Why Storytellers are Sure to Be Great Folks

Why Storytellers are Sure to Be Great Folks

Musica Nuova in Cambridge - The Boston Globe

Musica Nuova in Cambridge - The Boston Globe

Up In The Air

This video is an excerpt from a performance I did at the annual Davis Square ArtBeat festival in Somerville, MA, of a traditional folk tale called "Why Sun and Moon Live in the Sky", a story

told by the Efik people of Southern Nigeria. This year's ArtBeat theme was water, and the weather was hot, so naturally I told a story that would take the audience on a wet and watery journey!

I like this tale, in part, because it ends up so far from where it starts. The narrative takes a rather circuitous route, leaving listeners guessing for a while. It's clearly a pourquoi tale, and it concerns two verysignificant heavenly bodies. However, it is not very cosmological; very little time is spent up in the sky, the ultimate destination of our co-protagonists.

Interestingly, a third player is brought in - Water - whose actions affect the destinies of Sun and Moon. They say no good deedgoes unpunished, and this is certainly true of the overly hospitable celestial pair, whose efforts to accommodate their aquatic friend and his innumerable brood result in their permanent exile from the earth.

What I find particularly fascinating, is that the storyseems to imply that Sun and Moon prefer their new aerial abode because Water cannot go there. Perhaps the Efik people had an understanding or belief that Water - vital to all life on earth - is something that can only be found on our planet, for its absence in space is a crucial element in the narrative. A wonderful example of how science and storytelling intersect to enrich our understanding of our world, and our universe!

Bridge to Haiti

"Tonton Chien et Neveu Chat", a traditional tale from Haiti, told by Doria Hughes at massmouth's Bridge to Haiti, part of the Cambridge River Festival. I found this story in

Children of Yayoute: Folk Tales of Haiti, by Turenne Des Pres.

On June 5, 2010 massmouth created a unique and wonderful collaborative installation called Bridge to Haiti, as part of the Cambridge River Festival. We invited massmouth Storytellers and local artists to come and work together to maintain awareness for Haiti, in the wake of the recent earthquakes, and in so doing, brought beauty and storytelling to a forlorn old bridge.

Norah and Adriane installing one of our hand-painted Haitian flags on the Weeks Memorial Bridge.

Norah Dooley and Andrea Lovett had been talking about their vision for a collaborative project between artists and storytellers for over a year, and they had lit on the idea of using a bridge as the ideal space to "bridge" the gap between visual and performance art, since it provides the perfect physical space for both disciplines. Saturday morning, despite dire predictions of rain, the day way blustery and blue-skied, so we installed Norah's hand-painted cardboard panels on the bridge, brought snacks, tables, chairs, water, video equipment, and everything we could think of that artists and storytellers might need.

massmouth's gang of four (Norah, Andrea, Stu, and myself) were joined by a team of stalwart volunteers, including Rowan Meade (past winner of one of our Cambridge Story Slams) and Adriane Spunt (one of our excellent Story Slam judges), and various willing minions. At 1pm, we held a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony, and our Bridge to Haiti was officially open to the public!

We were joined by massmouth Storytellers Nicolette Heavey, H.R. Britton, Bruce Marcus, Tony Toledo and Laura Packer, as well as Haitian Master Storyteller Charlot Lucien and his talented children Malaika and Sebastien. Everybody told stories and riddles, while the artists painted and drew on the bridge; folks walking by also contributed their artistic inspiration to the project! It was a beautiful day, a wonderful cause, and happiness was infectious. Ice cream trucks nearby helped, of course!

Thank you to all who came, told, listened, painted, and laughed. I can't wait to see you at our next massmouth event!

Kric? Krac! Haitian storytelling at Cambridge River Festival 2010

Come here and see Haitian stories at the annual Cambridge River Festival, on Saturday, June 5th, as told by myself and my massmouth cohorts! For more information, click here.

massmouth at Riverfest, Cambridge MA 2010

a Bridge to Haiti - Weeks Memorial Footbridge

12noon - 6PM ongoing

massmouth presents Haitian Folktales in a Bridge to Haiti, featuring storyteller Charlot Lucien and others.

