Fran Stallings

I have been seeing and bumping into Fran Stallings for a long while and have had one or two conversations with her and we have talked about doing this for a long time. On this episode, unfortunately there is a popping sound from, I think, Fran's microphone. It came over on the recording and I couldn’t always get rid of it. Apologies for staticky tech! Also, we talked about suffragettes and I mis-spoke causing Fran to misspeak. I mis-pronounced Emily, or Emmeline Pankhurst’s name, it is not Parkhurst! Emily Pankhurst never met Susan B Anthony, the former coming to the United States a few years after Susan B Anthony’s death.

Fran Stallings started as a biologist hoping to dance. She is a well respected storyteller and tells stories she heard and collected in Japan from Hiroko Fujita, other folk tales, stories to help save the environment, and the occasional personal story. Fran started telling stories as a teacher, then to her kids, and earned money as a professional towards the beginning of the renaissance in the early 1980’s. She's still at it. She is a wonderfully warm person and great teller of traditional tales. Here, she shares her journey and connection to Japanese stories and Hiroko Fujita, and her environmental work. Fran shares her work process and why folk and fairy tales are important to her.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Fran Stallings.