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he Society for Storytelling was set up to promote the oldest art form in the world. Storytelling is at the root of every art form. We think in story form and we make sense of our world in narrative. Whether it’s something happening in our life, something we’ve seen, something on last night’s television, or family and folk stories, we remember and retell. Story is the traditional medium of communication from generation to


generation. Over the centuries, people have gathered together to listen to and take part in storytelling, and performance storytelling can be an immensely powerful experience. There is something at once entertaining and moving in the steady-eyed communication of a story from the heart. The Society for Storytelling in England began life at a meeting at the back of the Volunteer pub during the Sidmouth International Folk Festival in August 1992. Those early mumbles got louder and more distinct until it seemed that something simply had to happen, and, after much debate, the society proper was formed.


The idea was for a society that would promote oral storytelling. Opinions, then as now, differed as to how the society would best serve the storytelling community. Across the months that followed that initial meeting, a basic format was argued over, shaped and reshaped, until, finally, the Society for Storytelling was officially begun at a gathering in Birmingham in April 1993. National Storytelling Week was conceived by the society in 2000 to increase public awareness of the practice and value of oral storytelling, and is held every year during the first week of February. One important reason for its development was to open up a greater employment field for storytellers at all levels in the community. Many of those who are involved in this ancient tradition seek not only to entertain as tellers, but to collect and research the folk material they work with. To be a good storyteller, you must have the patience and good nature to be an even greater listener – and storytellers are generally happy to share expansively, through conversation, lectures and talks, the intricacies of traditional story forms in a variety of different cultures. Over the past decade National Storytelling Week has grown and developed. It began with audience figures amounting to around 600. The audience figures for 2009 reached over 16,000 in total, with storytelling events and performances at schools, arts centres, libraries, theatres, museums and galleries, pubs, book shops, storytelling clubs, retirement homes and prisons. As often as possible, the Society for Storytelling updates its Guide to


British storyteller Cat Weatherill pictured at The Guardian Hay Festival


National Storytelling Week. The guide is not so much a ‘what’s on in your area’ (the website offers that) but a compendium of practical guidance, with essays and articles by experienced storytellers. Once thought of as an educational aid specifically for National Storytelling Week, the guide is now requested from all over the world, 12 months of the year.


Looking back over the past decade or so, the area of widest growth has, without a doubt, been that of education. This is as true for adults as it is for the young, with much inspirational work taking place among those with a particular need to develop their imaginations and language skills.


One example is the work storytellers have done in the UK’s prisons. The impact of storytellers’ work with prisoners who wish to maintain close links with their families has, gradually, gained a higher profile. Storytelling workshops give inmates an opportunity to develop and record their own stories for their children. Explaining the nuances of form and expression to individuals trying to create stories which give warmth and support to children they cannot directly comfort, is both valuable and hugely rewarding. Similarly, storytellers working with speech, hearing and sight impaired adults are uncovering, through their workshops, a wealth of undisclosed emotions and means of expression which they, in turn, will have at their fingertips.


Each year, more and more requests flood in for the Society for


Storytelling’s Guide to National Storytelling Week, from every level of learning – from nurseries, through primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, to adult education centres, disability forums, University of the Third Age (U3A) groups, reminiscence groups, and refugee and Holocaust centres. Storytelling stretches from its simplest application in the nursery through to personal stories and bereavement support in hospitals, strengthening communication in the business sphere, and facilitating learning in education. Storytelling is not just for the young but for all ages; everyone, in fact, who shares the creations of thought and the creativity of imagination.


Derek Reid is Coordinator for National Storytelling Week, at the Society for Storytelling. For more information about National Storytelling Week 2010 go to: www.sfs.org.uk.


storytelling, it isn’t just language that counts, but also ‘the sharing and the imagery’. Their success was echoed by other students’ work with adult learners with addiction and mental health issues. ‘People have this huge capacity to be interested in things, but it’s often muffled because so much of what goes on in society seems to be designed to disinterest people, to create systems that make life easier for managers and bureaucrats and have no real recognition of the character of people and the diversity of the ways people live. I’ve always found storytelling incredible because you see people’s eyes lighting up and you know that people have experienced those things, they have humour, they have interests, but half the time we seem to be intent on stifling those rather than allowing them expression and development. That’s why I think storytelling has a real connection with adult education that is about fulfilment of people’s potential and enriching society. Adult education has struggled, going back to Thatcher really. It’s been used for all sorts of instrumental purposes. But I think storytelling connects with the radical, humane roots of what adult education is about. I feel in my guts that storytelling is


absolutely planted into that soil. And maybe the time is right, post-credit crunch, for adult education to rediscover its passion and its inspiration. Maybe it’s time to fight back.’ The connection between adult education and storytelling is reflected in the commit- ment of both the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Newbattle Abbey College to continue working together. At the end of August, Newbattle hosted its first storytelling festival, effectively a taster for the course. Principal Ann Southwood would like to see more collaboration and the development of further and higher levels of qualification, while Smith sees opportunities for further courses and gatherings, ‘digging into that internationalism that’s in the storytelling tradition, and in the adult education and Newbattle ethos’. Certainly, internationally, there is an appetite for storytelling, with the Scots and English very much to the fore. ‘The amazing thing is that this is happening everywhere in Europe,’ says Smith. ‘It’s all at a slightly different pace and everybody’s got a different angle, but there is something happening, storytelling festivals, centres opening, new interfaces with contemporary society, across every part of Europe.’ One


thing the European federation and other international developments won’t do is impose a hierarchy or set of rules on storytellers, Smith adds. ‘There is a healthy anarchy to storytelling – nobody controls it. Everybody is going to find their own way. It’s very important that in storytelling people find their own voice. When you tell a story it’s not like an actor taking on a character. You are the storyteller throughout, even if you use dramatic techniques. You remain yourself. Confidence in your own character and forms of expression, telling the stories in your own way, is absolutely critical and that is what brings storytelling so close to the heart of adult education. It’s not passing on a set of techniques or skills that could help you earn a living better. It’s about growth and development and that is absolutely central to storytelling. That’s what it’s about. It is affirming people to really stretch their imaginations and their abilities.’


For more information go to: www.newbattleabbeycollege.ac.uk www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk


NOVEMBER 2009 ADULTS LEARNING 25


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