We will have story sharing in our tent all day, and also plan to support Folklore and StoryStream tents!

12noon - 6PM ongoing
massmouth opens their tent for ongoing StoryTrades, where all festival visitors are invited into the massmouth tent to share a life story. We will record, or just listen and exchange stories, if you like. Recorded stories will be archived for StoryStream Cambridge. Visit with Haitian storytellers and artists in the tent and find out more about Haiti relief efforts.

1:00PM 2:00PM 3:00PM and 4:00PM "Bridge to Haiti" on the hour
20 minute to 1/2 hour performance of Haitian folk tales by Haitian and massmouth storytellers in collaboration with Haitian and Cambridge visual artists who will respond to the stories in stations across the Charles River on the Weeks Memorial Foot Bridge.

A Tale of Two Frogs

Spring has finally settled in here in New England, and we at massmouth have finished up our wildly successful first Story Slam season! That means it is time for a summer of MouthOffs and other storytelling delights. Our first MouthOff of 2010 was held at the Brown-Rhone Park in Central Square, Cambridge, on the evening of Monday May 17, and I had the privilege of telling alongside of some talented newcomers and my able MouthOff co-host, Stu Mendelson.

I decided on the spur of the moment to try out a story that I've been itching to tell for a while, about two frogs, a lot of cream, and the power of perseverance. One of my favorite variants of this tale can be found in Elisa Pearmain's "Once Upon a Time... Storytelling to Teach Character and Prevent Bullying". This is my first attempt at telling this story in public, and naturally, I had to give it my own personal twist and take on it. Perfect timing, since this coming Friday I have a frog-themed storytelling activity hour planned for my classroom of kindergartners at the Gardner Pilot Academy! Let me know what you think of both the story and my telling of it, I'm always interested in getting feedback.

Jackal calling

I'm working on a jackal-themed Storytelling class, and doing some research - boy do I love youtube! I am fascinated by the strange high howling sound that these animals produce. Naturally it takes practice to make a jackal call, so I'll be wandering around town working on that today......
Along with sounds, games, songs and rhymes, I will be telling a story from India called The Jackal King, also known as The Blue Jackal. This tale has a strong - even harsh - moral lesson about the importance of loyalty and truthfulness, but it's also about what happens when an opportunistic jackal falls into a vat of blue dye.

This story has many variants, but its origin is to be found in the Panchatantra, a collection of animal tales originally written in Sanskrit and now lost.

massmouth's Big Mouthoff at the BPL

Stu Mendelson - one of massmouth's original Gang of Four - took marvelous pictures of our Big Mouthoff, held at the Copley Square Boston Public Library on April 20, 2010.


Find more photos like this on massmouth The Power of Story



Find more photos like this on massmouth The Power of Story

Songs tell stories, too

An old buddy from high school, Nate Borofsky, is one third of a terrific group called "Girlyman". I recently came across this neat video, in which Nate and his two bandmates take apart and put back together a part of a song, just to show and tell how their process as songwriters works. Well worth watching, and lovely to listen to!

A new take on an age-old art: Local storytellers take the stage at Boston’s ‘Big Mouthoff’ - Malden, Massachusetts - Malden Observer

A new take on an age-old art: Local storytellers take the stage at Boston’s ‘Big Mouthoff’ - Malden, Massachusetts - Malden Observer

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Storyteller brings anti-bullying message to Somerville school - Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 - Somerville Journal

Storyteller brings anti-bullying message to Somerville school - Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 - Somerville Journal

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Story Slam at Kennedy’s Midtown - The Boston Globe

Story Slam at Kennedy’s Midtown - The Boston Globe

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Find more videos like this on massmouth The Power of Story

In defense of Big Mouths

I told this story at massmouth's first Folk Tale Slam, held at Toscanini's in Central Square, Cambridge. I've been telling it off and on for the last year, because it is a story that I relate to personally, as anyone who knows me well can probably guess.

