A Podcast with Eric Wolf

Eric Wolf is the moderator of a call-in pod cast entitled The Art of Storytelling With Children, and on Tuesday April 29, I will be talking to him starting at 8 about historical storytelling and about Columbus Story Adventures, if we have time. Yesterday and today, I’ve been thinking back over the historical stories I have, I’ve been digging up the notes I made for them, and I have been listening to Eric’s archival programs. Those archival programs are really good. I can’t stop listening.

Diane Williams, a co-author of The Storytelling Classroom, speaks eloquently about storytelling and literacy. She says that storytelling involves the emotions and, invites the brain to respond. It is the response that the oral tradition invokes which enhances literacy. Jim Flanagan, a teller here in Columbus, really lays out in detail his experience in writing spooky stories with kids. Brother Blue, a street teller in Boston, said that what Eric is doing is like creating a spider web, and he’s right. Each hour of interview creates a new strand in this art form and, because it’s all online to hear and retrieve for free, Eric's interviews weave a digital a web.

Take a look at Eric’s website. It’s www.storytellingwithchildren.com. You can hear tons of really great interviews with storytellers from around the U.S. on a variety of topics: Storytelling in Ceremony, Storytelling in Schools, Peace Storytelling, Personal Narrative, Professional Development, Storytelling in Community. On Tuesday April 29, call in and join the conversation about using history as story. You just need to go to Eric’s website and subscribe.