Conversations With Storytellers

Eth-Noh-Tec was founded in 1982 by Artistic Co-Directors Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, longstanding San Francisco artists who have contributed greatly to the Asian American performing arts movement. They are not only business parteners, but also a wonderful couple! They have many awards under their belts and are incredibly smart and insightful. We talk about many things in this episode, in...

African-American story twister, and storyteller, Linda Gorham is this month’s guest with Simon Brooks on Conversations with storytellers. I cannot wait for you to hear the conversation I had with Linda Gorham. There's mention of a little black book! We talk about a city girl and how she made herself a teller of tales. Taking folk tales and fracturing them, or twisting them as she calls it, is Lind...

Janice Del Negro is a bit of a hero in the world of storytelling. She teaches is at Dominican University, where she is a professor, subjects such as storytelling, children's and young adult literature and foundations of library and informations services. I have been following Janice for a while, and love her work and over COVID-19 time have got to know her better. We first met years ago, but we ra...

Janice Del Negro is a professor in the School of Information Studies at Dominican University, where she teaches storytelling, children's and young adult literature, and foundations of library and information science. She is a storyteller, author, educator, and coach. She is incredibly respected in our community and has met and worked with many of our great storytellers. She challenges us to do bet...

Clare Murphy hales from Ireland and is not my typical elder. She is not an elder, but carries the wisdom of one. She began a story club at college, and within four years was traveling internationally as a professional storyteller. Her work has depth to it that only those who were raised in the land where the stories took can find. She brings a strong feminist leaning to her stories, and a great de...

This interview was the last I did on my laptop. Seems it is not geared to save and store large files from Streaming platforms. This hour long interview is all my computer saved of the three hours we spoke. No idea what happened to the rest of it. Just vanished. It was recorded in one shot, and we had no idea of the time until I belatedly looked at my watch. Connie is an amazing woman, and one whom...

I had only briefly met Megan Wells in 2016 at the NSN Conference in 2016. She was telling a personal story in a room filled with people also sharing personal tales. Hers was stand out, in that it was rich, multilayered, and deep. It was a powerful experience ot see her tell that story. The power of it lingers with me still. I then worked with Megan this summer of 2020 when she perfomed on the Hans...

Lynette and I met years ago, before we both turned grey, at the Northlands Confabulation. I really enjoyed her company, we got on well, and she told the best spooky stories I have ever heard. Not just were the stories great tales, but her telling could be classed as if not THE best telling of spooky stories, then one of the top three in the USA. Lynette is quiet and unassuming, but a force to be r...

I have only met Liz once or twice, and mostly in passing, but she is a very impressive woman. We hold some similar thoughts about accents in stories, although I think she is way more ‘strict!’ Her storytelling is captivating in the way someone who is a natural teller of tales can be. Relaxed, confident, just letting the story speak for itself. In this time of, well, 2020, it was recorded socially...

Megan Hicks, and her husband Jack have become good friends over the years. I met them at my first 'proper' festival years ago and both of them calmed my nerves before hitting the stage. Megan tells stories with and without origami, she tells folk and fairy tales with depth and authenticity, as well as historical tales. Her personal stories are also great. Megan talks about her family growing up on...

Ever wish you'd met Ruth Tongue and have her tell you a story? Or traveler Betsy White? My guest today was blessed with this and many other experiences. He has been a fire eater and fisherman as well being the amazing storyteller he is today. Both Taffy Thomas and his wife and partner Chrisy are wonderful, wonderful people. You'll hear both my son's voice and Chrisy's during the interview.   It is...

How are? Still listening? Thanks for being here, I know there are a lot of other things you could be doing. This conversation with Bobby Norfolk is a delight. Recorded over Zoom in Coronavirus Time, this light and calming time was great reprieve. I do not know Bobby well. He was incredibly gracious about spending this time with me, sharing how he became such a remarkable storyteller after being a...

