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Storytelling in the Digital Age. It should have have an acronym, but SDA sounds like a medical device. StoDA?

Or, maybe it’s time to drop the “Digital Age” reference and remember that storytelling, in any age, is storytelling.

No matter what you dub it, it’s a sizzling time to be a storyteller! Powerful new storytelling platforms, tools and communities are being invented every day, empowering storytellers and audiences but simultaneously introducing new challenges. As a writer, storyteller and teacher, I’m a bit obsessed with the evolution of author/audience relationships. Storytelling in the Digital Age is redefining this timeless relationship in exciting and unpredictable ways; empowering raconteurs of all stripes to explore new narrative vernaculars; unshackling indie creators from yesterday’s gatekeepers and referees; and enhancing audiences’ appetites for stories and previously unimaginable story interfaces.

But Storytelling in the Digital Age isn’t all noontime massages and dark chocolate. The proliferation of sexy media tempts creators to swap good narrative craft for snazzy special effects. Critics worry that audiences are becoming lazier, more passive even as increasingly interactive storytelling is possible.

What follows is a digital scrapbook of interesting tidbits about Storytelling in the Digital Age for you to check out. I’ll add and subtract as inspiration (and time) permit. Don’t hesitate to recommend juicy material that I’ve overlooked!

It’s a sizzling time to be a storyteller! New, powerful platforms and tools are invented every day. And storytelling communities are coalescing where and when they never existed before. Here’s a digital scrapbook of interesting tidbits for you to check out.

http://storify.com/virtualdavis/storytelling-in-the-digital-age

Related articles

• What Will ‘The Future of Storytelling’ Look Like? (mediabistro.com)
• Digital storytelling project aims to inspire (mnn.com)
• Narrative.ly Taps Into NYC’s Untold Stories (pbs.org)
• Kickstarting a literary studio for serialized fiction (boingboing.net)
• Beat reporting in the digital age (journomel.com)

So I’ll get it out in the open right from the get-go. I’m not a big Harry Potter fan. I’ve read bits and pieces, caught a film on the airplane, but for one reason or another I never caught the bug.

Frank Rose’s post on Deep Media caught my attention. “From PotterWar to Pottermore: The Extraordinary Evolution of Harry’s World” takes a look at J.K Rowling’s cyber quest. From ink and paper to a digital, virtual world, Pottermore promises Harry Potter fans a wormhole into the fantasy land they crave. But fans will do more than simply populate the bleachers of Pottermore; they’ll actively — interactively — participate in the narrative.

a challenge to existing business models… is minor compared to a wholesale rethinking of the art of fiction. And… that’s what Rowling promised—an acknowledgment that the Internet makes possible an entirely new form of narrative, one that readers can not only consume but explore and build upon…

“It’s the same story, with a few crucial additions,” she [J.K. Rowling] says of Pottermore in an introductory video on the site. “The most important one is you. Just as the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and the reader work together to create the story, so Pottermore will be built in part by you, the reader.” (Deap Media)

You with me? Interactive, transmedia Harry Potter. The next frontier… Maybe it’s time for me to take a look!
Related articles

• Magic Indeed: J.K. Rowling Rethinks the Art of Fiction(wired.com)
• Pottermore Promises More Potter, Cowbell (geeksaresexy.net)

Did you know that Ferdinand the Bull turned seventy five years old on March 31?

After posting my “Make Way for Ducklings” video on Rosslyn Redux, several friends mentioned that Robert McCloskey’s Boston duckling adventure was one of their favorite children’s books too. Which inevitably prompted me to throw The Story of Ferdinand into the mix. A lifelong fan of Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson’s masterpiece, I’m forever finding excuses to toss the flower-sniffing bull into conversation…

From good things, good things come! I was rewarded with exciting news: Ferdinand is a septuagenarian! For three quarters of a century Ferdinand has inspired kids (and adults!) to stop and savor the blossoms.

