick St., Kitchener on June 21, sponsored by Latitudes. Two months after the festival ended, we haven’t stopped. We are planning bigger and better things for next year, new part-

nerships and solidi-fying ones that we made for this year’s event. We will have a booth on Literacy Lane during Kitch-ener’s Word on the Street on Sept. 28, and we are also spon-soring a storyteller on one of their stages. FESTIVAL IM-PRESSIONS By Martin Ellrodt This was my first journey to Canada,

my first time in Toronto, and I came - to-gether with two fellow storytellers from Germany, Regina Sommer and Gidon Horowitz - by invitiation of the festival. I was literally stunned by the hospitality, the warm welcome, the curiosity and the friendliness that embosomed me. Nine days of festival, nine days of beautiful stories, wonderful tellers, good talk (and good food!) showed me the real broad range of what storytelling can mean. I enjoyed both listening to and being given the space and honor to tell stories. As a listener, the evenings at the Church had an atmos-phere I have never witnessed before in any other storytelling place. Harbourfront Center was, in a way, quite the opposite: small, intimate spaces, between them the light from the lake. And Lula Lounge with its very special air of weirdness and gaiety - well, I could indulge in memories for quite a long time. As a teller, a very special evening for me was at Habonim con-gregation, telling "The

Lost Stories". Announced as a storytelling concert, it had more the feeling of an in-tense talk, sometimes even a talk without words - I can't express my feelings more adequately. I was rather nervous before, coming to a place that had been founded by survivors of the Shoah, coming as a German Non-Jew who has untold stories in his own family as to all that. I was glad I wasn't alone, that Regina and Dan and Eli and Gi-don were with me, each of us with their very own stance and perspective. And, as Gidon expressed it afterwards, I, too, had the feeling that bridges had been built, and I hoped that others would feel the same way. I'd like to thank Dan Yashinsky for organizing this, and for throwing us into that cold water. "Thank you!" to Brian and the whole Board of Directors for inviting us, thanks to all the festival volunteers who made us feel at home in this new world, thanks to all the Toronto storytelling community for receiving us with open arms and hearts and showing such a spirit of sharing and togeth-erness. I will never forget those beautiful days.


By Lorne Brown It was a pleasant summer day in the summer of 1990. Joan Bodger and I were sitting on a bench in my backyard, talking of this and talking of that. Suddenly, Joan said, “Why don’t we start a storytelling journal? A real, literary journal, not a newsletter?” And thus was Appleseed Quarterly born. Our first issue came out in February of 1991. It was a slim issue, 24 pages plus the cover. The 8 ½ by 5 ½ inch quarterly had a light grey colour cover with an old wood-cut selected by Design Editor Meryl Arbing. The feature article was “Great Pan is Dead” by Joan Bodger, a scholarly epistle: ‘If the initiates all die out, the power passes, but the structures remain …’ ‘…Keep your eye on that axle (Kronos’ Chariot). When it is broken, Time is dis-placed. The succession is open.’ The feature interview was with Toronto teller and teacher Aubrey Davis and his position as a storyteller within the board of education. The late (and still lamented) Carol Howe was a contributing editor; “Pippins” was the ‘newsletter’ component of AQ. The listings included such names as Sandy Byer, Camilla Gryski, Alec Gelcer, Sally Jaeger, Helen Porter, Alice Kane, Rita Cox, and a special evening of Arabian Nights stories with Dan Yashinsky and George Sawa. Aubrey Davis, Marylyn Peringer, and yours truly were advertised as the Intensive Summer Course instructors. The 13th annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling was advertised. The book review “A Storyteller’s Shelf” was of Dan Yashinsky’s Tales for an Un-known City. “Cock Robin’s Almanac” made its first appearance, a folk calendar col-umn. The story to tell was King o’ the Cats.

Well, the years went by. Joan Bodger dropped out as co-editor almost immedi-ately. Various Cock Robin editors came and went – Carol Howe, Jackie Howard, Jean Bubba, Glenna Janzen, and Denise Mark-hame. “Pippins” eventually became a special insert under the editorship of Paul Conway, and eventually evolved into a separate pub-lication altogether, the Pippin we now know

and love. The articles changed from being mostly written by me to being written by tellers from across Canada. Regional editors be-came an important part of the AQ family; by my last issue (Spring 2002, Vol 12 No 1) they were Dunc Shields (Pacific Coast), Holly Nelson (Prairies), Carol Leigh Wehking (Central Canada), and Linda Win-ham (Atlantic Canada). Lynda Howes was the Copy Editor, and Mary-Eileen McClear was the Review Editor. Constant through-

out was Meryl Arbing, our original Design Editor. AQ was, officially, the Canadian Journal of Storytelling, and was part of the membership of, not only The Storytellers School of Toronto, but also Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada. Our last issue was 56 pages! After 45 issues, Meryl and I decided to retire as Editors. Brian Hetherington took

over, and AQ be-came an 11 x 8 ½ inch publication. Articles in French made their wel-come appearance. Photographs in black and white were included, thanks to Design Editor Bruce Car-mody. Twenty issues later, Vol 17 No 2, 24 pp, AQ ceased to publish. The costs were becom-ing too great, SC-CC’s publication Le Raconteur and our own Pippin were very successful in their own way, and

