Traveling to Nebraska

 Ever since I heard the album Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen, I have wanted to go. I recently got the chance to visit. Hazard, however, was an hour north of where I was so was not able to get there this time!

 

Last week I took off for Kearney, Nebraska for five days of storytelling at schools, their library and finally at the Country Club for the evening festival performance. I got back yesterday after a day and a half of flying and long layovers in airports! The trip was a lot of fun, and work. Flying over a snowy Mid-West was wonderful. The last part of the flight was on a small plane filled with eight people, including the crew! (The journey home had a packed plane, and I was told that “packed” was more normal.) The snacks were way better than the ‘usual’ airlines, too. The people of Kearney are friendly and the organizers took care of both myself and Priscilla Howe who was the other featured teller. In the days we were there I told over 30 stories at 12 presentations, did a visit to the local tv station to promote the event with board member (and awesome human being) Marlene Hansen, and presented a 3-hour workshop to college students studying to be Social Studies teachers at UNK.

Priscilla Howe with one of her puppets. Priscilla also tells the epics and very fun personal narrative tales!

 

Priscilla visited a senior center, and a bunch of schools too. We got to hang out with each other, and also with Allen deBay, another storyteller. Allen is from Kansas and tells mostly personal stories, but on Festival Day before my segment, he told an original story to the families, which went down well. Robin Bennett, another local storyteller/author, also told an original story before Priscilla told her family stories (pictured above) as part of the festival. The whole week was a lot of fun and Priscilla and I, although good friends before, were great friends after the festival. The events were well planned, the schools happy to have us, and the audience appreciative of the stories. The drivers, and there were many, were super people, not just driving us to the gigs, but showed us around a bit. And Priscilla taught me how to play dice! (No money was at stake during the game of dice!)

I have to admit I need to be more aware of my age during performances! At one school I was performing for two hundred and fifteen 6th graders and was having a lot of fun. I was in an auditorium, on a stage, raised four feet from the floor. As I was jumping down to get in amongst the kids, I ran back and launched myself from the floor up onto the stage. I made it, but only just. The next time I went up the steps!

Allen and I made a short visit to the Archway Museum, a tribute to the adventures and people who moved to Nebraska, the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails, and all roads that led West. Priscilla was doing something else, although we did invite her. It was a very interesting stop. There was even a 1950’s open-top Cadillac which Allen and I wanted to take for a spin! Sadly, there was no way to drive it out of the museum, and I had to wonder how they got it in there in the first place! I also got to see the Platte River, a very important place in America’s Western history and featured in many of the Western books I read with my Grandad.

Kearney is a wonderful town of about 14,000 people and is typical, I was told, of the mid-west with its many brick buildings. I would love to go back another time, maybe in the spring or summer and visit some of the other sights there.

An old grocery store which was empty for a number of years and is now a bar and gallery. So glad they kept the original signage

One last thing about the trip: On the way back home there was a very short time period where I had to get from one gate to the next. Walking quickly (it’s rare that I run these days, but I do walk quickly) I got to my gate for the fourth and final leg home as they were calling my group, the last, to board. Sitting on the plane, looking through the window, I saw my one suitcase waving at me from the airport. I waved back, and felt awful leaving it in Washington, DC, but we were reunited this morning and the case was very happy! Unpacking, I found that TSA had opened my case and tickled it, so it had a fun time while we were apart! I will be telling that story (as told to me by my suitcase) on Story Story Podcast on the 1st March.

I hope you are doing well.

Peace,

Simon

Stone Soup Storytelling Festival

I have to say that my visit to Stone Soup Storytelling Festival needs a proper blog post with a few photos. There are more on my Facebook page!

