Raining cats and dogs......

Rainy days are great for storytelling!  This past weekend my family and I enjoyed a number of terrific performances at the Three Apples Storytelling Festival, held in beautiful Bedford, MA. We were regaled by marvelously gifted tellers of every style, warm and snug and spellbound inside Bedford's beautiful First Parish Church, as the rain poured down outside and all around us.  No better way to spend a rainy weekend!

I was so inspired by the high quality of these tellings, that I ran out yesterday (naturally, in the rain again) and pillaged my local library for collections of folk tales, spooky stories, ANY stories to read through and devour, in my never-ending quest for more, More, MORE stories.  I read on and off throughout the day, alternatively checking on my slow-cooked Rosh Hashona brisket, but didn't find the story I knew I was hungering for.  [This happens sometimes.  I comb through books, take notes, over-use Google, stretch the patience of the local librarians, reading and reading and reading until I find IT: that one story that makes my brain go CLICK.  At least for that week; the next week, I'm hungry again, and the search resumes.]

This morning, I was assembling story outlines and ideas for a series of Storytelling Classes for children that I'll be co-teaching in Dorchester with my good friend and fellow-Storyteller Andrea Lovett.  As I skimmed the various outlines, checking to make sure that they were age-appropriate for our intended group, my "Story-Sense" began to tingle.  My story-sense is similar to Peter Parker's "Spidey-Sense", only instead of helping me avert danger and fight crime, it lets me know when I've found a really great story.  In fact, I'd unwittingly stumbled upon what is probably my storytelling jackpot of the month.  Here he is:

 Yes, that is, in fact, a dog.  (Read some amazing facts about chow chows here.)  The story of Shippeitaro - like all the stories that grab me by the collar and yell "TELL ME!" - challenged me as a Storyteller, in this case because I am a devoted cat-lover.  Shippeitaro is one of those unexpected heroes who bravely and emphatically saves the day, despite being faced with some very nasty Bad Guys (in this case, Cats Gone Bad) that ordinary sensible human beings are really afraid of.  Also, I just love an unlikely, dopey-looking hero, don't you?  Here's how it happened:

Long ago in ancient Japan, a young samurai was forced (by rain!!) to spend the night in a haunted temple, where he accidentally overheard a group of evil man-eating cats yowling about their fear of "Shippeitaro".  The next day, he walked to the local village, where everyone was preparing for what he learned was an annual sacrifice of one of the local girls to the denizens of the very haunted temple he had just spent the night in.  Out of curiosity, the samurai asked if anyone knew who Shippeitaro was, and was told that this was the favored pet of the local lord.  The brave and sensible young man politely asked to borrow the nobleman's beloved chow, who proceeded later that night to heroically dispatch the feline fiends, thus liberating the village folk from the tyranny of nasty girl-devouring puddy-tats.

  vs.  

(This bare-bones variant is based on translations and retellings I've read by Lafcadio Hearn, M. Oldfield Howey, and Mary F. Nixon-Roulet.)

Now, initially, the idea of an entire community of people being ruthlessly terrorized by cats struck me as improbable.  Let me introduce you to my housemates, Mabel and Larry:

      

Tyranny in their case amounts to repeated elbow-licking when they don't get fed by 8AM on weekends. 

To be fair, cats do have an impressive heritage as dangerous carnivores.  One Japanese description of the cat refers to it as "a tiger who eats from the hand", according to Carl Van Vechten, author of "The Tiger in the House".  Living with these noble, if somewhat diminished, descendants of the saber-toothed tiger, I am occasionally reminded that if our respective sizes were reversed, my appeal to Mabel and Larry would instantly become nutritional rather than emotional.  Could it be that the love and adoration that I think I see in their stately yellow eyes is actually a measured consideration of how favorably I would compare to Science Diet Indoor Cat Formula?

Food for thought.

Mouthing Off for MassMouth

Last night (September 8th) I co-hosted the second MouthOff for our wonderful organization MassMouth with Andrea Lovett.  Many marvelous tellings were shared, which Andrea and I video-taped using equipment lent to us by the masterfully savvy and multi-talented Norah Dooley.   Check them out here at the Massmouth site!  

In addition, I told the following tale, 

called "The Dubner Maggid",  as retold by Eric A. Kimmel 

in his delightful book  "The Spotted Pony: 

A Collection of Hanukkah Stories."

This book is one of those gems you 

come across in the library while

 looking for something entirely different, which sends you off in a delicious  folkloric tailspin.

                                  

Here is my version, as told at Toscanini's in Central Square, after one of their sublime micro-sundaes (hazelnut ice cream and hot fudge, thank you very much).

                            

While researching this story, I learned not only that the Dubner Maggid was a real historical person, but that the places mentioned by Kimmel - Tarnopol and Dubno, most notably - are real as well.  An important reminder that these stories are more than just entertainment (and excellent entertainment at that); they are part of Jewish oral tradition and history, and they need to be remembered and retold.  

So often, as a storyteller, my stories teach me.  They teach me to laugh and to cry and to think, but most especially to remember.

Storytellers unite in Cambridge

Here is a nice article from Wicked Local in the Cambridge Chronicle, about the very first MassMouth meeting, held in Cambridge on August 11th, 2008:

"Storytellers unite in Cambridge"

by Caitlin Gallagher

Our next MouthOff is on Monday, September 8th, 2008, also at Toscanini's (yummy) from 7-9pm.  We'll be telling stories on the theme of "school".  Be there and be cool!

