Updated: Feb 7, 2024
Hello everyone,
Staying well and safe during these difficult times is your most important job. Keep up the good work.
The newsletter looks a bit different this month. The coronavirus has affected a number of things including our newsletter. We have gone back to an old format until summer. Expect to see our beautiful newsletter again soon. Thank you for your patience.
Sheltering in place and making the best of it is my top priority. I’ve started wearing a mask when I go out to the store now, which isn't very often. My hands get washed so often they have turned red.
Storytelling online is fine and fun but for me, but it will never take the place of in person telling.. Fortunately The St. Louis Storytelling Festival is virtual and there are lots of stories to listen to from wonderful storytellers. I hope you are on board with it.
Zoom is the new way to communicate and the way to teach a class remotely, I feel like a duck out of water sometimes. Our dogs are being walked 4-5 times a day and I am managing to get in my daily 10000 steps.That's never happened before. The winter coat drive will have a few more scarves thanks to Covid-19. We are very careful with our toilet paper use. I guess I should’ve purchased that bidet when I had the chance. I have transplanted lilies and planted seeds. The neighbors and I talk over the back fence from afar. Kids are playing in their backyards and neighbors are listening to music on their front porches. Whole families are riding bikes together and sitting down to a meal together. I am going to church online.
We need to stay positive and make plans for the future. There will still be a Liar’s Contest in July. It could be virtual, but there will be a contest. Please send in your information for the State Parks for the Fall.
We will stay in touch. Send us your stories about your adventures at home and on the web.I am thinking of all of you and wishing you the best.
Love, Joyce
“Tell the story that's been growing in your heart, the characters you can't keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning.”
― Jennifer Weiner
Updated: Feb 8, 2024
We live in the country outside of Pacific, which is southwestof St. Louis about 30 miles. We live on the Meramec River and we love it. I wake up early alone. I do not wake up grumpy. I let him sleep. This is my alone time and I do need my alone time. The west side of the house is where we live and work most of the time. It is mostly glass. I look outat the river and the trees. The trees are beginning to leaf out and almost everything is green. The redbud is blooming. It is quiet at this time of day and the birds sing just for me. It is my favorite time of the day no matter what the weather.
These times are often not easy, but my weeks have been brightened bystories by some of the best storytellers around. At 10:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. the St. Louis Storytelling Festival goes virtual. OnThursday night,there are stories for adults. Two weeks ago our own Joyce Slater told stories. She was outstanding. Last week was Ken Wolfe. He used the light from his refrigerator to provide just the right touch for his tall tales.
I am looking forward to RAPS meetings and hope to catch Phyllis Howell next week. There are so many wonderful storytellers, doing so much during these times, but also for all times. I also listen to Jim"Two Crows" Wallen, sharing his wonderful talent on Facebook. He mentioned Calamity Jane the other day. Calamity Jane was my first best story for my first St. Louis Storytelling Festival. My session was with middle schoolers. When I arrived I had preschoolers instead. I did not tell them about Calamity Jane. Thank goodness that wasn't my only story. I am going to dust off that story and start retelling it.
Also when I have to, I am writing lesson plans for my two classes Iteach. One is Art for Teachers and another is Storytelling for Teachers. It is not as much fun as teaching my students in person. I talk faster than I can type. There are strict guidelines and everything must be very clear. Students must read all the instructions before contacting me, they sometimes don't read it all first. So this has been so fun!!!! I am getting better at this and so are my students.
Please take care of yourselves and follow the rules, so we may meet again to tell stories together face to face.
"Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger."
Ben Okri
"The arts are the only things that separate us from the other animals. The arts are not decorative.... They are essential to our comprehension of consciousness and ourselves." Edward Albee
Interview by Sue Hinkel
1.Tell a bit about you. Vocations, hobby, family
I love long walks in Nature so I can meditate,ruminate, and contemplate. As a former National Park Service Ranger and Naturalist, it has been part of my DNA for the last 40 years to do this. That background has allowed me to embrace the teachings of the Indigenous People of North America.
