Conversations With Storytellers

Joel ben Izzy - part 1

Joel ben Izzy is a storyteller from California and has been telling stories for a long time. Then he lost his his voice with thyroid cancer. This is part one of a long conversation of his journey, process and love of tales.
Filled with stories, compassion and a lot of joking around, this is part one of two episodes with Joel.
Joel’s website: https://www.storypage.com/

Sebastian Lockwood

Sebastian Lockwood is not British, although he sounds VERY British. Sebastian is one who tells the Epics! From the Odyssey and Gilgamesh to Beowulf and beyond. Sebastian raised an owl, talks about getting into trance when storytelling and about being twice born. Our conversation took place in a small cabin in New Hampshire sitting next to a stove, crackling away and amongst all this we also talked about going to school in England.

Alton Chung - part 2

In this episode we conclude the conversation with Alton Chung, a Japanese-Korean storyteller who grew up with the stories, superstitions, and the magic of the Hawaiian Islands. If you missed part one, please go back and have a listen, it is fascinating. Tales about World War II fighters from the Asian-American people, and people of Hawaii, amongst other things like ghost stories. In this episode we get into folk and fairy tales, the healing power of story and story structure amongst other things!
Sit back and enjoy part two of my conversation with Alton Chung.
 
https://www.altonchung.com/

Alton Chung - part 1

Alton Chung is a very funny guy, a scientist, an computer guy, theater tech but really a storyteller! We’ve only met once or twice and I have always enjoyed his company.  Alton is a Japanese-Korean storyteller who grew up with the stories, superstitions, and the magic of the Hawaiian Islands. Our conversation led us through the history of Japanese-Americans and Hawaiians in WWII, ghost stories and later in part two on finding stories, his process and healing.
Please enjoy part one of this conversation.
 
https://www.altonchung.com/

Judith Heineman

Judith Heineman and I met years ago at Sharing the Fire, the North Eastern Storytelling Conference and bonded over dark chocolate. It was at a time when I always had some and some other person let her know! Judith began her career as a poet and actor, and has gone deep with her work as a storyteller. She's worked with musicians and museums! We talk about research, books, kids, energy, and the jitters amongst other topics.

Lorna Czarnota

Lorna and I have bumped into one another at a few conferences and festivals, but I heard her play her harp and tell stories at Sharing the Fire, here in the North East. She blew me away. Awardwinner, author, musician, and storyteller, Lorna is one of our gems.
Join me to hear about how families need to be held together and how healing can work. And how you can begin learning a musical instrument at 40 and never look back after dropping the flutaphone at elementary school!
Lorna's website: http://storyhavenstudio.com/index.html 
There is some background noise I could not remove, but it settles down.

Eth-Noh-Tec

Eth-Noh-Tec was founded in 1982 by Artistic Co-Directors Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, longstanding San Francisco artists who have contributed greatly to the Asian American performing arts movement. They are not only business parteners, but also a wonderful couple!
They have many awards under their belts and are incredibly smart and insightful. We talk about many things in this episode, including being invisable as an Asian-American. They discuss their process and who some of their favourite tellers are!
http://www.ethnohtec.org/

Linda Gorham

African-American story twister, and storyteller, Linda Gorham is this month’s guest with Simon Brooks on Conversations with storytellers.
I cannot wait for you to hear the conversation I had with Linda Gorham. There's mention of a little black book!We talk about a city girl and how she made herself a teller of tales. Taking folk tales and fracturing them, or twisting them as she calls it, is Linda’s favourite type of telling. Her collection of stories, and words - made up and otherwise, is inspiring to hear about. Life of a young girl moving around the world and how she has now settled. Please enjoy the conversation with Linda Gorham.
LindaGorham.com

Janice Del Negro part two

Janice Del Negro is a bit of a hero in the world of storytelling. She teaches is at Dominican University, where she is a professor, subjects such as storytelling, children's and young adult literature and foundations of library and informations services. I have been following Janice for a while, and love her work and over COVID-19 time have got to know her better. We first met years ago, but we rarely saw each other.
Why folks tales? "True love and money is what everyone wants." Another quote about folk and fairy tales from Janice: "People yearn for justice." In this episode Janice goes into her process and shares the making of a couple of stories and a line she started with, a line she came up with for the story - the last line of the tale: "Seven brides you have sent to the bottom of sea, and now you will be bride groom to them all."
I hope you get as much from this as I did!
 
https://storytelling.org/delnegro
 
https://www.DiamondScree.com
 

Janice Del Negro

Janice Del Negro is a professor in the School of Information Studies at Dominican University, where she teaches storytelling, children's and young adult literature, and foundations of library and information science. She is a storyteller, author, educator, and coach. She is incredibly respected in our community and has met and worked with many of our great storytellers. She challenges us to do better, and is a huge supporter of storytelling. This was another one of those incredibly rich and lengthy conversations, so this is part one of two!
https://storytelling.org/delnegro/