“Happy New Years from First Friday Storynight”
First Friday Storynight at BLTC
Jan 4, 2013 – 7-9pm
Better Living Through Coffee
100 Tyler St., Port Townsend, WA 98368
$10 Suggested Donation; no one turned away
The darkest night of the year has come and gone and now we move towards the cycle of awakening the light, both within our hearts and in the living world. What better way to do this then through the gathering of community, listening to stories! This Friday the Mythsinger Foundation and host Brian Rohr invite you to Better Living Through Coffee to celebrate with us in the monthly Port Townsend tradition of gathering together with our neighbors and friends, grabbing a cup of some hot beverage of your choice, maybe getting a slice of outrageously delicious pie, and listening with the ears in our hearts to some wonderful tales!
This month’s feature teller is renowned Whidbey Island storyteller Jill Johnson. She will be performing an excerpt from her wildly successful piece entitled “Rebecca” – a recreation of the life of Rebecca Ebey, wife of Isaac Ebey, early Washington pioneer and legislator. The lands which Rebecca and Isaac settled on Whidbey Island, combined with other early land claims, became the nation’s first National Historical Reserve, Ebey’s Landing, in 1978.
Host Brian Rohr will offer his usual tellings of the old stories – the myths, folktales and fairytales – of long ago, while playing the drum to create a percussive trance state in the listener.
As is our tradition, we will also host an open mic section, so please bring your own short story, song, dance, poem or some other performative form to share… only rules are it must obviously be a story and no reading, everything must be shared in the ways of the oral tradition.
About the Artists:
Storyteller, actress, teacher and trainer, Jill Johnson’s peripatetic career (working with organizations such as the United Nations Development Program, CARE, Save the Children, and the Peace Corps) has provided a mother lode of material for her work as a storyteller. “The core of my storytelling comes from teaching and training,” says Jill, “in the US and Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. When I tell an ancient Egyptian tale about a magician, I see the old gardener I knew as a trainer in Morocco. I love watching a story build a feeling of community: in a classroom, a library, a meeting, a theater…anywhere!”
Jill creates lively historical stories about the lives of women in Washington State. Her renditions of world folktales are unique: forged from her own international experience and expertise. She has performed and given workshops in Washington, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee and in the Philippines, South Africa, and Cameroon in Central West Africa. In Cameroon, she presented a sixteen hour symposium on storytelling at an international teaching conference, appeared on national television, and in concert with traditional tellers and musicians. She has been a featured performer with Humanities Washington and a member of the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Brian Rohr is a storyteller and healing arts practitioner living here in Port Townsend, WA. Having moved from Chicago in 2007 to study with local master Storyteller Daniel Deardorff, he has since shared myth from different cultures to national and international audiences. Locally, Rohr first began hosting a bi-monthly Storynight at the Boiler Room in 2009, before moving it to its present monthly format at Better Living Through Coffee for the past 3 years. He is an active Board Member of the Mythsinger Foundation and fully believes that the old stories are alive, vital and can inform us on how to live our lives as authentic human beings.
About First Friday Storynight
Begun in Nov 2009, this monthly event explores the art and ritual of the oral tradition: sharing the old myths, folk tales, and fairy tales along with more modern stories and personal sharings. Showcased will be local and visiting storytellers, musicians and weavers of magic with words. Each month, there are two to three featured tellers, and space for guests in the audience to share a story or two during the open mic sections. First Friday Storynight is supported by the Port Townsend Arts Commission.
BLTC is a family owned and operated coffee house located in Downtown Port Townsend.
For more information on this event, please call: 360.531.2535 or visit www.brianrohr.com