Hear Su Ma on CBC Radio

Recently, VSG member Su Ma was interviewed by Cheryl MacKay on CBC radio (North by Northwest). Turn up your speakers and click here to hear Su Ma's interview and her adaptation of a traditional Chinese story. Well done Su Ma.

Stories to Last the Summer at this Season's Last Fern

June 14 - the last Stories at Fern for the summer of 2010 - was hosted by Lee Porteous whom we have to thank for connecting us to the Speech Arts Festival and for bringing two young winners from that event to start the evening with delightful, humorous stories. Jaya Scott told us "Eureka and the Oni", her sister Meghan recounted a Stewart McLean 'Dave and Morley' story about their tricky dog, Arthur, whose idea of heaven was to share their bed !!

The persona of Little Tree was enchantingly brought to life in Diane's telling of Forrest Carter's "The Education of Little Tree". The rattlesnake bite that so nearly took his Grandpa's life, his Granny's wisdom in saving her husband kept us totally involved in a masterfully told story.

Rose Tubman-Roeren (yes Dorothy Tubman's granddaughter), long involved with the Speech Arts Festival, told us of the difficulties that face a would-be registrant in a Bridal Registry when there is no intent whatever to become a bride. Tired of giving, giving, giving through such registries to friends, the 'non-bride' registers for the sole purpose of letting her friends know what SHE would like to receive for a change!! " Non-Bridaled Passion" was the story's title by Kate Shein.

Through Susan Charter's story, Victoria taught us the value of looking through "The Wolf's Eyelashes" to see people as they REALLY are.

Anne Beatty, made her own fashion statement by wearing an elegant scarf herself as she told her own version of "The Scarf", adapted from a Carol Shields short stories so titled. Anne says of her story that: " it included some of my own words which would not behave and stay inside" and ended with a personal reflection on "not knowing how to ask for what we don't even know we want."

In an adapted version of a story she had heard Anne Forrrester tell, Sylvia Olsen presented Honey, the thoroughly spoiled daughter of King Ralph who should have known better than to give his child everything she asked for, and told how Honey's virtual slave John, outsmarted them both.

In Norman Lockett's story "Soap, Soap, Soap," Shoshana took all of us on a lively and noisy errand to the store with a usually forgetful boy, sent by his mother to buy that very item. We slipped in the mud with him on his adventurous and circuitous journey and had fun, fun, fun in the process.

As part of our 2009 Conference concert by local tellers, Jennifer told the true and amazing story of heroine Minnie Patterson in the rescue of the crew of the doomed barque "Coloma" in 1906. This evening, the same story, but cleverly re-told from the point of view of Tom, Minnie's husband, Keeper of the Light at Cape Beale, located on our Island's West Coast. To any reader of this blog who was not at Fern on June 14, a story well worth a "Google"!

A gentle end to the evening, Frances Murphy sang us a conversation between a lilac tree and an apple tree on an abandoned farm. Welcome to Frances, another singer/teller at Fern.

Janna

Storytelling at Tall Tales Books

Our 17 year old son, Raviv, saw Tall Tales Books  (795 Fort Street) for the first time through the window of a bus on his way home from school across town.

“Hey Mom,” Raviv exclaimed one day as we walked together past the store, “You’ve got to check this place out. They’ve even got a storyteller’s chair!”

Downtown Victoria’s newest bookstore for children and teens features “pages for kids of all ages,” colorful child-sized seats, big palm tree cutouts and only the best books and puppets.

When we entered the store soon after it opened in September 2009, we discovered that the bright, young owners, Kate and Drew Lorimer, were looking for storytellers just as much as I was looking for places to tell.

Victoria Storytellers Guild members, Peg Hasted, Sandra Johnson, Pat Carfra and I have told participatory stories to enthusiastic young audiences there ever since. There’s often such a crowd on Wednesdays at 11 that the Lorimers moved their storyteller’s chair to a better spot to accommodate all the sweet babies, toddlers and preschoolers clapping, singing and smiling along with their parents and grandparents in tow.


This is a store with strong community ties. An award winning local interior designer, Ines Hanl of The Sky is the Limit,   www.theskyisthelimitdesign.com created the novel decor. Lindsay 
Erikson www.tailsandwings.ca , a regular at the Moss Street Market, rounds out the display with her playful artwork, featuring the "Recycled Bag Princess." Tall Tales donated a book prize for one of the young winners at the Greater Victoria Festival of the Performing Arts. Orca Book Publishers often launch their newest novels for children and youth there, recently featuring VSG member, Sylvia Olson, who wowed the record crowds.

You don’t have to borrow a baby to drop by the store for Storytime on Wednesdays at 11 or anytime you’re in the neighborhood Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm and Sundays from 11am to 5pm.

Shoshana Litman

www.maggidah.com

Get Ready for the Annual Picnic - 25 Jul 2010

Guild members mark your calendars now for the annual summer picnic. This mid-summer storytelling and pot-luck delight will be held at Pat Carfra's residence on Prospect Lake, Sunday afternoon, 25 July 2010. Sorry, but due to space limitations, it's for Guild members only.

Greater Victoria Festival of the Performing Arts 2010

This year two Guild members participated – Sandy Slobodian in the “Religious Reading – Open” class delivered a passage from the Baha’i scriptures and Lee Porteous in the “Story Telling Solo – Open” class presented “Wee Meg Barnileg and the Fairies”.

The Guild donated a $50 book prize, which the adjudicator awarded to Jaya Scott, who was the only participant in the Story Telling Solo – 13 years and under class.  Jaya and her sister Meghan came to a Fern St. evening after the festival last year and told us the stories they had presented in the festival, so Guild members may remember Jaya from that evening.

Meghan Scott and Thomas Allan both told stories in the 9 years and under class.  They each received a $25 prize from a donation by Lee Porteous to encourage young storytellers. In addition, the adjudicator selected two other young participants for $25 prizes, Elizabeth Bass and Sarah Vincent, for the storytelling ability they demonstrated in presenting their prose selections in the 9 years and under class. 

All of these talented young people have been invited to come to Fern St., either just to listen, or to present their stories, prose or poetry.