Beer and Books

To tell the truth, in all my 27 years of professional storytelling I don’t think I’ve personally experienced or witnessed beer being available at “traditional” storytelling concerts / conferences / festivals / shows…

Yet beer is available and enjoyed at both of the local story slams I’ve gotten myself to in recent months (Boulder Story Slam and Denver Moth).

I don’t happen to be a beer drinker myself (I prefer wine; had a glass at one of the slams) – but loads of people are, and it was flowing freely enough at the story slams I’ve attended.  (And at the Boulder Story Slam held at Shine restaurant? – reeeelly good sweet potato fries, yumm!)

Full disclosure:  I’ve always preferred that eating/mealtime NOT be happening when I’m giving a storytelling performance or presentation, it’s true…

• the clanking of dishes,
• or crinkling of cellophane/plastic snack wrappers,
• or the general paying-attention-to-one’s-food-instead-of-to-the-storyteller…
• No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!…

But somehow at the story slams, beer works.

It seems to add to the fun of a story slam to have enjoyable refreshments be a part of it.  And beer is so indicative of the convivial and sociable atmosphere often created when food and drink are a part of an event.  …Food for thought as well as the palate!

And then there’s Books…

Books are most traditional-storytellers-I-know’s best friends. 

We find new versions of old tales.  We delight in an original re-telling/re-writing.  We immerse ourselves in printed stories, in fantasy, in history, in imagination.  We “go on a read” to search for new material.  We lovingly run our fingers across the spines of books on the 398.2 shelves in the library…

And many storytellers also publish books: of their re-tellings of stories, of how-to’s, of storytelling applications…

There seems to be a close and personal relationship between more-traditional storytelling/storytellers and books.

I would not say the same about story slams and books.

The material for slam stories comes directly from one’s own lived experience – not folklore or history or literature or mythology or other sources/disciplines that one accesses largely through books.

And while there are helpful books out there about crafting personal narratives (the stuff of story slams), most of them seem to be more along the lines of Donald Davis‘ or Elizabeth Ellis’ practices of delving and spinning and weaving long-er personal stories, and not so much about the crafting of the tight, 5-minute first-person story that slams are about.

So…a few musings on Beer and Books…two different hallmarks of some of the differences between story slams and more-traditional storytelling.

***Nothing that one must choose between – let’s embrace ‘em both!  (And I’ll still choose wine over beer – Each to their own!)

Do you have a preference? 😉

Thanks for reading – Pam

 

Each day during this April A-Z Blogging Challenge I’ll use a different letter of the alphabet as a prompt for a short musing on an aspect or two of “Story Slams & Traditional Storytelling – Bridging the Distance.” (You can see previous blog posts about my introduction to this increasingly-popular kind of storytelling event here, here, and here.)

Both images of happy people holding beer and wine courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tomorrow (C): Competition!