Anyone can do it. All you have to do is have a personal story that will fit the theme (see list of themes at the bottom of this post), send a brief synopsis to the curator, and be somewhat articulate. The Odyssey Storytelling staff will help with coaching and support. You don’t have to be an expert public speaker; as a matter of fact, the experts often want to learn this different way of telling because they are not used to talking about themselves and their lives.

For the last six and a half years, each month six people have been getting on stage at Odyssey Storytelling and telling ten-minute stories from their lives. I started the event at the (sadly) defunct Wilde Playhouse and moved to the Hotel Congress about five years ago.  Now almost every first Thursday of the month, you can see your friends and neighbors (and people you’d like to meet), on stage in the Club Congress. You can check out the hundreds of storytellers that have told at our website.

Adam Hostetter joined as assistant producer and co-host a few years ago. A couple of times a year we have a guest curator who’s job it is to invite the storytellers and be the host that month.  You can see volunteer and sometimes guest curator Sarah K. Smith tell a story at the “Exposed: Naked in Public” show here.

Odyssey’s tag line is To Create Community, One Story at a Time, and each month we invite audience members to announce community events, pass out flyers and make their creative ventures known.  Networking, entertaining and (sometimes) enlightening is the goal.

Email penelope@odysseystorytelling.com if you have a story to tell:

Odyssey Storytelling 2010-2011 Themes

September 2, Crazy for You: An Evening about Insanity

October 7, Bad Behavior: The Crime Show

November 4, Masks: the Hidden Identity Show

December 2, Belly Laughs: Humor for the Holiday

January 6: The Devil Made Me Do It

February 3: The Hidden Gem Show: Tucson Tales

March 3: Chutzpah! The Audacity Show

April 7: Shoulda Been Dead: Stories From the Edge

May 5: Its All Relative: Family Stories

June 2: Summer Camp

July 7: Two Sides to Every Story: Tandem Telling

August 4: Guess What? Stories of the Unexpected

September 1: The Things We Do For Love

November 3: Falling: Stories of Plunging In

December 1: Superpowers: The Extraordinary Show

Odyssey Storytelling in a program of StoryArts Group, Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization.

This past Sunday was my one-year anniversary of writing Telling Stories.  To celebrate I will offer up some words of wisdom (said modestly of course.)

Lesson #1:  Show Up

When Karyn Zoldan told me about the opportunity to write for the Citizen I jumped at the chance. Her blog, To Market To Food Market, would be about what she knows: food and local businesses and I would write about what I know: stories and the Tucson spoken word scene. In my initial enthusiasm, I declared I would blog 3 times a week. Little did I know about the demands of creating a regular stream of information. As reality set in I modified my expectations down to a comfortable once a week and I’m pretty faithful to that schedule.

Lesson #2: Pay Attention

I did not know the scope of what I would cover when I began and I’ve enjoyed letting my imagination run free and follow threads that are related to storytelling. I have written about storytelling in Iceland and at my grandkids bus stop. I discovered that I am interested in storytelling in all it’s applications and interpretations and this blog has given me the opportunity to do some exploration and bring my findings back to you, the reader.

Lesson #3: Tell the Truth

I have written many research papers and factual reports in the past – writing can be a formal and stilted act where the results are correct and lifeless. By trial and error I learned that unless my authentic “voice” came through, the blog was dull.

Lesson #4: Don’t Be Attached to the Outcome

After I click the “publish” button, I have no idea what will happen next.  I don’t know who my readers are nor what happens to my words in the ethernet. Sometimes I get comments at tucsoncitizen.com and sometimes people send me emails to let me know how they feel about what I’ve written but mostly its unknown. And that’s just fine with me. I am enjoying the process of creating Telling Stories and I hope that others are interested in some of the things that interest me.

These 4 lessons have been taped to the wall over my desk for many years and I look at them a lot.  It seems they fit themselves into so many situations, including writing a storytelling blog.

According to Human Library.org,

The Human Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding. The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach.

In it’s initial form the Human Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to the Human Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background.

The Human Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding.

It is a “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies.

Founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, the project has gone global to 27 countries Including Mexico and the US.  The Tucson Pima Library has been the host to Living Library events in the past through the City of Tucson Diversity Team and they have information on the website about how it works:

The Books are people willing to share their expertise; engage in dialogue about their life and/or life experience; and/or dialogue about their “stories”.

The Readers are people, visitors to the Living Library (an individual or a small group) who come to “checkout or borrow” a Book from the library.

The Dictionaries are people who serve as interpreters – i.e., sign language; foreign language; other forms of interpretation.

Books and Reader(s) will sit together in a comfortable spot to engage in a wonderful, often difficult, and sometimes humorous informal dialogue that breaks down stereotypes and some of the most common prejudices. A Dictionary may be required at times.

The Living Library is simply a means of promoting understanding and inclusion.