Off to the Annual Conference of Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 1:59PM
Why start a blog when you're about to go away for two weeks and be out ofelectronic contact? Because "before you go away" is always the time whenyou take on the tasks that have been hanging around awaiting your attention for months?
The fact is too we are off to a storytelling event: the Annual Conference ofStorytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada (SC-CC) ( http://www.sc-cc.com/conference/2010/ ). T his year the conference is in St. John's, Newfoundland. Jennifer and I will be participating in the two day pre-conference Master Class presented by English storyteller Graham Langley. Once the Master Class is over, the conference proper will begin. Tellers are coming from across the country but also from Europe and the States. It's a first in terms of rate of international attendance soanticipation is high.
This Conference is the Eighteenth Annual. As SC-CC's first NationalCoordinator and the only one who's been to all other conferences I get to give the organization's history as an opener. We started this tradition quite early, believing that participants would need some sense of where the organization had come from and how it had traveled in order to direct where it might go. This faith has served us well. We have kept true to our ideals of openness and consensus-building because we have reminded ourselves of their importance every time.
I shall also be telling in the concert at St. George's Church, Brigus, onSaturday July 31. It's a particular honour because the concert is being produced as part of the Cupid's 400 celebrations of Newfoundland's heritage.That heritage, of course, finds much of its rooted-ness in Britain, whenceI myself derive. An English folk tale has been requested. I had some difficulty with this because my own family couldn't exactly be described as "steeped in oral traditions." They do share a use of language that is highly original and wonderfully evocative, however. It wasn't hard to see the links once I got going. At its heart, the piece holds the story, Cap O'Rushes, as found in Joseph Jacobs's English Fairy Tales . This one is dear to me for Cap O'Rushes time in the kitchen. Both my grandmother and great-grandmother were "in service" in great houses. They knew the rigours well.
The packing has not yet started but the planning-for-packing has. Hikingboots or runners? One or two fleeces? Travel mugs? Granola for breakfasts when we get to the holiday bit of the adventure? No doubt we'll soon have stuff strewn all over. In the meanwhile, I need to keep working on my story....and deal with the fact that I need to undertake a vast amount of deleting from my in-box....and deal with publicity for the children's book I have coming out in the fall (Rude Stories, published by Tundra, of whichmore later)....and pay a few bills.....and download the conference documents....and change the sheets for the friends who are coming to stay in our house while we're not in it. And....and....and.....
Jan,
Thanks for starting a blog. It isn't easy to keep one up, especially when one is as busy as you! I find it helpful to tell friends it is an "occasional blog" rather than a have-to, must-get-it-done thing.
Have a great Conference, and enjoy your telling! I wish I could be there to experience it, too.
Roger