“30” was written for real for Appleseed Quarterly. Kronos’ Chariot is broken. Time is dis-placed. The succession is open. It is a spectacular fall day as I write these words. The leaves are falling, and soon the trees will be bare. As Robert Frost says, "Nothing gold can stay." I am going out … Be good and play together, My cricket children. Issa

Some Thoughts on Appleseed Quarterly

Toronto storytellers with long memories will remember Jay Armin, a 1001 Friday Nights stalwart in the old days. He hasn't been around for quite a while, but when Lynda Howes organized a 25th Anniver-sary of 1001 Nights, Jay and his wife Marta showed up. Many of us were so glad

to see the two of them. So it is with re-gret that I say that Jay passed away in July 2008. I couldn't make the Remem-brance Service, but Dan Yashinsky did and told me there was lots of mention of sto-rytelling. Marta is in a wheel chair but still as sharp as a tack. Lorne Brown

In Memory of Jay Armin PASSAGES


The Centre for Digital Storytelling (CDS) is a non-profit organization rooted in the art of personal storytelling. CDS supports an inter-national storytelling movement; the head of-fice is in California, and has grown across the United States, in Europe, and now, in Can-ada. They are working in partnership with the Centre for Community Learning & Devel-opment (CCLD) and they are located at 269 Gerrard Street East, Toronto. What is Digital Storytelling? A digital story is a two to five minute video created by people of all ages - they share their own life story through voice, im-ages, music and other found objects in their lives. Workshops blend creative writing, oral history, and grassroots video production to support personal and community transforma-tion.

Story Circle Evenings In each story circle, a small group will come together to celebrate the stories of their lives. There are different themes to guide the storytelling, and to help participants engage with each other. At the end of each session, there is a sharing of a few digital stories on the theme of the night. Story Circle Evenings take place on Wednesdays from 6-8pm at the Centre for Community Learning& Development (CCLD), 269 Gerrard St. East, Toronto, on the 2nd Floor of Parliament Library. Community Workshops: Digital storytelling is a creative and ef-fective tool that is being used by grassroots organizers, health and social service agencies

nonprofit organizations, and local communities to shed light on a host of critical social and political issues that affect us all. Sharing digital stories at workshops, trainings, events, conferences, or film festivals can create dia-logue, educate viewers and move them to re-flect on their own behaviors. Digital stories can be used to as a tool for education and awareness, movement building, policy and ad-vocacy, research and evaluation, and can mobi-lize local communities to take action. Centre for Digital Storytelling Phone: (416) 968-6989 Fax: (416) 968-0597 Contact: Jennifer LaFontaine Email: [email protected] www.storycentre.org

On September 21 Heather Whaley pre-sented Summer Seas and Memo-ries with Kim Michele at the Words Alive Literary Festival in Sharon, Ontario. On September 27 Heather and Kim presented Love Voices in the Wind at the Stellar Literary Festival in Oshawa. Hildy Stollery, retired University Profes-sor and folklorist, led a workshop for the Durham Folklore Society on September 20. Entitled Personal Stories and Folktales,

Hildy led participants in shaping and sharing told or writ-ten, brief personal anecdotes with each other. This was followed with an eve-ning concert,

Treasured Voices with a Twist of Fun' Hildy Stollery, Heather Whaley, Enid De-Coe, Doris Cherkas and Dianne Chandler. Dianne Chandler, Doris Cherkas, Enid DeCoe and Heather Whaley joined guest musicians Rob and Tory Bedard for an eve-

ning of story-telling and music on Oc-tober 25 at the Arts Re-source Centre in Oshawa. On Septem-ber 28th, 2008 TSST was at the annual Word on the

Street fair. It was a beautiful day and packed with people. Just over 500 bro-chures were passed out and many personal connections were made. The board would like to thank the volunteers who gave of their time to help us out: Mariella Bertelli, Pat Bisset, June Brown, Bernice Hune, Anna Kerz, Marylyn Peringer, Paul Robert, Goldie Spencer and Harriet Xanthakos.

