The Art and Craft of Telling Personal Stories is a 6-week focused workshop designed to help people become aware of their own potential as storytellers and discover the power of storytelling in their personal and work lives. If you want to feel more comfortable relating in groups of people, increase your skills as a public speaker in professional situations, or pass on family stories to your grandchildren, this is the workshop for you.

This is a shameless plug for my own workshop at the wonderful Casa Libre en la Solana at 228 N. 4th Avenue, Tucson. The mission of Casa Libre is to “support and enhance the creativity of professional and novice writers by providing a community venue for classes, readings and other professional development opportunities.” If you’re not on their email list, sign up today to find out about their programming.

Anyone who puts words together would benefit from the experience of developing a personal narrative and presenting it orally to an audience.  Storytelling employs a different, yet related, skill set than the act of writing and one can strengthen the other.

In this 6-week workshop students will discover a framework for selecting, perfecting and performing personal stories through a combination of instruction and interactive, playful activities. Students will uncover their private reserve of stories, learn to organize a story for telling, share feedback with the other storytellers, and become more comfortable presenting to an audience.

The workshop includes: 
Tuesdays April 3, 10, 17 and May 1 – 4 evenings of group work, 6:30 – 10 p.m.
1 private lesson, individually scheduled the week of April 25
Friday, May 4, – informal performance, 7 – 9 p.m.
Tuesday, May 8 – wrap-up celebration and feedback group, 6:30 – 10 p.m.

The workshop size is limited to 12 students so please make sure you can make a commitment to attend all dates. Contact Casa Libre for details on cost and registration. Registration ends on March 27 so sign up soon.

For more information you can contact penelope@odysseystorytelling.com, or casakeepers@casalibre.org.

Doug Bland is pastor of the Community Christian Church of Tempe (CCC) and he has a passion for storytelling. Some of you may have been lucky to see him perform in Tucson at Odyssey Storytelling last year at the Humor for the Holidays show.

In addition to his church duties, he spends his time as adjunct faculty at the Storytelling Institute at South Mountain Community College and produces quarterly storytelling events at the CCC. He writes:

More and more, being known as “the storytelling church” is an identity that we are embracing with enthusiasm.  After all, storytelling is the primary way that Jesus taught, built community and transformed lives.

Winter’s Light is the theme of the upcoming show on Sunday, December 18 at 7 p.m. with an impressive line up of diverse storytellers:

Rabbi Dean Shapiro of Temple Emanuel of Tempe; Rana Singh Sodhi, (see his story about the aftermath of 9/11 at Arizona Storytellers); Karina Bland, Arizona Republic reporter;  Liz Warren, faculty member and cofounder of the Storytelling Institute,; Desert Marigold Waldorf Choir; and Sandi Howlet (see her story about skinny dipping at Arizona Storytellers).

The Community Christian Church is at 1701 S. College Avenue, Tempe, AZ. You can contact them at 480-967-5266 or office@tempeccc.com for more information.

There’s an innovative program at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Center on Age and Community for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s called TimeSlips. Begun in 1996 by Anne Basting, the program uses improvisation and storytelling to help people express themselves and connect with others.

The website says, “TimeSlips opens storytelling to everyone by replacing the pressure to remember with the freedom to imagine.” It seems to me that all sorts of storytellers, writers and educators would benefit from their methods and creative storytelling prompts.

You can try it out on their website. First you choose an image and prompt and then tell or write. Here are a few examples:

What should we name him? . . . Tell a Story

What's so funny? . . . Tell a Story

What's going on here? . . . Tell a Story

You can read some of the stories, from short phrases to elaborate and funny poems to disturbing interpretations, at the “browse stories” tab.

They offer training for individuals, classrooms and organizations and you can apply for certification as a TimeSlips Trainer. And they have great pictures on their website:

Her name might be Gloria Jean. She looks happy.