The
Storytelling Center, Inc. of New York City

Salutations!

Breaking News

Stories at the Statue
of Hans Christian Andersen 2009

Central Park, New York City
Saturdays from June through September

The 2009 Central Park storytelling schedule has arrived and is up now in our Calendar right now. Mark your own calendars or planners and plan to join us at the Statue this Summer!

New York Stories Swap at the 92nd Street Y

April 2nd, 2009

What New Yorker does not have a story to tell about the city? On April 2nd, the Storytelling Center hosted its second swap at the 92nd Street Y's Buttenwieser Library (courtesy of the ever welcoming Steve Siegel), and gave people a chance to share those tales. It was hosted by the terrific Gerald Fierst, who, as always, was gracious and warm, setting a great tone for the evening and making everyone comfortable. He found the connections between the stories, and strung all the stories together like beads on a string. There was an intimate crowd, who listened attentively as six storytellers told their stories. Each story had a different angle, and together they made up a mosaic view of this marvelous and multi–cultural New York City. Everyone left the Y feeling good about the evening. It was a great success!

Laura Simms invites listeners into the Boro Park of her youth.

Stories from the Stoop

March 26th, 2009

Wraparound porches, endless sky, cod swimming in bathtubs.
Ancient trees, little girls playing together, ringelevio.
Going to temple, going to church, going from stoop to stoop to stoop.

These are but a few of the sights, sounds, and smells offered us through the magnificent storytelling of Laura Simms and Gioia Timpanelli as they shared their stories of growing up in neighborhood Brooklyn during the recent STC program Stories From the Stoop: Dreaming of Boro Park, held at the 92nd Street YM–YWHA in the Buttenwieser Library on March 26, 2009. Steve Zeitlin of City Lore introduced and closed the program.

The audience at Tales from the Body

January 25th, 2009:

Tales from the Body

Tales from the Body was an enormous success for The Storytelling Center and our generous co-sponsor, the National Storytelling Network (NSN)!

Approximately 90 people, a mix of storytellers, people with disabilities, people affected by illness, and people simply interested in the topic or in storytelling itself came together at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on January 25th for an afternoon of surprising and fascinating stories about physical and mental differences and ailments, and about the physical vulnerability that is one of the conditions of life for all human beings.

The event, supported by a grant from NSN and the kickoff event for the NSN's Year of the Regions program in 2009, was one of the most diverse gatherings The Storytelling Center has produced in recent years, as well as one of the largest. We did lots of outreach to organizations for people with disabilities and people with specific illnesses, and that outreach really paid off. The NSN's vigorous promotion of Tales from the Body to its members also brought in many attendees, including one from as far away as Seattle! (and others from Connecticut, Albany and Long Island).

Please remember: if you have some storytelling gigs coming up — or know of some quality storytelling–centric websites we should be hyperlinking — please let us know so we can list them here!

Would you like to read the 2008 news? Or look back at 2007?