Here is a story I told earlier this week, on the evening of Monday August 11th, at Toscanini's in Central Square.  A whole bunch of us showed up for the very first meeting of MassMouth, the new Massachusetts Association of StorytellerS.  We each told a tale on the theme of money, and it was terrific!  We even had a couple of audience members - folks chilling at Tosci's, watching and having a good time - hop up in front of the camera and tell some tales spontaneously - fantastic!  The area's best ice cream and tellers combined to create an unbeatable combination of tasty entertainment, graced by the presence of Brother Blue and Ruth Hill. Filming the performances was the graceful and talented Norah Dooley, who, along with Andrea Lovett, first came up with the idea of MassMouth.  Thank you Norah and Andrea!

Gus Rancatore, owner and proprietor of Toscanini's (and Rancatore's in Lexington and Belmont - yummy!) was our gracious host; so taken was he by the Tellings, and the interest shown by his customers, that he invited us back on Monday September 8th, where we will tell tales on the theme of "School".  You can find us there at 7pm, 899 Main Street, Cambridge, MA.  Come and tell!

Raving at the Raven

I've been home for barely an hour, and I simply must qvell about my trip to the Golden Raven Storytelling Circle in Union, Maine.  Just as I did last year, I took a bus up from South Station to charming little Waldoboro, where Roland was waiting with fresh-picked corn for our dinner.  We greeted each other like old friends (which we are), the intervening year since I'd last seen him vanishing as fast as that corn did at the dinner table a couple hours later.

On the way to his home, he showed me the blue-flecked hill where the local blueberries reside, and a desperately beautiful view at the top of a winding hillside road of the St. George River valley and Sennebec Pond (here's where I got the photo just above) in which the Golden Raven Storytelling Circle resides.  Those blueberries, by the way, ended up in Carol's freshly baked muffins, which I devoured hot out of the oven this morning!

When we got to 715 Sennebec Road, there were Carol Watier (Librarian, Food Pantry Director, Matriarch) and Debra Ballou (Professional Storyteller, Environmental Educator, Musician) and Windsor (Full-Time Dog), busily preparing for an evening of storytelling.  Telling stories is hungry work, so Carol made sure we were all well fortified with plenty of Maine home cooking. Topped off with homemade cookies and raspberries fresh off the bush behind the house, Debra and I felt that the time had come to pay for our supper, so out we went to the Circle.  

                                                

It was still light out when Roland led us in a brief opening ceremony and lit the fire chamber. We settled ourselves on the comfy chairs he had purchased recently to augment the Circle's tree stump, and Debra took us into Story-Land.  Her cedar flute and Native American drum were right at home amidst the river stones and the sparks from the fire, and pretty soon we were all making frog sounds as we helped her tell Margaret Read MacDonald's "Frog Talk".

We were relaxed and at ease, chatting between stories, sharing ideas, experiences, revelations. There's a kind of magic at the Golden Raven; the combination of a real fire, real stories, and real people creates a kind of alchemy in which ideas are born and words come easily.  This simple act of sharing stories under the stars by fire light is something which most of us experience rarely (or never) in our lives, even though our ancestors probably considered such evenings commonplace.

When it was my turn to tell, I found myself turning to a tale which I had been keeping hidden away in a notebook, too nervous or awkward or lacking in courage to it aloud until last night. Standing before that fire, it suddenly seemed the most natural thing in the world to tell the story of Arrowhead Finger, a Penobscot tale which I have privately studied and venerated for months, but which I had hitherto shied away from telling for a number of reasons.  It was one of those "difficult" tales: challenging to tell both for its length and complexity, and also for the content, which includes scenes of torture and redemption, sacrifice and love.  Not an easy tale to tell, or so I thought.  Yet last night it spilled out of me, scene following scene, unhurriedly moving like the St. George River as it flows from one lake to the next.  

Arrowhead Finger is a girl who undergoes a literal trial by fire, and in so doing discovers that her character becomes her salvation.  But I didn't really understand this until I had the courage to tell her story - including the scenes of horror and pain, along with the scenes of healing and love.  We tend, these days, to shy away from stories that have violent content.  Yet it seems to me that it is precisely in these times - when war, torture, and terror surround and threaten us - that we need to explore them, learn from them, and tell them.  At the end of her story, Arrowhead Finger becomes a leader and a teacher among her people; her story can continue to lead and teach, but only if we tellers take heart from her courageous example and tell her story, and stories like it.

Thank you to Roland, Carol, Debra, and the Golden Raven Storytelling Circle for making this telling possible.  And thank you to Arrowhead Finger.

Doria Hughes features at Blues , July 22 2008

This is a Penobscot story about the hero-trickster Glooscap, which I told at Brother Blue's on July 22, 2008.

Featured Teller at Brother Blue's

I am gearing up for my Featured Teller spot this Tuesday, July 22nd at Brother Blue's regular Storytelling evening at the Episcopal Divinity School (click here for a campus map).  If you are in the area, please come!  At 7pm, there is an Open Mic, followed by a break, and then me.  Wish me luck!

Tuesday's at Blue's are special; for me and many other storytellers, they constitute a kind of sacred space, where we can try out stories at various phases in their development for a supportive and welcoming adult audience.  There is very little critique or criticism, other than from Blue himself, who invariably offers us his unique variety of love and praise from his unstinting and inexhaustible inner source.

                                                                    

Of course, I cannot mention Blue without Ruth, his wife, who is responsible for keeping the Tuesdays going, arranging for the Features.  Everybody loves Ruth, most especially Blue!  He says of her, "She's the TRUTH!  She IS the Story!"  We are all so lucky to be blessed by the presence of this wonderful couple, the King and Queen of Storytelling, as far as I am concerned.