Southland Literacy Association: May 2013

Entertaining Pair have a Story to Tell

GWYNETH HYNDMAN/Fairfax NZ

Storytellers Bill Harley and Geraldine Buckley at the Cheeky Llama Cafe for the Celebrating Story evening.

'We make sense of the world through our stories," Grammy Award- winning singer-songwriter Bill Harley told a small crowd on the Meet the Storytellers event on Wednesday night, as he picked up a borrowed guitar and began to play.
In the event held at the Cheeky Llama Cafe at Queens Park, Harley offered more wisdom on the art of telling a good yarn and backed it up with a few touching tales of his own, as his fingers glided over the strings, all the while explaining "a story is different from a lecture in that a person enters into it the way that they choose to".
The American performer and author followed this up with stories about running the first few kilometres of a marathon and added a touching story about a king in search of happiness.
His performance came after the humorous tales of convent girl- turned men's prison chaplain Geraldine Buckley, who described her life from Britain to the largest men's prison in Maryland, in the United States, as a series of "very odd adventures".
Warm and charming, Buckley had the crowd laughing with her descriptions of some of the inmate's reaction to her spoken work, poetry, on the first night she performed for them, describing the experience as just one example of "the incredible power of creativity" to heal and unite.
"The shortest way between two hearts is a story." The pair will be holding a storytelling concert for adults at the Repertory House tonight at 7.30 (tickets $18/$12) and a family concert tomorrow at 11am at the Invercargill Children's Public Library (free).

Celebrating Story in the News

DOUG FIELD/Fairfax NZ

Southland Celebrate Story committee chairwoman and popular storyteller Elizabeth Miller is pushing for more adults to attend storytelling shows.

Drama, Fun and Excitement for adults

A Southland storyteller group has joined the Southland Festival of the Arts this year to try to get more adults involved and help remove the stigma that listening to stories is for children.

Each year the Southland Celebrate Story group, an arm of the New Zealand Literacy Association, brings international storytellers to speak to adults in Southland.
This is the first year the guest speakers will be part of the Southland Festival of the Arts in an attempt to attract more people.
Southland Celebrate Story committee chairwoman Elizabeth Miller said storytelling was for adults as much as for children, but they were struggling with attendance at adult shows.
"We're trying to push for a greater adult uptake.
"We're hoping to get more people because it is just so exciting - we've had some amazing people out here [to speak]," she said.
The biggest adult audience was about 50 people a few years ago and she hoped to attract at least 100 people this year, Ms Miller said.
This year singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy award winner Bill Harley will blend song and story, while storyteller Geraldine Buckley will speak of her journey from a British convent school girl to a chaplain at a large prison for men in the United States.
"It will be exciting and it will be stimulating and there won't be a moment you want to go home," Ms Miller said.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Literacy Association has been granted $8,000 by the Invercargill Licensing Trust this month for the annual storytellers' school programme.
As part of the programme, the Dreamweaver, Ms Miller, tells interactive stories with rhythm and chant to children from preschool through to year 8.
There was plenty of interest from schools and the children were engaged and responsive, but the problem was attracting more adults to the Celebrate Story events, she said.
The first of three storyteller events is called Meet the Tellers and will be held on May 8 at 7.30pm at the Cheeky Llama Cafe, in Queens Park.
Tickets cost $12 for adults and $8 for concession, and are available from the Invercargill i-SITE or at the door 30 minutes before the show.