It was quite the experience, not least for the reason that a number of the New Voices stayed together at an AirBnB. Although due to 'unforeseen' circumstances the sleeping accommodations were a little wonky, it worked out very well. So many deep conversations were held, stories swapped, and silly ping-pong games!
It was an early start on Thursday, the moon high in a dark sky, but watching it rise at the airport was fabulous. Arrived in Charlotte at a little before 9 am, got into the rental car and found a diner to have breakfast in!
After breakfast, I took a somewhat winding way to Woodruff, South Carolina to see the country I was in. I feel back roads more interesting to drive, and you see where you are better in terms of culture, too. It also allowed me to see a roadside attraction - Gaffney's Peachoid - a water tower where art imitates life, I think!
Stone Soup Storytelling Festival has a segment called New Voices created by Linda Goodman. A bunch - this year 12 - of tellers are asked to perform as part of the festival. We do it for love and for the chance to get to come back, paid! A number of us decided, at the organizers suggestion and organization, to stay at a near-by AirBnB. Karyn Page-Davies is a wonderful organizer and planner and very full spirit. She could be likened to a sunflower rising up above the rest sharing light and happiness. Anyway, I arrived at the AirBnB. On Thursday and Friday it was pretty much just Paul Strickland, Jane Ogburn Dorfman, Rachel Ann Harding and myself, then we were joined by Cooper Braun, Mark Goldman, Yasu Ishida, Sheila Gray, and Sarah Beth Nelson. Apart from lots of tea and coffee, laughs to be had, table tennis, and stories shared and swapped, there were long deep conversations about life, storytelling and business. It was incredible. I would not trade that experience for anything.

Jane, Paul, me and Rachel Ann

The weekend was filled with stories and panels, discussions on storytelling, meeting other storytellers like hobbiest storyteller Kanute Rarey, and the dry and funny Sam Pearsall, the brilliant Tony Marr, who I met last year but did not hear.
The whole weekend is filled with story. From the Lunch and Laugh at the Soup Kitchen; the Story Panel which Regi Carpenter nailed, along with Jeff Doyle, Tony, Sam and Kanute; and the opening concert all on Friday. We did look over the town of Woodruff and I saw a beautiful pocket watch. It was an antique and would have cost $75.00 which for an antique is not too bad, but I was thinking of the people at the Soup Kitchen and couldn't bring myself to buy it. There are people there who were struggling to put food on the table and the watch seemed to be frivolous to me.
Saturday began with amateur storytelling open mic where we heard some tellers who should be telling way more, and a young 13 year old girl who told a remarkable sci-fi story. This was MCed by a very capable daughter of Nicole Hazard who had MCed the panel on Friday. From there we went to the first New Voices concert which featured Sarah Beth Nelson, Sheila Gray, Cooper Braun, Meanie Knauff, Denise Mount and Rachel Ann Harding. All were good, some were brilliant, and my kitsune tale from Japan and was brilliantly told. Her pace, and delivery were top notch. Sarah Beth Nelson told the story of Dido in a way that surprised and delighted me. It was so good and filled with depth and humour. Melanie Knauff's personal story of bears and soda machines was a riot. She is quite a powerhouse and defiantly a good laugh. I met Sheila Gray at Sharing the Fire this year, and I think I met her once before, and her story was a great story from the Native American culture. Another story I liked a lot was the story of how Denise Mount's parents met. Denise's delivery was fabulous, and her story heartwarming. A whole set of love stories, pretty much.

The second set - Paul, me and Mark, Jane, Yasu, Lori and Omar

favourite tales were by Cooper and Rachel Ann. At first Cooper's story seemed to be a complete departure from his normal deep, mythic tale, appearing to be a personal story, but then the girl in the story opened her wings took hold of Cooper and flew off. There it was! The mythic! Rachel Ann's story was a
Our New Voices MC, the very chirpy, wild and funny Lona Bartlett was the best. Her handling, introductions, and outros were perfection. The audience had been given a voting sheet with all 12 names on it, as the audience (and the tellers) were asked to pick ONE performer from each set as their favourite. This was incredibly hard to do. In both sets I had a hard time picking one person, and part of me was saddened I could not choose more, best of three would have been good! After each set, Lona had the tellers return to the stage space and ran through all the stories pointing out the tellers. Marvelous job, delivered with grace and humour. When Lona says of herself: "You might find I am a little crazy. And I am very good at it!" she is not kidding. I loved her MCing us. The performance order for both sets were decided by drawing from the Soup Bowl of Destiny! Which brings me to lunch.