They had a "Mystical" connection to the 4 elements of Nature and as I went deeper into those studies I found that we humans are caught between the making of money and the care of the planet. That is the reason we are still using 18th century technology to power our vehicles, businesses, and homes.
Sherry my wife is vegetarian as I am and we strive to honor what I call the 5 Basic Precepts:PROPER: Nutrition/Sleep/Exercise/Breathing/Mental Attitude.These things have served us well in the "current climate" or "new normal" we find ourselves in today!
My two brothers Paul & Wil ( I am the middle kid) are doing their best to stay healthy also. Paul is an avid and prolific writer/Storyteller and Wil is retired from Mallinkrodt Chemical Co in St. Louis..
My son Damon and his wife Monique have a beautiful smart 10 year old daughter, Mikaylah Grace.
2. That is your interest in Storytelling? How did it begin?
I did not find storytelling, it found me! I was in my senior year at UMSL pursuing a double Major in History and Journalism when a classmate recommended I go to the Arch to apply for a Summer job as an National Park Service Ranger. I had no idea what that was nor did I know the Arch was a national monument, but I did know I needed a Summer job!
After an hour interview, the chief ranger asked if I could start the next day! Caught off guard by the sudden twist of fate, I told him I had already signed an agreement to be a camp counselor at Camp Sabra, a Jewish camp in Lake of The Ozarks. He looked at his desk calendar and I knew I had blown the opportunity but he looked up and said; " Can you start the Monday after you return to St. Louis? We signed the deal, and the job lasted from the Summer of 1976 for the next 10 years!
In 1980 Ron Turner and Lynn Rubright banded together to create a storytelling festival in St.Louis that would model the National Festival in Jonesbourough,TN and the site they chose was the Arch museum which as God & fate would have it, was my work site! Some of the best storytellers in the nation came to the museum and the epiphany dawned on me. I could take living history, my background in stand up comedy,and acting with the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre and roll it into a genre I called; "Storytheatre!"
I asked to be off Monday and Tuesday to work with a group called Young Audiences Inc. and got my wish to work in the St. Louis School system. Actor Chris Limber, who was hired by The Arch admin. to portray Mark Twain saw my guided tours in the museum and said I should apply for a position with YA and that set the next stage for my development.
I resigned from the Park Service in early 1987 and in 1988 I went to Chicago's North Shore to perform on the same stage as the legendary Jackie Torrence and the next chapter in my career was set. She became my mentor and introduced me to her record producer and booking agent.Later I hired ex-Park Ranger Jan Dolan to be my executive assistant first and then my agent.
3. Why did you decide it was important to a member of Missouri Storytelling? How can MO-TELL improve?
Two people kept asking me to join MO-TELL and I finally gave in. Theywere Sue Hinkel and Perrin Stifel. They both are relentless in getting people to do their bidding and I fell under their spell!
I feel MO-TELL could improve the organization by getting more involved in virtual telling while keeping some of the traditional parts of storytelling. I, being "old school" still prefer the paper newsletter. It still appeals to me!
4. What tellers have been influential in your life?
Jackie Torrence.
5. What is your favorite story, movie, song?
My favorite *Movie & book is Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. J.K. Rowling proved with the introduction of the Dementors that her Work was beyond kid entertainment.
My favorite *Story is Wiley and The Hairy man- I love the jump story genre and I can do 4 in that 1 story!
My favorite * Song is Head To The Sky-by Earth,Wind & Fire!
6. Favorite Trick or Treat Joke? Memory of Christmas? Valentine Memory?
Trick or Treat joke- Adam & Eve and Pinch Me Tight went over the river to see a fight, Adam & Eve came back from the fight, who was left to see thefight? (when they say pinch me tight, I oblige) :)
Christmas- As a kid making snow cream with freshly fallen snow caught in a large dish set on the window sill, vanilla flavor,sugar, and Pet Milk!
Valentine- Making hearts and handmade cards in grade school arts & crafts class!
Favorite vacation- Looking down the caldera of an active volcano in Indonesia and visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando,FL.