Noriko Yamamoto toured the Near North District School Board under the Storytel-ling In Rural Schools Program. On November 10 Laurel Dee Gugler gave a reading of her new book A Piece of Forever (James Lorimer & Co. Ltd.) at Friends House. Donations and proceeds form book sales went to War Child Canada.

STORIES GOING ‘ROUND

Centre for Digital Storytelling


By Karen Waterman What do I love about going out to hear an evening of storytelling? I love to relax and feel like a little child again. I love to have my imagination rekindled and to think about times long ago, forests, villages, strange characters and to listen with appreciation to songs and stories about real life hard-ships and triumphs. An evening listening to Deborah’s new show BEAVER HATS & BAG-PIPES: Amazing and Sometimes True Sto-ries and Songs from New Scotland, satis-fies the appetite for a good yarn.

Deborah was a recipient of the Anne Smythe Award and traveled to Scotland last June to study with storyteller and bard, David Campbell. For 23 days Deborah was immersed in listening to stories, bal-lads, discovering books in old archives, vis-iting old churches and small towns. Before going over to Scotland she devised a won-derful program to share with audiences there and she brought even more stories and songs back home. Tales of emigration, lumber jacks, murder, theft, family rela-tions and my favourite, a fairy tale called “The King and the Foal” all come to life in a very colourful way.

Deborah has a way of instantly building rapport with her audience. In “Privilege of the Limits” Deborah embraces the charac-ter of Mrs. McTavish and we, the listeners, are swept away to the settler days of long ago. She also is an amazing singer and her songs “The Scarborough Settler’s Lament” and the Lumberjack song, “Two Sisters” had us spellbound.

In her storytelling workshops held earlier on October 25, Deborah explored several approaches to unlocking the emo-tional side of storytelling which she demon-strated beautifully in her own storytelling that evening. Storyteller Aubrey Davis said, “Humans are storytelling creatures. We communicate our experience through stories. We are predisposed to tell them and listen to them; and to learn from them. Every nation has its oral tales. They are used to entertain, inform or impart morals and social values… the best of them develop thinking skills and enrich perspectives ena-

bling listeners to better un-derstand themselves and to respond to life with creativity and insight.” Deb-orah told these kinds of stories and made us want to learn more about our heritage. Good story-tellers make us listen and respond with our emotions. Great story-tellers open our hearts and minds and leave us want-ing to explore telling our own stories. They make it look easy and fun. Deborah, be-ing a great storyteller concluded the concert with one wish, “Go out and tell your stories, or even tell some of mine, just tell your audience that you learned them from me!” I

only had one wish at the end of the evening, and that was to hear more!

Travel, Folklore and Family An evening of Storytelling with Deborah Dunleavy

Noriko Yamamoto and Deborah Dunleavy at FOS - Festival of Storytelling, Brockville

our membership please forward your ideas to a Board member or to our Office Man-ager, Jody James. Cathy Melville gave a very detailed and excellent financial report. As usual, we need to watch next year’s expenses to be sure to be stay within the budget.

Two Board members retired: Michael Lobraico and Andrew Eliott. The slate of board members voted in for the 2008-2009 fiscal year are Karen Blair, June Brown, David Gladstone, Paul Robert, Hildy Stollery, Molly Sutkaitis and Tasleem Thawar We hope that you will plan to join us at next year’s AGM.


FALL GATHERING and AGM cont’d


Heather Whaley and harpist Kim Michele tell "The Nutcracker" on Sunday, November 23, 2pm at Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Admission $10. Brunch (not included in admission) available at noon; for brunch reservations call (416) 588-0307 or visit www.lula.ca. To reserve concert tickets call Heather, (905) 668-2174, email [email protected]

The Legless Stocking series of concerts begins Saturday, December 6, 7:30pm, with The Season of the Year, Songs and Tales for the Solstice, featuring Meryl Arbing, jazz singer Innifa, Karen Kaplan, Joanne Crab-tree, Glenna Janzen and Carol Leigh

GATHERINGS

PERFORMANCES

*NEW* The Peterborough Storytellers meet on the fourth Tuesday of the month, 7-9pm (except for the December meeting on the 16th) in the auditorium of the Peter-borough Public Library. Info: Diana, (705) 755-0201.

1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling con-tinues every Friday evening at 8pm at the Innis College Café, Sussex Ave. and St.George St., Toronto. Suggested donation $5. Open to all who wish to listen or tell. (416) 656-2445, www.1001fridays.org

Baden Second Story Workshop, aka The Story Barn, meets the lst Friday of the month at 8:00pm, 89 Snyders Rd.W. Info: Mary-Eileen McClear, [email protected]

Storytelling Guild meets in Baden once a month on the third Friday, 7:30-10pm. 89 Snyders Rd W. Info: Mary-Eileen McClear, [email protected]

The Dufferin Circle of Storytellers meets the 1st Thursday of the month, 7:30pm. Info: Nancy Woods, (519)925-0966.

