What is your primary artistic medium?
Storytelling.
How did you get started as a teaching artist?
Teachers in schools where I taught were asking me to return and teach the students how to turn their social studies events into stories. This led to workshops for the teachers also.
What led you to Creative Aging?
I was referred to Lisa Williams [of the Johnson City Public Library (JCPL)] by our local arts council. I have been mentoring and coaching storytellers for some time. Lisa opened the door to facilitating new 55+ storytellers.
What is one of the most challenging or surprising aspects of this work?
The most challenging aspect is getting participants to work their stories with pictures and symbols rather than words. Many seniors think in words, they seem to have lost the ability to think in pictures. When they draw the story out in pictures and then dialogue like comic strips, their stories come alive in the telling.
Many seniors think in words, they seem to have lost the ability to think in pictures.
Tell us about the people you are teaching at Johnson City Public Library this year.
It’s a great class who are excited to be telling their stories from the stage. We have a variety of retired and working, of those who are from here [Johnson City, TN] and those who chose to retire here, or came here for a job. Three men and seven women. No two have the same goal for themselves in the class, but all want to tell their narratives as stories.
Tell us a short story from your class that demonstrates the benefits of Creative Aging Workshops for participants.
This class, “Oral Narratives*,” is just starting, so I will share a story is from a similar class I just finished in another community close by.
One woman informed me at the beginning of the class that she was here to learn about collecting and writing her narratives, but would NOT participate in the culminating event of telling from the stage, she was too shy.
Her story was about her sister chasing her and her cousin with a snake when they were kids. The participant decided to phone her sister and cousin (whom she had not talked to in several years) to get their versions and their permission to tell the story.
The result was restored dialogue with family as well as a much funnier story. But that’s not all; when she heard her story being told by another ‘teller, she said, “He doesn’t put any emotion in it.” I asked, “What are you going to do about that?” she replied, “I will just have to tell it myself.” So, she did. Her family came to see her perform in the culminating event.
What do you have planned for the culminating event at Johnson City Public Library for this next class?
They will be telling their best story in an “Olio” (storytelling show) on the stage of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, about nine miles from our library in Johnson City, TN.
What are your current and upcoming projects for your own artwork or other teaching projects?
I plan to complete a DVD of stories about my grandma who joined the Women’s Army Corps in WWII. I recently told her stories live at the library for Women’s History month. Many of my creative aging class participants were in the audience. I have several new stories about women who succeeded in professions that generally excluded women in process, as well as a series of narratives from Polio survivors.
JCPL and I have started an informal storytelling group in hopes that participants from my classes can look forward to telling their stories after the creative aging class is over. We are calling it the “Brown Bag Story Circle” because it meets at noon. The group will be open to anyone interested in sharing an oral narrative.
The very first Oral Narrative class, one of six classes of an Artful Aging series, held last spring at the Johnson City Public Library suggested I write a “How to” book for Oral Narrative storytelling. I am exploring the idea.
I can be found on Jonesborough Storytellers Guild.
Thank you Marjorie, for your wonderful work with Lifetime Arts.
Check out Marjorie’s Teaching Artist Profile on Lifetime Arts’ Roster, or search the Roster to find qualified Teaching Artists in your area.
*Marjorie’s class at the Johnson City Public Library in Johnson City, TN is made possible by Aroha Philanthropies’ “Seeding Vitality Arts U.S.” initiative.