The Story of Ferdinand (Image via Wikipedia)

Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand,” the book, which was illustrated with simple black-and-white ink drawings, opens. Deep in corrida des toros country, Ferdinand stood out from all the other bulls: “He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers.(ArtsBeat, New York Times)

Pamela Paul‘s post lead me to the quirky video above in which Seth Rogannarrates and the Salastina Music Society accompanies. Creative interpretation of the story!

Chasing down a related link to a vocal rendition of Ferdinand the Bull by The Lennon Sisters I stumbled across this version performed by theDixieland Swingsters. In fact, it turns out that YouTube is chock full of Ferdinand videos including:

• a bizarre human-sized puppet musical
• a montage from a Ferdinand musical
• quirky College of Charleston musical
• Ferdinand the Bull for violin and speaker
• Simon and Agnes Maurer play Ferdinand the Bull

I suppose that 75 years is plenty of time for derivative works to be inspired, produced and forgotten. And yet, I’d never stopped to consider the cretive legacy that The Story of Ferdinand. Cool. But I’m still sticking with the original. Simple line drawings and all!

Related articles

• Ferdinand the Bull Turns 75 (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)

Jeff Polish storytelling at The Monti

Laurels and hugs and lots of chin-chin toasting to Lisa Pepin (@lisa_pepin) for her poignant video “Storyteller” about north Carolina’s storytelling organization, The Monti including director Jeff Polish’s backstory. I’m fascinated with storytelling unplugged and with The Monti in particular, and I suspect you will be too after enjoying Pepin’s moving pictures and talking heads.

“As a storyteller it gave me validation for all those years that I was quiet… the stage is the best expression of myself… I’m bulletproof. It’s amazing. It’s probably the most amazing place that I live.” ~ Jeff Polish

I’m reminded of Michael Ondaatje‘s In the Skin of a Lion.

“It is a novel about the wearing and the removal of masks; the shedding of skin, the transformations and translations of identity.” (Contemporary Writers)

Perhaps you should read it. Especially if you enjoyed The English Patient. You’ll recognize Hana and Caravaggio, for instance… And you’ll recognize why Pepin’s tidy storytelling about storytelling at The Monti reminds me of Ondaatje’s storytelling in In the Skin of a Lion. Are you starting to catch my drift?

I’ve excerpted Polish’s comment, substituting an ellipsis before “I’m bulletproof.” Those two phrases which I removed — two phrases which are reemphasized dramatically in “I’m bulletproof” — speak to the puissance of storytelling that fascinates Ondaatje. That fascinates me. Drawing the storyteller’s mantle over our quotidian garb, pulling the cavernous hood low over our eyes, obscuring our familiar face, we become our stories. We are bulletproof. For while. And it is indeed an amazing place to live.

Related articles

• On a Mystery Voyage with Michael Ondaatje (nybooks.com)
• The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje. Reviewed by John Purcell (booktopia.com.au)
• Children can be decent storytellers. (ctolle.com)

Caroline Casey’s TEDTalk “Looking Past Limits”

“When you make a decision at the right time in the right place… the universe makes it happen for you.” ~ Caroline Casey

Stop what you are doing. Top up your coffee. Shut the door. Turn up the volume on your computer. And watch this video. It may be the most inspiring 20 minutes you experience all week! Perfect match for a Wednesday.

Caroline Casey is the founder of Kanchi, a not-for-profit that works with the media and businesses to change mindsets about people with disabilities.

“Kanchi focuses on the value of difference and the ability of people with disabilities.”

Casey’s TEDTalk is a poignant tale of growing up blind without realizing it, a chronicle of defying limitations and chasing dreams, and a reminder to embrace our true selves today and every day.

“Why are you fighting so hard not to be yourself?”

Casey grappled with this question during the darkest phase of her story. Her answer and the action it provokes are the foundation for her adventures starting with a 1,000 km trek across India on an elephant!

Does your Monday morning need a booster shot? The latest public improv mission by Improv Everywhere will smear a grin across your mug. I promise.

