Competition

April 3, 2015

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“A storytelling contest?! No way!” And I shook my head in distaste, even a bit of disbelief.

After all, storytelling is all about community, and connection, and communication, and strengthening bonds, and cooperation, and…not competing!

That was my clear reaction back in 1992 when I was at the National Storytelling Festival (I performed in that year’s Exchange Place – great fun!). I was enamored with my then-4-years’-experience with the wondrous heart-connecting community-building I’d discovered in storytelling…and someone from Texas was telling me about a storytelling contest?!…

NO WAY, JOSE!

And I would say that that reaction and resistance has been the norm among storytellers throughout most of my 27 years of hanging out with ‘em.

But times change.

And styles and practices come and go. And new things are tried and experimented with.

And story slams are popular – and are most definitely competitions!

Frankly the idea of a storytelling contest kind of bemuses me. I’ll write more about this on April 8th and 11th (under “G” and “J”…stay tuned!) Yet…

It’s true that many different art forms have competitions:

juried art shows that award blue ribbons;
writing contests that result in publication of work;
the Van Cliburn piano competition – to mention a few examples.

But the nature of storytelling is at its heart a cooperative and communal experience, that does not invite competition…right?

And yet – the story slams are competitions: there are winners, sometimes even prizes. And yes, the contest element is fun – certainly for observers, and apparently for most participants (more on this on April 11).

Is it a great way to experience the best storytelling? Hmmmmm…the jury may be out on that.

But a competition IS a creative, engaging way to get people involved in and exposed to live storytelling – and that’s a very, very good thing!

Thanks for reading – Pam

Tomorrow: Definitions/Descriptions

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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.)

competition, contests, story slams, storytelling, storytelling event

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A-to-Z Daily Blogging Challenge 2015, What Storytelling Is and Does

Comments

16 responses to “Competition”

Robin Reichert

April 3, 2015

Hi Pam! Thank you for bringing this up! I agree with all you have said. Some guilds in my area hold auditions for various events, including for children; good that complete novices remain in the audience to observe and learn, and not so good because storytelling friends are placed “against” each other, vying for a position & at least some “judges” are from within the organization judging peers as well as kids. Liking or not liking a storyteller is a VERY subjective thing! So much so that to say anyone is ‘better’ is an exploitation of the art. I spoke with guild members in an email about this, siting Alfie Kohn’s book,”No Contest – The Case Against Competition” yet the competitions go on. http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-competition/ We have a potentially very healing art in our hands and I feel we have a responsibility to keep it consistent in community connection, cooperation, communication and NOT competing! Happy non-competitive telling! Robin

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  I so agree with you, Robin, about the healing capabilities of storytelling! Watch for my future posts on “G – Game” and “J – Judging/Judges”…I’ll be musing on some more aspects of the competition-aspect of slams – the few of which I’ve attending have been very enjoyable. (And I told and came in 2nd in my very first one – it was really fun, strange to say!) Loads of mixed feelings and thoughts all over the map! Thanks so much for your comment.
  
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Tamara Narayan

April 3, 2015

Our society loves competition. I guess it’s a big component of capitalism. I’m thinking also of the bestseller lists, the Pulitzer, the Orange Prize, and so on. Competition seems to be everywhere. Who has the most followers, the most comments? It just goes on and on.

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  Good connections to draw, Tamara! And competition itself can be such a mixed, negative-and-positive thing. Balance in all things…?! Thanks for stopping by!
  
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Jane Crouse

April 3, 2015

Wonderful post! Thank you Pam.

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  Thanks so much, Jane. 🙂
  
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Jeri Burns

April 4, 2015

This is lovely food for thought. I love the diversity of comments. Would like the beer from yesterday’s post though to grease me up to respond 🙂 Jeri (and thanks to the other commenters – I have not heard of that Alfie Kohn’s work! I love learning new stuff, thanks for sharing that Robin). — Jeri

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  Thanks, Jeri! (I’m sitting with wine as I read through comments… 😉 ) I, too, relish the diversity of comments. Thanks for stopping by!
  
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Sue Kuentz

April 4, 2015

Our TSYC (Texas Storytelling Youth Challenge) Is based on a “gentle challenge” for 2nd – 12th graders. We developed this model to send 5- 10 gold medal winner videos to our Texas rep to chose 5 to send on to The National Storytelling Showcase. Competition certainly pulls the kids in. We make sure there’s entertainment, food, goodie bags, certificates for all, and medallia for The winners. Our judges write positive comments on the critique sheets with tips And suggestions- nohinohi negative. Great post!

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  Yes, even with my various apprehensions around aspects of competition in general, and used with storytelling in particular, I very much believe my last sentence in this post: it’s getting people involved in live storytelling, and that’s a very good thing. You give a real good example of that!! Thanks, Sue! (and PS – I don’t know what you mean by “nohinohi”…I’m sure it stands for something that I should know, but it just looks like Hawaiian to me…Enlighten me, please!) 🙂
  
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Tarkabarka

April 4, 2015

I love the idea of competition, but mostly because it gives the audience a sense of agency. I think it is really hard to rank storytelling performances – which is why I like MythOff, where the audience votes on stories instead of “best of show.” I feel like that is more in the spirit of storytelling and less about the performers’ ego.
Great post!

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary – Epics from A to Z
MopDog – 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  You put it very nicely, Csenge – that “sense of agency.” Thanks! BTW, Cooper Braun and I have had some conversations around trying to pull of a MythOff around here – maybe it would be great for us to talk with you at Northlands about it…! Thanks.
  
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Untethered Realms

April 4, 2015

I’ve never heard of Story Slams. How neat! I can see how for some this would bring out something they might not been able to do otherwise and it would be highly inspirational to watch. Good luck with the Challenge. 🙂

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1. Pam Faro
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  Yes, story slams can be really engaging! It’s a very mixed experience, however, I find…(you might check out my upcoming posts on “J – Judging” and “P – Potluck” – !). In any case, they are drawing more people into the experience of intentional storytelling, and that’s a great thing! Thanks so much for stopping by. Happy A-Z!
  
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