Tell Your Own Story
I enjoyed hearing other people’s stories. Balance of physical, educational, psychological and spiritual storytelling exercises was very well delivered. The way you moved through them was excellent- drawing on your educational, performance and storytelling knowledge. Superb, Thank you very much.
Telling Your Own Story
If you have ever wanted to learn how to tell your story, join me for a fun, participative day, where I will gently guide you to fossick for a personal story, polish it and tell from the heart.
‘Live storytelling experienced a revival in the 1970s with the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It launched a storytelling movement that evolved in the early days from folktales and myths to include a wider variety of genres, like fiction, humour, and personal narrative. It was in this context that George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth, started a regular event in 1997 as an attempt to recreate the summer evenings of his childhood, back home in Georgia, sitting on theporch with friends telling tales. Little did George know just how incredibly popular personal narrative storytelling would become.
‘Live personal narrative storytelling brings people together around a proverbial campfire; where storytellers get up and share authentic experiences from their lives, and where audiences rediscover the idiosyncrasies of our common humanity. Unlike at a comedy show, or even a theatre production, the audience is invited to connect directly with the person on stage; to imagine themselves in their shoes. In this humble exchange of sharing and receiving lived stories we cultivate a sense of community connection. This simple principle has inspired dozens of live storytelling groups to spring up all over the globe, including homegrown groups like Barefaced in Perth, SPUN Stories in the NT, Life Out Loud in Brisbane, and Queerstories.
‘At its heart, live storytelling believes that every person has lived a life filled with stories worth telling, and therefore, the storytelling stage is essentially for everyday people from all walks of life.’
Rene Norwie, Founder, Nimbin Storytellers
Listen here to Jenni tell the winning story at ‘Now Hear This’ Storytelling Slam in Brisbane, 2015 for ABC Radio National – the adult version of her children’s tale ‘The Mulberry Tree’ (6 mins).
The children’s version is on Jenni’s album, ‘Story Tree and other nature tales’, available as a digital download.
Face to face workshop: 10am – 4pm OR online via zoom – usually weeknight evenings
BELOW: Jenni facilitating a ‘Stories for a More Beautiful World’ Workshop at Woodford Folk Festival, Dec 2019 (pre-Covid19!)
I especially loved the exercise at the beginning of visualising the special space. I liked that you made it feel very cosy and safe to tell my stories, because I was mischievous as a child and was told ‘No-one wants to hear what you have to say.’ So to have people look really interested in my story and ask questions was very empowering.
I am really appreciative of the stories everyone shared. Also liked group work exploring the stories. As a listener, even if you had one question to contribute, it can make a difference to the story development. I loved the diversity of feedback, which was really helpful.
You were very good at creating a safe place to share my story, which has some trauma in it. I liked the way you had exercises for beginners, as well as people who had a story that was nearly finished. Loved the icebreakers that helped us get to know each other. I don’t like drawing much, but I really found the mapping process helpful. It strengthened my sense of the story. Loved the polished stone analogy. I found that really helpful as well as the story parachute. Loved that everything was an invitation.