This is the final and third part of the conversation with Len Cabral and Bill Harley. Bill had to leave, which left just Len and me. So this is just the two of us wrapping up what was, I felt a deep, and very interesting time spent with these two great people, and storytellers. To find out more about these two gents, their websites are: BillHarley.com and LenCabral.com I hope you had as much fun l...

That's right, part two! Part two of three, so if you missed the first part of this episode, have a listen to the previous episode, if you have heard this one already, go to the next, where it's just Len and me. In this episode we do get deeper into the process of storytelling and how voices are or can be found. I hope you are enjoying this conversation with these storytellers! Peace, Simon

I am one lucky duck. Two of New England's storytelling legends in one room, with me and a voice recorder! I got to have a conversation with both these chaps sitting in the beautiful home of Len Cabral in Rhode Island. Len and Bill are great friends and grew up in the storytelling world pretty much together. This interview lasted over three hours and Bill had to leave at one point, but Len and I go...

Martin Shaw, poet, storyteller, mythologist. Rooted deeply in the land, performing a vision quest, and following a path to storytelling, Martin Shaw uses language rich and imaginative. His style is deceptively simply but in telling his tales he pulls you in to a place deep within. I was asked to interview Martin by the publisher of his most recent book, "Courting The Wild Twin." I had not heard of...

Eshu Bumpus and I would occasionally see each in passing, say 'hi' and exchange pleasantries, but never really sat down and talked. I enjoyed his performances and he has a voice so easy to listen to and fall into. At Timpanogos in 2019, I did a key note and included a couple of stories in it, and Eshu had some comments on what I did. He opened my eyes to going even deeper with these stories, when...

Odds Bodkin, the mythic maker. Odds Bodkin, is not just a medieval curse, but the name of one of America's greatest storytellers. His combination of gravitas, humor and music in his re-tellings of folk and fairy tales, myths and legends is, well, legendary here in America. Odds and I are neighbors and friends, I am lucky enough to say, and this conversation, sitting in his leather chairs, next to...

Ed Stivender has been telling stories for a long time. I first met him at Jonesborough a couple of years ago, and thought he was such a nice man. He came across as a very quiet and private man which was the total opposite to the man I saw on stage. This interview, edited down from two hours, follows Ed's passion and life from when he first started telling tales (about how windows got broken at hom...

Diane Edgecomb was one of the first people I saw to make a big impression on me on the professional circuit. Part of it was to do with the workshop I took at the same conference and the detail, depth and compassion she has came out in her work on stage and with workshop participants. Although we have known each other for a long time, we have been skirted about each other, not intentionally, just n...

As I am collecting more conversations for the podcast through December (or at least getting a head start), I did promise some stories. Here is the first: The Girl in Green adapted from Pu' Song Ling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The book, which contains some amazing stories, was first printed in 1776, sixty one years after his death. It is a collection of literary tales, but are as fairy...

Milbre Burch is not just a storyteller, but a dancer, and theatre artist, has studied a lot, and has a remarkable and unshakable sense of humour. I first discovered Milbre for myself shortly after the falling of the Twin Towers on 9/11 in 2001. I purchased her CD Making the Heart Whole Again, a wonderful gift for anyone suffering from hate and intolerance. What she has not done? And what we did no...

Tim Jennings and Leanne Ponder were tandem tellers, although to call them that does not fulfill what they really do! As they tell their well crafted stories, they talk over each other juggling with words, and phrases, switching characters. One would think the recorded stories were carefully produced in a studio to make it work, but most of thier recordings are done at live events. Sadly Leanne has...

Heather Forest forged her own way into storytelling, coming from a folk music background. A highly intelligent, thoughtful, and warm human being, Heather was great to sit down with. This is the third in a series of three interviews I conducted in March, 2019 at Sharing the Fire, the North East Story Telling Conference. The other two are previous episodes of Elisa Pearmain, and Loren Niemi.   Heath...

Elisa Pearmain was one of the storytellers who created a storytelling community in New England, particularly in the Boston area. Throughout her career her work has been deeply steeped in healing, from dance to storytelling to therapy and her work is included in a number of books and CDs. Her compassion and depth is remarkable, as is her story. 42 minutes