Master Classes
Wednesday, July 11
1:00 - 6:30 pm
(with breaks)
Classes are limited to 25. Be sure to sign up early after registration opens.
We
are a human family. Our experiences, fleshed out, understood, and reshaped
for the hearts and minds of others, serves to create a template for that family
to join around. Creating stories from your life is in many ways like
re-authoring your own experiences. We often dig little trenches out of
parts of our lives, telling and retelling an experience that we find, humorous
or wounding. The work of our time together will be to dislodge the experience
from the trench, explore it through new eyes, and recreate a tale that speaks to
a broader population.
The
Healing of Brokenness: Storytelling and Spirituality
A
workshop dealing with the role of metaphor and story in the process of spiritual
healing. How does metaphor occasion
therapeutic change? Can stories
“reframe reality” for us? We’ll
ask how narrative expresses multiple ways for dealing with grief, pain, and
loss—in understanding the Holocaust or accepting the death of a child.
We’ll explore the dynamics of story-listening as well as storytelling,
look at great teaching stories in the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Native
American and Christian traditions, and attend to biblical storytelling and the
power of the oral tradition. Activities
include storytelling, meditation exercises, and dance.
Stories:
From the Oral to the Written
McKissack's five-hour, master class will use
various genres--anthologies, picture books, and novels--to identify the problems
and the possibilities of transferring a story from an oral to a written format.
Using models from her own work and others, McKissack will show how to preserve
the elements of good storytelling and how to "show" rather than
"tell" the reader. In addition, McKissack will give a ten pointers
needed to market your work to a publisher. "I want the class to be more
than a how-to experience," says McKissack. "I'd like the participants
to leave feeling encouraged and prepared to write and sell the stories they
tell."
Jay
O'Callahan
Do
your characters live? What are the
secrets of making characters sparkle? Jay
O’Callahan’s workshop will focus on bringing characters to life.
Jay will tell scenes of stories and lead exercises to bring participants
through his creative process.
Participants
will explore how metaphor, imagery, voice and action help define character.
We’ll also look at how place is often an invisible character.
The workshop will be participatory, lively, fun, creative, and there will
be time for questions.
Storytelling: Reflecting Our Past; Creating Your Future
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National Storytelling Network |