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From November 25th, 2003:
Tellabration! 2003 Report
The Flash of Love - The Fire of God
"Some day, after we have mastered the winds and the waves and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, human beings will have discovered fire."
Teilhard de Chardin.
On November 23rd, The Storytelling Center brought to the Recital Hall of the CUNY Graduate Center an extraordinary concert: Three Traditions: Great Stories From The Middle East — A Concert for Peace. Diane Wolkstein, Jon Bankert, SSF, and Ron Sopyla told stories, Biblical in origin, universal in message. And Love was at the center of each story.
A radiant Diane Wolkstein told the beautiful tale of the Moabite (or, as she most likely would be called today, Palestinian) "Ruth," who, because of her love for her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, followed her back to the land of Judah. Accompanied on violin by Michael Braudy and on percussion by Ken Yamazaki, Diane drew us in to the full story surrounding the often quoted "Where you go, I will go." A young woman risks all for love of the older woman, and through her righteous actions and the welcome given to her, not only helps her mother–in–law, but finds a life for herself and an important place in Jewish history.
Brother Jon Bankert took us back to the beginning and told "The Creation" — or rather, he chanted it as it would be sung in a Mass.
However, he slowly transformed himself, the teller, into the all–loving God, and through the magic of wonderfully whimsical props tucked up the sleeves of his brown Franciscan robes, he created a world filled with love and loved by its creator.
The evening ended with Ron Sopyla's deeply moving telling of "Yusuf and Zulaikha," which is found both in the Bible and in the Qur'an. Both sensual and spiritual, the story is considered one of the great romances of Islamic literature. It is an allegory of surrender to the Beloved, the experience of God's Love in a very present and immediate way on Earth.
This concert capped a day of storytelling events. Diane Wolkstein gave a workshop on the art and craft of storytelling, which was attended by over forty people. And John Colligan facilitated a swap, which showcased a wonderful variety of storytelling.
The Storytelling Center was delighted to host this concert and to welcome many new listeners along with our regular storytelling audience.
One of the functions of story and storytelling is to help us to understand our lives — our story — and perhaps to help us find ways to restore, to "re–story" our lives and the life of our world. Our hope is that we have helped to find a path to repsect, to understanding and to peace.
