I went to Lunafest (short films by, for and about women) last night at the the Loft Cinema in an audience of about 300. Lunafest’s stated mission is to “celebrate and inspire women through the art of film and community fundraising”.  All proceeds from this fundraiser benefited Women’s Studies Advisory Council (WOSAC) and The Breast Cancer Fund, both UA programs.

It reminded me of the February 20, 2005 Breast Cancer Stories at Odyssey Storytelling. That year it was a much smaller crowd.  I was working in collaboration with a now defunct grassroots women’s organization; there was little publicity for the films and the theme of the storytelling evening seem to scare people away.

The audience was sparse but the 30 or so people who where there were treated to inspiring, sad, humorous, horrifying and uplifting stories.  The brave and amazing tellers that night were Amy Weintraub, Mickey Monroe, Tom Anway, Mary Wilson, Meera and Lisa Levine.  Donations were made to Susan G. Koman & Wingspan Breast Health Project and the art that graced the program, I See Them Everywhere, was generously donated by Susanne Gillatt.

Is the difference in audience size the fact that a large and established group did a great job of organized the show or is it because talking about and raising money for breast cancer has become so much more accepted in these 5 years?  Pink bracelets and ribbons may be annoying but they do “tell a story” if we like it or not.

I believe that the courageous people who have stepped forth to share their personal experiences with breast cancer, at a time when the words could just be whispered, have been instrumental in breaking down barriers and challenging taboos.  I am convinced that the heightened level of awareness and the “human face” on the disease has been a contributing factor to increased funding and research on breast cancer.

How has stepping out and telling your story changed the world?

“What’s your story?” is the first thing you see on the home page of the Tucson Festival of Books.  Their tag line is “where words and imagination come to life”.

Arizona storytellers will be spinning their tales on Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14, at the Storytelling Stage providing a story sampler of multicultural tales for families to enjoy. Glenda Bonin is the coordinator and Ron Lancaster will be the Master of Ceremonies for the show.  Some of the talented performers from local storytelling  Tucson Tellers of Tales will be Ray Hyde, Gil Payette, Anne Lee and Pearl Zimmerman and lots more.

Tim Tingle, a renowned Choctaw storyteller who has performed in festivals throughout the U.S. and the world, will lead a workshop for educators on how to tell stories to children and to invite children into their own storytelling. Tim will also share how he tells historical and traditional stories, accompanying himself on the flute and singing Choctaw songs to the rhythm of a drum.  You can catch him from 2:30 to 3:30 on Sunday in the Education Building, room 333.

When I did a search on “storytelling” on the Festival website, I also came up with “Women Searching (In Storytelling)” featuring authors Meg Waite Clayton and Michelle Richmond, moderated by Laura Penny.  This event is from 2:30 to 3:30 on Saturday in the Chemistry Building, room 134.

Hundreds of authors will be on hand for readings, signings, panel discussions from 9:30 to 5:30 on both days. In addition to the author events there are nearly 200 exhibitors along the UA mall and food vendors as well.

They expect 50,000 people to this free event and all proceeds will be used to promote literacy in Southern Arizona through the Tucson Festival of Books Foundation, a 501c (3) nonprofit organization.  Last year at the inaugural event they donated $200,000 to Literacy for Life Coalition, Reading Seed and the University of Arizona. The Festival of Books is sponsored by the Arizona Daily Star and hosted and organized by The University of Arizona.

Stories can heal, educate, sell, empower, and/or  illuminate.  They can be told, performed, journaled, blogged, social media’d, and/or written.  The edges often blur between these categories.  I’ve heard that the perceived danger is that the definition would be too inclusive so the core of storytelling would be diluted.

I haven’t that fear.  As long as I’m made aware of the intention, I’m happy to mix and match.  But sometimes people form groups to explore specific interests.

A Special Interest Group (SIG) is a formal group created by and for National Storytelling Network (NSN) members joining together for a common purpose.

These groups and their purposes are:

Healing Story Alliance: to share our experience and our skills in the best ways to use stories to inform, inspire, nurture and heal.

Producers and Organizers: to encourage cooperation, networking and support among organizers of storytelling events.

Storytelling in Higher Education: to encourage cooperation, networking and support among college and university educators in storytelling.

Storytelling in Organizations: to bring narrative insights onto the contemporary business scene by documenting and promoting the constructive role and widespread importance of storytelling in corporate, non-profit, small business, education, and other settings.

Youth, Educators and Storytellers Alliance (YES!): to encourage educators and other adults to use storytelling with youth as an educational tool in classrooms and in other settings

In the blog A Storied Career Kathy Hansen explores traditional and postmodern forms/uses of applied storytelling such as journaling, blogging, organizational storytelling, storytelling for identity construction, storytelling in social media, storytelling for job search and career advancement.

There’s a new application on Facebook that can help you post your stories in short Facebookable snippets. Snipisode lets you schedule status posts as episodes of a story or feature.  The way it works is you type or paste in a whole story and then with a click of a button snip up the story either by line or by periods. Then you choose a time either daily or every two days. The story will unfold on your status line.  Very cool.

It’s the Perils of Pauline of social media.