Getting eaten by a dragon for lunch

I grabbed lunch on my own at a local sandwich/hot dog shop which was really good. Not only the sandwich but the space to be solo for a while. It was a very good sandwich.
Afterwards I went with others to see Jeff Doyle tell to kids at the local library with Kanute. Jeff has a way that brings kids out of themselves which was great to see. He thoroughly entranced them. Kanute had fun too.
Paul I left to get back to the performance space for New Voices part two. Paul and I first met at the Jonesborough Storytelling Festival last year at the Exchange Place. The National Festival's way to introduce new tellers to the event. I loved the tale Paul told then and I enjoyed his company then too, although it was brief. Hearing him again here in Woodruff, confirmed everything. He is brilliant. His stories are so well crafted, clever, funny, playful and yet insightful. His stories, although tall tales which will have you crying with laughter speak of the deep truth of life at times if you are willing to see it. See Paul if you get the chance, you won't regret it. He wasn't the only one to hit the mark, Jane Ogburn Dorfman also told a brilliant story, delivering with gentleness and depth. A wonderful mix of personal narrative and folk tale, beautifully done. The set was opened by Mark Goldman who told an historical story. It was incredible and the ending a total surprise. I cannot give it away, as I hope he will be making this story more available. Yasu Ishida was another clever and thoughtful performer. His story about time travel was remarkable and the end was just astounding, catching everyone, it seemed, out! Quite brilliant. I very much enjoyed his company both at the performances and in person, very gracious human being, and enthusiastic, too!Omar and Lori Hansen are tandem tellers and did a great traditional tale. The humour and fun they obviously had on stage made it all the more enjoyable. And I told The Goat from the Hills and Mountains! People seemed to enjoy it.
You might think that was it for stories but no! After a short break the storytelling returned in the form of a liars competition - Say What?! That was a lot of fun and we got to see more of Cooper, Paul, Jane, and Lori and Omar (although theirs was not a tall tale, but a folk tale), Sarah Beth and other storytellers too. Paul won the main prize which did not surprise me, although I really enjoyed Jane's tale too, and that was a very good fib.
A bunch of us went out to supper together. And when I say a bunch, I mean a bunch! Imagine a couple of tables filled with storytellers - well, here's what it looked like! Yep, it's a busy chatty two tables!

 We had fun talking about all sorts of things, from why people tell the tales they do, to where they tell them and how to make series of tales! It was a lot of fun. After super we headed to the siree to hear Regi, Sam and Kanute tell again. Regi was once more amazing, powerful, leaving me filled with wonder and admiration. After the after-party I could have gone to the cabaret, but I was exhausted. Late nights up talking with those who were staying at the AirBnB, all the stories, and walking about Woodruff left me tired out .

I headed home for a short rest, then the other tenants returned and the deep conversations and table tennis began again and lasted, for me, until 1 am! We talked about politics, racism, the power of stories, conferences, festivals, everything, it seemed.
Fortunately we didn't have to be up until a bit later on Sunday for the Sunday service at the local First Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Steve Phillips presided with Regi and Tony Marr adding to the service. I liked what everyone did and the pianist, Madeleine McEntire was fabulous.
This was followed by another mass-eating fest for brunch. No photos, just great conversations about a fabulous weekend of tales.
Woman of the weekend - Karyn Page-Davies without a doubt. The organizer of the weekend, a sunflower standing above all giving radiance and smiles wherever she went, apparently oblivious of the whirlwind of a festival going on around her, yet orchestrating the thing! I met so many wonderful people, heard so many great tales, and need So Much Sleep now it almost hurts!
If you ever get the chance to visit this festival, please go and support it. The people there are great, the stories told are remarkable.
https://www.stonesoupsc.org/