A Note from the President

Hello to everyone,

The Merry Month of May

That is the title of our next MO-TELL storytelling concert on May 11 at 7pm (CT). You will enjoy our storytellers. We have for your delight two women from Missouri, Carole Shelton and Heather Harlan. Carole often tells historical stories but lots of others as well. Heather plays a guitar and adds music to her tales. We also have two out of towners, Dan Keding and Jackson Gilman. I first met them through Missouri Storytelling Inc in St. Charles. Dan, from Illinois, tells some traditional tales and plays guitar and Jackson, from Massachusetts, uses a lot of humor in his telling. It will be an interesting and fun evening of stories. It is FREE. www.mo-tell.org We will keep spreading storytelling throughout the state.

The St. Louis Storytelling Festival continues online with 70 shows. Go to their website and register. All the stories are related to Missouri history and storytelling. They will be available May 3-10, 2021. These are FREE concerts. Check out the list in the newsletter. https://extension.missouri.edu/programs/st-louis-storytelling-festival The Liar’s contest is coming up in July. You have about a month to prepare your stories. We want to hear those tales. See the flyer. Thank you, everyone for sharing your stories this year. The stories have kept us grounded. We will continue to bring you stories online. We reach so many people this way. Hopefully, we will be able to bring you live and in-person programming also by the end of summer 2021.

Keep telling stories and I hope to see you soon.

Joyce Slater

President, MO-TELL

“The power of storytelling is exactly this: to bridge the gaps where everything else has crumbled.”

– Paulo Coelho

MO-TELL Member of the Month: Becky Everly

Becky is a working storyteller from the Kansas City area that has made the difficult transition from live to virtual performances. She has done a number of virtual sessions lately, both telling stories and teaching oral language skills. Most of the time she works with 1st and 2nd grades, though recently she taught an 8th grade class in Phoenix, AZ using the Zoom platform.

When asked how she got into storytelling she said her grandpa and mom always told her stories when she was little so she grew up with stories and storytelling. As a K-2nd grade teacher she always used stories in the classroom and kept on telling stories after she retired. She now has 5 characters/personas she uses when telling stories. Mrs. Claus for the Christmas season, Polly Pilgrim who tells about what it was like to come to America on the Mayflower, Mrs. WishyWashy who tells stories about life on a farm, Georgia of the Jungle who tells wild animal and nature stories, and Mother Goose for fairy tales.

As you can imagine asking a storyteller what are her favorite type of stories is kind of like asking a parent who is their favorite child. Becky did say she really likes folk tales, she’s partial to Lazy Jack, and personal stories about when she was younger, She said the children especially like it when she tells a story about a time when she was their age and messed up.

She joined MO-TELL, and RAPS, and NSN because she believes in supporting storytelling and being a member gives her a way of doing that. Two of her storytelling mentors that have helped her develop and refine her storytelling skills are Donald Davis and Doug Lipman.

A fun, little-known, fact about Becky is that many years ago she wound up fixing lunch one day for a lady who was the sister of a Governor who went on to become the President of the United States. Her close brush with political power!

To contact Becky email her at beckyeverly@gmail.com or call her at 816-500-5675.

A Note from the President

Hello to everyone,

I like to quote my father on Spring. “Spring has sprung, the sap is riz’, I wonder where the flowers is.” It is an anonymous little ditty, but I loved hearing him recite it. He is gone but his stories and his sayings and his songs live on. Isn’t that what we all want? So, when the flowers bloom, I think of him. Spring has given me daffodils. The irises are poking through the dark earth. There are buds on the trees. It makes me think happy thoughts. It is rejuvenating.

We need this rebirth as we begin to see each other face to face. My husband and I are fully “vaxed”. I know it isn’t the end of this disease for the world or even the USA, but it is a positive step forward for us.

I like to remain positive in all I do. I am looking forward to being outside. I am anxious to work in the garden in the warmth of Spring.

This last year has been so difficult for so many of my friends. I hold them all close. Our stories will reflect our journey this past year.

Keep telling stories and I hope to see you soon.

Joyce Slater

President, MO-TELL

“The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.”

― Vera Nazarian, Dreams of the Compass Rose