The Brant Taletellers Guild, open to all storytellers and listeners, meets the first Wednesday of the month, September to June, 7pm, at the main branch of the Brant-ford Public Library. Info: www.comdir.bfree.on.ca , email [email protected] or phone Barbara Sisson, (519) 756-0727

St. Mary’s Storytelling Guild meets the 4th Thursday of the month at the public library, 7-8:30pm. The Storytelling Circle for children 10 and older meets on the 2nd Friday at St. Mary’ United Church, 85 Church St., 7-9pm. $2. Info: Nancy Ver-mond, (519) 284-2698, [email protected]

The 1000 Islands Yarnspinners meet at 7pm on the third Monday of the month at the Brockville Museum, 5 Henry St., Brock-

Storytelling I - First Steps into the Art of Storytelling, led by Ruth Danziger. A week-end designed for newcomers to the art, fo-cusing on traditional stories such as folktale, myth and legend. Friday, November 21, 7-10pm; Saturday and Sunday, November 22-23, 10am-4:30pm. At Lillian H. Smith Public Li-brary, 239 College St., Toronto. Fee: $232. Storytelling III - Master Class, led by Celia Lottridge. Experienced storytellers will work on a story and receive useful feedback on both the story and the telling. The course will focus on the art of critiquing and the skill of managing the transition between the writ-ten word and the told story. Participants are asked to come with a story they wish to work on. Wednesdays, January 7 to February 18, 2009, 7 - 9:30pm, at Celia's house. Fee: $350.

Listings — Winter 2009 ville. All tellers and listeners welcome. Info: Deborah Dunleavy, (613) 342-3463, [email protected]

The Durham Folklore Society meets every 3rd Thursday, 7:30-9:30pm at the Oak Room, Northview Community Centre, 150 Beatrice St. E., Oshawa. Info: Dianne Chan-dler, (905) 985-3424.

Cercle de conteurs de l’Est de l’Ontario (CCEO) se réunit le 4ème mardi du mois au MIFO, 6600 rue Carrière, Orléans, à juin. Venez tout simplement entendre et savourer; osez conter, si vous désirez. Info: [email protected]

The Hamilton Storytelling Circle meets monthly, at varied times and locations. Info: Barry Rosen, [email protected] or [email protected]

The Guelph Guild of Storytellers meets the lst Wednesday of each month, 7:30pm at the Cooperators Building, MacDonnel St., and the 2nd Wednesday at 8pm for Stories at the Boathouse, a tea room on the river, Gordon St. Info: Ann, (519) 763-4598.

The Montreal Storytellers Guild meets the 4th Tues. of the month at the Westmount Library. Info: Christine Mayr, [email protected]

STORYTELLERS SCHOOL EVENTS

Info: (416) 656-2445 www.storytellingtoronto.org, [email protected]

Wehking. At The Butler's Pantry, 591 Markham Street, Toronto. Come early for a good seat and enjoy a meal. Admission $20, $15 in advance (before Nov. 27) Info and tickets: (416) 656-2445, [email protected]

St.Marys Storytelling performance series starts on Sunday, January 11, 2pm, at the Anglican Church, 65 Church St. S., St. Marys. Featured is Jennifer White, who sings, plays Celtic harp, and tells magical Celtic stories. Info: Nancy Vermond, (519) 284-2697, [email protected]

The Legless Stocking presents The Art of the Ballad: Stories Sung and Told on Friday, February 27, 7pm at The Artscape Wychwood Barns, 76 Wychwood Avenue, Toronto. Clary Croft from Halifax and Teresa Doyle from Prince Edward Island will be among the performers. The presenta-tion will be repeated the following evening, Saturday, February 28, at 7:30pm at The Butler's Pantry, 591 Markham Street. $20, $15 in advance. Info and tickets: (416) 656-2445, [email protected]


Every Friday night since 1978 storytellers and listeners have been gathering in downtown

Toronto. Each evening is hosted by an accomplished

storyteller. Anyone is welcome to tell a story.

Every Friday night is unique.

Suggested donation: $5.00 Time: 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Innis College Café

2 Sussex Street, Toronto. (corner St. George, one block south of Bloor St. W. St.

George Subway - St. George St. exit)

www.1001fridays.org

The Storytellers School of Toronto gratefully acknowledges the support of the following government agencies:

YOU ARE THE NEWS.

CELEBRATE YOUR STORYTELLING ADVENTURES.

NEXT DEADLINE FOR PIPPIN SUBMISSIONS IS

FEBRUARY 01 2009 Send them to the Editor at [email protected]

pippin 1 - storytelling toronto

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