The Power of Artists In Schools: The Best Gifts!

Today marks the 50th time I've gone around the sun!

I have had some wonderful gifts.

The David traveled with me to California. That is always a treat!





I always love my birthdays. Some years I am at Jonesboro, TN at the National Storytelling festival. This year, if you want to hear what's going on, but you cannot get there, they are streaming the festival live!


Live Stream!!!


I am not at the National Festival. I am in Lodi, CA this year. I'm telling and relaxing...not at the same time.

Yesterday, I was at a school where I worked with everyone from k - 8.

The principal came up to me at the end of the day and said, "I'm already getting great feedback. The Kindergarteners left your performance and went back to their room for writing time. Some write, some draw depending on their abilities. For the first time, every kind wrote and they wrote far more than they ever had. Even the child who hasn't written anything all year, and always starts crying when it is time to write was excited and wrote without any prompting."

The gifts just keep on coming.

Today I got a chance to tell to a k-12 school, and I had one young senior who was slumped in his seat when he arrived, but perked up as the telling continued and was all in it by the end. He came up to me after the set was over and said, "You are the best storyteller I have ever heard."

I was also mobbed by an entire group of first graders who all needed hugs.

I took a nice long walk with the mister, and when I got back to the room, I found this video waiting for me.

I have been celebrating the joy of storytelling for several weeks. This video was put out by the United Arts Council of Wake County.





So, for all the joys of performing, and because there are thousands of folks gathered in TN listening to storytelling, I say what a great trip it has been around the sun!

Can't wait to see what the next 365 days will bring.

Happy Telling!

DW

The Artist Meat Market

There are parts of my job that I love, and parts I absolutely despise.  Well, of course that's true, otherwise it wouldn't be a job.  The parts I love outnumber the parts I loathe.  Well, of course that's true as well, or I would be doing something else.  Showcasing is not one of my favorite bits of this life I've chosen.

The above clip is not from a showcase.  It is from an appearance I did at the Florida Storytelling Festival.  It is, however, an example of the kind of thing I do at showcase.  I get seven minutes, and in that seven minutes I tell two minute sections of three stories.  I leave, and then some other artist gets up and does seven minutes of something.  Sometimes the set can be as long as fifteen minutes.  Either way it is a merry-go-round experience for the buyers and a headache for the artists.

Photo Credit

I try to keep the number of showcases I do each year down to about three.  More than three, and I become decidedly grumpy.

I do the showcase in Raleigh, NC called United Arts every year.  That was weekend before last.

This year I did Center East in Skokie, Il.  I only do that one every other year. That was last Wednesday.

I will be doing the S.T.E.A.M showcase in Charlotte, NC this year for the first time.  That one is happening on Saturday.

I might be doing the South Carolina summer reading showcase for the first time...provided they invite me.  That one happens at the end of the month.

Hmmm.  That's more than three.

Well, that explains it.

I'll do an update about the Charlotte Showcase on Sunday.

Happy Marketing!