A Note from the President

Hello, my friends,

Who is the hero in your life? Is it your mother, your father? Maybe it is a national leader, like Martin Luther King, Jr. or a teacher who stimulated your imagination. It could be an unselfish employee who gave their time for others.

This month is a time to celebrate heroes and patriots. September 11, 2021, is the twentieth anniversary of the attack in New York City. Lives were lost and saved by so many. These are our patriots, our heroes. Their stories live on.

Keep telling stories and I hope to see you soon on Zoom.Our next Zoom event is September 11, which is the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, otherwise known as Patriots Day. We will feature four storytellers, Jim “Two Crows” Wallen, Christine Henderson, Mark Armato and Molly Postlewaite, telling stories of American patriots throughout our history.

Joyce Slater

President, MO-TELL

“The most powerful words in English are, “Tell me a story.”

― Pat Conroy, My Reading Life

MO-TELL Member of the Month: Susan Bravo

My journey in becoming a storyteller started in April 1996. A good friend called to tell me she was going to be “nearby”a week later and asked if I could I meet her. “Nearby” turned out to be in Hannibal, Missouri. My friend was attending a “Storytelling” gathering called “By Word of Mouth.”

Though I knew about reading stories to children, I had never heard of “Storytelling”. That is when I met Gladys Coggswell and Joyce Slater, who were to become integral in my storytelling journey. I had no plans to take part in the telling of stories so you can imagine my shock when Gladys hugged me and her first words were “What are you going to tell and when?” Along with Gladys, Joyce encouraged me to tell my first story.

That same spring I had an opportunity to go to the Art Institute of Chicago for their teacher’s program “Looking to Write, Writing to See—Stories in Art.” After that I took up writing stories and most of what I tell I have written.

One of my favorite stories that I wrote and tell is called “The Loose Goose”. It came about because of a sabbatical leave I took to Peru, South America. I discovered that because of storytelling I get more pleasure out of traveling. I find that I have a much greater interest in the study of the legends and cultures of the places I’ve visited. In visiting Peru, I found a whole new source of stories in the study of Peruvian legends. I have told stories in Peru three times speaking Spanish. I like almost every kind of story, except horror, murder, and killing. I especially love stories about animals, inanimate things, and personal stories.

I know it sounds trite but writing and telling stories really changed my life. Learning about this thing called “Storytelling” occurred when I really needed to find a good creative outlet as the years before had been filled with serious frustrations, both professional and personal. Professionally, I believe it made me a better teacher and that was when I discovered writing. Not just jotting notes, but taking those notes and filling them out with stories. Personally, it helped me understand the stories of my family.

Because my stories cover many places, ideas, and beliefs I look to a world with more peace in it. I hope to continue to learn about other places and meet storytellers from other countries. I have a dream that, in the name of peace, perhaps one day I will get to travel with a group of storytellers to another country to hear their stories and to share my stories with them.

My e-mail is bravostory@yahoo.com. I ask anyone using it let me know in the subject area who and where they got it from.

My snail mail is Susan A. Bravo, 16644 School Street, South Holland, Il 60473.

What I Did This Summer at the 2021 National Storytelling Network Conference

A report by Linda Kuntz

Storyteller, Correspondent, All-around Nice person

The 2021 National Storytelling Network Conference “Connected: Across the Divide” was on Zoom. The conference was broken down into interactive learning, keynotes or panels, showcase performances and networking/social times. I printed off a schedule and marked the ones I wanted to see that fit into my schedule. Recorded sessions will be available for one year so I can leisurely watch what I missed.

As a member of PRO-SIG I started off the conference by attending two workshops on producing storytelling events live, on Zoom and hybrid. The workshops I attended used breakout rooms and I met many delightful storytellers from around the world. In the workshops and the performances, I heard stories of prejudice and bias on national, racial, religious, educational, sexual and political levels. I was amazed at how many people had similar experiences. I heard stories of how we are connected and how to become more connected. These stories need to be told so we can see that we are more the same than different. We needed the social/networking time to ask questions and connect with one another.

The online auction is a source of income for NSN and offered more than 100 items. Gary and I ended up buying four items. Now he knows what we get for our anniversary, his birthday, my birthday and just because.

Minor glitches did not distract as much as instruct what not to do next time. With the conference on Zoom I could cut off my audio and video at will. I paced myself so I was not information-overloaded. I was entertained, instructed but most of all encouraged by the power of storytelling. I will attend the 2022 NSN Conference which will also be virtual.