The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129039   Message #2894622
Posted By: Bettynh
26-Apr-10 - 11:35 AM
Thread Name: New stories
Subject: RE: New stories
Jerry, if you're in the USA keep an eye on your local library. I just came back from a storytelling festival organized by a library system in NY, and the form is alive and well through them. I was impressed by the community of storytellers, young and old, traditional and new. I think someone there who identifies themselves as a storyteller is someone who is willing to speak before a group and tell a coherent story, whether from their own experience, family or other history, or pure fantasy. It's a performance art.

the International Storytelling Center would be a place to start finding these folks.

The Library of Congress through StoryCorps is collecting family stories. NPR is airing them.
Public radio usually also carries Prairie Home Companion and This American Life, both story-intensive.

On the purely commercial side, some comedians have coherent and sometimes dark stories to tell. George Carlin and Richard Prior in the past, Christopher Titus now, tell their own stories in memorable ways.