Tucson Weekly
May 7, 2009
City Week
Oral Tales
by Austin Counts
The art of storytelling goes back to the first grunts made by our ancestors inside a fire-lit cave. Stories have always served as a form of communication and a way to pass down traditions to younger generations.
In this age of technology bombarding our consciousness with information (useful and useless), it's a delight to see artists gather at Club Congress to tell stories in a forum known as Odyssey Storytelling.
Odyssey Storytelling is an ongoing project dedicated to sharing different perspectives through the use of spoken word. The theme of the upcoming installment is "The Body." Tales of anomalies, appearance and complications with feeling comfortable in one's skin will be told by six different storytellers from diverse backgrounds.
The storytellers lined up for next Thursday's event are Cynthia Meier, Stephanie Baldwin, Tony Hinkins, Alberto Ramirez, Susan Kovitz and Alison Davison.
Odyssey Storytelling founder Penelope Starr became intrigued with the art of storytelling five years ago after seeing a group of artists and writers in San Francisco captivate an audience with their oral tales. Starr thought that the Old Pueblo should have a similar creative outlet.
"After hearing these stories, I began to ask myself: What curiosities do people tell stories about?" said Starr.
Starr and Hostetter choose themes for the storytelling sessions by asking this question and by taking suggestions from subscribers to Odyssey storytelling's e-mail list.
"People e-mail us ideas for themes, and then we find interesting people who may have a different view on the topic." said Hostetter.
For more information or to become a storyteller for an Odyssey Storytelling session, check out
www.odysseystorytelling.com
.