Produced in collaboration with Ice Theatre of New York, “Worst ice skater ever?” opens with an apparently novice ice skater stranded alone on the rink at New York’s Bryant Park. His transformation from clutz to expert is funny, yes, but also beautiful in that way you’ll find hard to explain to your colleagues at work…

The Monti is my kind of place. Well, almost. They’re all about live storytelling and they’re all about community. So why almost? Because they aren’t a short walk away. They aren’t even in my community…

The Monti is an organization that invites people from the community to tell personal stories without the use of notes.  It’s just simple storytelling.  Each month, events are held around the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area and as far away as Greensboro.  The goal is to create an intimate, open, and fun atmosphere where people can relate their personal experiences to one another through narrative… by inviting interesting people with amazing stories that amuse and compel.

And for two and a half years they’ve been selling out their shows. In fact, they’ve grown so popular that they’ve launched The Monti StorySLAM during which audience members are invited to tell 5 minute stories on a specific theme.

Each night promises an unexpected and refreshing night of provocative entertainment.

This sounds like The Moth, another storytelling institution that intrigues me. I discovered both via NPR and have wiled away way too much time on their websites plotting participation… and imitation!

Clipped from: www.themoth.org (share this clip)

The Moth… is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling… The Moth has presented more than three thousand stories, told live and without notes, by people from all walks of life to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Each show features simple, old-fashioned storytelling on thoroughly modern themes by wildly divergent raconteurs who develop and shape their stories with The Moth’s directors.

I believe that storytelling is the glue of community. No, not just the glue. Storytelling is the lubrication of community. No, not just that either. Glue and lube? And lately I’ve been wondering if Essex, if the Champlain Valley is ready to plunge into our collective narratives. I believe (and hope) so!

Update: I’ve created a related oral storytelling mashup called Storytelling Unplugged for further information, and I’ve received a few notable additions from @TheMonti that I’d like to pass along (first four), and in the process of exploring these, I’ve stumbled on to some others. What am I missing? Please contact me via Twitter (@virtualDavis) or use the contact form on the the virtualDavis website. Thanks!

• Porchlight (San Francisco)
• The Stoop (Baltimore)
• Odyssey Storytelling (Tucson)
• Norstar Storytelling League (Twin Cities)
• SpeakeasyDC (Washington, DC)
• First Person Arts (Philadelphia)
• Back Fence PDX (Portland, Oregon)

This oral storytelling mashup germinated from “The Monti and The Moth” and was initially intended as a scrapbook of storytelling venues around the United States. It has evolved to include rumination on traditional storytelling versus digital storytelling. Never mind the irony of non-digital oral storytelling being filmed, shared and enjoyed digitally!

Amidst the buzz and clang of digital storytelling, there are still those who practice the simpler, “purer” art of oral storytelling unfettered by connectivity, bandwidth, electricity… Whether by preference or as one of many modes of sharing a narrative Storytelling Unplugged aims to explore the enduring art of oral recounting. Less manifesto; more rumination. (And yes, I realize that the title is a bit of a misnomer since microphones are largely ubiquitous in the venues included below,)

http://storify.com/virtualdavis/storytelling-unplugged

What’s the story with Storify?

I’m diggin’ it! Joined the beta (thanks, guys!), and I’m amazed at how powerful this tool is. It takes journalism and story curatorship off the page and out of the linear realm once and for all.

What follows is a digital mashup of my early foray into “storification”…

Read the rest of this entry »

The image above was generated via Curate.Us one of the many innovative curating tools sprouting up lately. My current fav among the free online curating tools is Storify, co-founded by Burt Herman and Xavier Damman. Check out “My Storify Meta Story“, a still-evolving assessment and chronicle of my experiences with this powerful, user-friendly curating tool. In addition to an in-depth look at Storify, videos of Herman and Damman, and Twitter exchanges with Damman, I’ve included a look at some of the main competitors in the curation space including Curated.by, BagtheWeb, Scoop.it, Pearltrees and Keepstream.

Every day there’s more evidence that curating social media will take center stage in 2011. As more and more social media adopters share content, filtering and curating this avalanche of information has become critical.What curating tools do you favor?