Who is the Big-Mouthed Frog? Also known as the Wide-Mouthed Frog, he (or she) is a garrulous amphibian, who just can't keep a lid on himself. He spends his time importuning the various animals he meets by showing off - and demonstrating - his extraordinarily large mouth. This guy is loud and loving it!

Eventually, though, our hero runs out of animals to show off his big mouth to. Everybody he knows has seen it, and what's more, is sick of seeing it. So, he decides to head out into the world and find a larger and more appreciative audience. Naturally, he ends up at the zoo. Here he spends a delightful day going from animal to animal, introducing himself and his marvelous mouth, impervious to the obvious annoyance he is causing to one and all. Anticipation builds as the BMF finally meets the one animal that can make him change his tune.

In fact, by the end of this story the Big-Mouthed Frog is no longer that; he transforms himself into something else entirely, a necessary act of self-preservation that presumably nobody but he regrets. We laugh at the foolish little loud-mouth, reduced at last to the humble - and quiet - little frog we all think he ought to be. Who does he think he is, going around bothering everybody with his loud self-aggrandizing chatter?

But something in me always feels a little sad to think that he has been silenced, reduced to ordinariness. The Big-Mouthed Frog is a piercing reminder of my own experience in elementary school (and beyond), where I was constantly being told to be quiet, tone it down, or just plain SHUT UP already! I've always been a big mouth, a talker, a noise-maker, a complainer. In other words, a Storyteller. So even though this story has a "funny" ending - the loud obnoxious noisemaker is made to shut up and we all get to laugh at his discomfiture - I always feel a little uncomfortable telling it, because I identify so closely with BMF. When he is silenced, so am I.

I was fascinated, therefore, to find out something about the background of this story that I had never known. Other than the fact that it is a piece of American folklore, I could find little else about its roots, until I stumbled across this interesting blog posting, by Conservatory Girl, from August 2008. In it, Conservatory Girl explains that the story (often told as a joke) of the Wide-Mouthed Frog became popular in the U.S. during the early '70s, when it was understood to be a metaphor for the experience of many African-Americans living in a white-dominated society. The brilliant folklorist Alan Dundes, on page 64 of his book Interpreting Folklore, says of this story and its protagonist, "the frog in order to survive has to curb its natural way of speaking. It must speak literally and figuratively in a closemouthed way in order to stay alive. The frog must keep its mouth shut to remain free."

Stories like this one continue to fascinate and engage me. On the surface, it appears to be a simple comedy: a loud talker is silenced in a funny way. But look deeper, and the narrative reveals itself as a kind of tragedy: a vibrant mode of self-expression is stifled in the interests of self-preservation. Our dominant white culture too often demands conformity from people of color, who are pressured to silence themselves in order not to "annoy" or "disturb" their white neighbors, school mates, or co-workers. However, history has shown that we all lose out when any of us choose to remain silent, especially when it comes to expressing our truest selves. I plan on continuing to tell this story, appreciating a deeper awareness of the messages it carries within it.

Where prose glows: Cambridge’s first story slam hits Enormous Room - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

Where prose glows: Cambridge’s first story slam hits Enormous Room - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

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Story Slam Mashup by Norah Dooley, 1-11-10

Norah made a wonderful mashup video, showing some of the most hilarious and excruciating moments from massmouth's January 2010 Story Slam, held at Kennedy's Midtown in Boston. The theme was "So Embarrassing", and contestants covered a myriad of topics: everything from peeing in public to wardrobe malfunctions, blind dates gone wrong to celebrity encounters from hell. Fine fodder for storytelling, and a most entertaining evening!

Cambridge's Enormous Room to host first Story Slam - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

Cambridge's Enormous Room to host first Story Slam - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

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