This is a condensed and edited portion of a live chat on The Carrborean Radio Hour on WCOM 103.5 on December 22. You can listen to the show here.
The Carrborean: Today, we're going to talk about storytelling, the art and science, life affirming and sometimes life changing experience it can be to share a story from your life with other people, friends or strangers. In the studio today, we have Julia F. Green, who owns Writing Is Joy, teaches storytelling, and hosts story jams in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. She brought two storytellers who performed at a storytelling event at The ArtsCenter last month, Terry Casstevens and Rachel Moon. Thank you all for joining us today. Julia, let's start with you--tell us about storytelling. Why do you do this? Why is it important?
Julia F. Green: Storytelling is a topic I never tire of, because everybody has a story, and my journey with storytelling truly began just about 20 years ago when I got punched in the face.
I was on an adventure. I was in a strange place. I walked into a boxing class where you might expect that you could get punched in the face, but it was a surprise to me, and I walked out of that room and actually carried that story with me for a long time. It was sort of a pivotal moment in my 20s. I was trying to figure out who I was and that punch kind of knocked some sense into me. And I thought about that story for a long time and wanted to tell it and share it.
I had the opportunity to get on stage with the Monti many years ago and tell that story. And it was just really powerful. It was really affirming to have a couple minutes, to have the microphone, to not be interrupted, and to share a story that ultimately was about, you know, a person finding their way and falling down and some hard knocks, literally, in this case. I had a great time being on stage and I had a great time connecting with the audience around this thing that had happened to me. And then, as my instructing around creativity increased, I started teaching storytelling at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro in 2019.
It's transformative to make a space where people can come and share their stories, which I could talk about all day long, but I will tell you, fundamentally, I love storytelling because it's really fun and it's really surprising. There's so much in our day to day lives that's not fun and not surprising, and a lot of us are kind of following our scripts and knocking out our to-do lists. And storytelling is this opportunity to get out of our day to day and connect with people and hear entertaining stories, hear moving stories. One of the main things that really draws me to storytelling is that it's accessible. The great thing about Carrboro is that people have so many different creative habits, which I love. And storytelling is one for which you really don't need [things]–you don't need a loom, you don't need a studio, you don't need special training. If you ask anybody on the streets of Carrboro or wherever you are, you could get a story out of them pretty fast. And I really delight in the opportunity to meet people and hear their stories and help them tell them better. I think of storytelling as a way to make people heard and seen and create connections across groups that maybe don't always interact, which I think is a really powerful aspect of it.
The Carrborean: Can you describe what it's like to be in the audience of a storytelling event? Why you think people show up to be in that space to hear stories, and what kind of mood or feeling or energy is there?
Terry Casstevens: Yeah, that's how I got introduced to storytelling. And I think for me, it was really not just entertaining, but to a way to find out about people, things that you would not expect to hear, and also, really genuine, heartfelt things that you just don't get in other media. With storytelling on stage, they've prepared and practiced it, and so they really know how they're going to start and finish the story and get really to the point and hit all the things that they want to get in there.
Rachel Moon: I would just say that, having listened to a lot of storytelling on the Moth podcast and then actually being in the audience, you get the energy of the storyteller because you're in their presence. And that, for me, moves me to be in the presence of someone who is sharing something about their life in that way. And it is different than at a party, because I think that, you know, in the social setting, people hold back certain parts, or they don't tell everything, or they might exaggerate, or they might skip over things. And people are more intentional when they're on stage, and you get more detail and more feeling.
You can learn more about storytelling work led by Carrboro residents at Story Connection and Flame Tree Story. Starting in February, The Carrborean Radio Hour (WCOM 103.5, Mondays 4 - 5pm) will devote one episode each month to storytelling.