Local storytellers are keeping the oral tradition alive
By MARGARETA MILDSOMMAR
CNC ARTS WRITER
Once upon a time - before the days of radio, TV, movies,computers and, yes,even before books - storytellers educated and entertained their audiences with the spoken word.
They still do. And although storytelling often drowns in the whirlpool of our
loud, fast-paced, high-tech society, a handful of New England storytellers
are keeping this ancient art form alive. Their mission is to open people's
minds through the power of imagination and wisdom.
"Human beings have been telling stories and listening to human speech as
the conveyer of stories for a good 200[000]-300,000 years at minimum,"
says Odds Bodkin, one of more than 20 professional storytellers who will be
appearing at the Three Apples Storytelling Festival in Harvard, Sept. 24-26.
"Whereas the written word is only 10,000 years old, the broadcast image is
only about 55 years old - or maybe going to the beginning of the century if
you are looking at movies."
To Bodkin, and to the other 100-plus professional storytellers in New
England, this ancient tradition is a full-time job like any other. During his 17
years of collecting, researching, editing, memorizing and telling stories,
Bodkin has put together hundreds of them. But he never writes them down.
"I am a storyteller," he says. "The stories are all in my memory."
And while the many stories, myths, folk tales and riddles that Bodkin and
other storytellers perform do have an entertainment purpose, to Bodkin,
who started telling stories by campfires late at night, there is more to
storytelling than simple family amusement.
"When children listen, especially to a well-told story, they imagine the story
themselves, and that strengthens the mind," explains Bodkin, who has a
background in cognitive psychology and has been teaching mythology and
imagination in schools and workshops all over New England. "A lot of
children in the modern world spend so much time looking at screens that
the inner areas of their brains that need to be stimulated with the ancient
spoken word are just never lit up.
"And they can never step up fully in to their intelligence until that happens,"
Bodkin adds. "So part of the of the reason I am doing all this is to teach
children to be able to think creatively."
Bodkin is not alone in believing that storytelling fills a greater function than
entertainment. Former teacher Jeanne Donato is currently the director of
the League for the Advancement of New England Storytellers. Her purpose,
she says, is to expand children's ability to listen.
"Children who cannot listen cannot be taught," Donato points out.
For 16 years, Donato has headed to schools and libraries during the winter.
There, she slips into a long red velvet dress and becomes the Winter Lady,
telling holiday stories from all over the world and teaching about different
cultures and histories.
"It is a simple concept," says Donato of her performances. "We learn best
through playing."
Donato fell into storytelling by accident and eventually went on to obtain a
degree in the profession. "Masters of Education in Story Art and Reading"
reads her diploma from Eastern Tennessee State University.
"Why is storytelling important to me?" muses Donato. "Think Littleton,
Colorado, and all the copycats that have come from it. We have very
brilliant children in our schools. These children can design Web pages, they
can design bombs and plots on how to blow up a school. They are brilliant.
But you know what they cannot do? They can't access their right brain, and
in the right brain, along with music, along with rhythm, along with color and
the sense of smell, inside the right brain is empathy. Inside the right brain
is creativity and imagination.
"We have made very intelligent left-brained children in our schools," Donato
continues. "But I have found storytelling accesses both sides of the brain. It
combines verbal with the imaginative and developing the empathy. And if I
can go from school to school and wake up as many teachers, parents and
administrators as I can, I will do this."
"A lot of people don't know how storytelling can be used," says storyteller
Derek Burrows, a Bahamas native who came to Boston as a 21-year-old to
study at Berklee College of Music. Since then, Burrows has given
empowering speeches and workshops around issues of multiculturalism,
racism, sexism, AIDS, peer pressure and violence. He's performed in
libraries, museums, schools, universities and even corporate businesses,
including Hewlett Packard, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Lesley College
and the Department of Public Health.
It might not seem like the usual storyteller audience, but Burrows thinks it
makes sense.
"I think [businesses and universities] are looking for more dynamic ways for
people to think about life," he says of his not-so-traditional audiences, and
adds that people today - especially youth - often need to stop and take a
deeper look at who they are. "A lot of kids are having lot of problems now.
They are having problems figuring out what they want to do, they are
having problems figuring out how to live in the world.
"Stories kind of help people make sense out of their lives," Burrows adds.
"The archetypes are in the stories and the stories have all these issues
going on that people are generally dealing with, issues of strength and
weakness, issues of loyalty and dedication, issues of change. ... The stories
help people work this stuff out and it also helps them recognize that they
are not alone."
Storyteller Leeny del Seamonds adds another twist to the idea of
storytelling bringing people together.
"I like to think of me as Disney," she giggles. "Eighty percent of the work I
am hired for is for families. It is important to me that the family enjoys
[storytelling] together. Because my goal is that when they go home, they
have a dialogue and that maybe I encourage them to share their family
stories with each other. That's important to me."
Del Seamonds, whose father is Cuban and whose mother is Irish, started
out as an actress.
"Many of my acting friends were saying 'Leeny, you should become a
storyteller,' " she remembers. "And I was like, 'What are they talking
about? I am an actor, I am an actor.' "
Del Seamonds has now been a "Master Story Performer" for eight years.
"I love it," she says. "I think what makes me happiest is being able to do
the performing and combine it with teaching, which is really part of
storytelling."
For many in the profession, stories are slices of life.
"But put into nice, neat story forms with an ending instead of just life, which
keeps going on and on," says Framingham-based storyteller Betty
Lehrman, who worked as a drama teacher before she got a taste for
storytelling. "I do think, in a small way, storytellers do make a difference in
the world ... and I wish we could make more. I know when I choose stories,
[I choose] stories that teach a positive lesson. I choose stories that you
can live with and that come back to you.
"For instance, I tell a very funny story, 'How can anything be worse?' about
a family for whom things seem horrible ... and it just gets worse and worse
and until finally things are back to the way they were in the beginning and
they say, 'Wait a minute, this is great.'
"Now this is a story I think about all the time," Lehrman adds. "In any
situation, when things look bad, you can say, 'It could always be worse.'
And I think that people get strength from those kind of stories."
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