From the Sun (Sonoma), Thursday, June 114, 2007

KSVY HOST OFFERS PROGRAM TO TURN KIDS INTO RADIO STORYTELLERS
by Gary Carnivele, Special to the Sun

Jackie Baldwin, the host of the weekly KSVY 91.3 Sonoma show Story-Lovers World!, and the Sonoma Valley Regional Library have teamed up to teach Sonoma's kids how to tell stories on the radio. During the eight-week program, which begins June 26, students will be asked to select a fairy tale, folklore piece or personal story that they'll work with to sharpen their storytelling skills. The program will wrap up with the participants telling their tales during a live recording session. The stories will air on Baldwin's show in late August or early September.

Story-Lovers World! has been airing Sundays at 5 p.m. since September 2006. Baldwin hosts the best storytellers from all over the world telling every kind of story imaginable. Tellers send in discs that Baldwin reviews, edits into her show, and then shares with her audience. It has been a goal of Baldwin's to include more Sonoma kids on her programs.

"We want kids to have the fabulous experience of working in the radio medium. It's an opportunity they won't get many times in their lives," Baldwin said. "Secondly, we want them to fall in love with stories and storytelling and to feel what it's like to tell stories and have their audience respond with laughter, recognition and love," she added.

A resume like Ms. Baldwin's illustrates why she's the perfect person to usher young people into new creative adventures. This seasoned professional has been teaching storytelling and creative writing in Sonoma for the past 10 years and has enjoyed a successful 25-year career in the Bay Area as an educational television writer-producer of children's programming. In the past two years, Baldwin has published nine books, which include shortened stories of many kinds. Some of her titles are "Ancient Persia," "Old Russia," "Halloween," "True Love" and "Croaks Heard 'Round the World! (frog stories)."

During the first week, kids will learn about the elements of a good story, understand the importance of storytelling and practice overcoming stage fright, which will be stressed in every session. Week two will focus on selecting a story and the memorization of that story. Baldwin will help her pupils understand the importance of structure, plot, dialogue, detail and character in stories, when they meet in the third week. The fourth week will cover the use of music, props, body movement and gestures. During the fifth week, the future radio stars will practice using music, props and body movement as they begin to engage an audience. Openings, closings and tips for making each performance come to life will be offered during week six. The seventh session will have the children taking part in a dress rehearsal, after which a group discussion about each performance will happen. Finally, the last clss will be a performance recording for KSVY Radio 91.3 Sonoma.

"I'm one of the few lucky storytellers in the country who has a weekly storytelling radio show, and because I've worked in media with children for so many years and have seen first-hand how much they benefit from being involved in storytelling, I wanted to bring that experience to Sonoma kids—to let them experience the real hands-on thrill of radio production," Baldwin explained. "KSVY is the perfect radio station for doing this—it's community-oriented and fully supportive of innovative programs of this kind," she went on to say.

What better place to delve into the wise and wonderful world of short stories, tall tales, funky folklore and fantastical fairy tales than the library. The Sonoma Valley Regional Library, located at 755 W. Napa St., offers shelves and shelves of new and traditional tales from all over the world. And if there's a book sought after by a program participant—or any other card holder—the book can most likely be found somewhere within the Sonoma County Library System.

"The goal is to give young tellers the skills, practice and opportunity to tell their own stories, as well as to learn traditional tales. Then, during the final session, the kids will tell their stories for those tuned in to KSVY 91.3 FM," said Clare O'Brien, Children's Librarian at Sonoma Valley Regional Library.

The free workshops will happen every Tuesday afternoon, June 26 through August 14 from 2–4 p.m. The sessions will be held at the Sonoma Valley Regional Library. Young people 8–18 are invited to join this unique program. Spanish speakers are welcome to attend. The sessions will be taught in English, but words and phrases from Spanish, as well as those from other languages, can make for very colorful storytelling. To join in on all the fun, contact Clare O'Brien, Children's Librarian, at 707-996-5217, or Jackie Baldwin at 996-1996. Enrollment is limited to 12 participants.

Sonoma Valley Regional Library offers a summer chock-full of storytimes, reading clubs, puppet shows and much more. Here's what's available.

Storytimes for toddlers, ages 0-3, Tuesdays, June 5–August 7 at 10:30 a.m.
Storyteims for preschoolers, ages 4-5, Tuesdays, June 5–August 7 at 11:30 a.m.
Flute Sweets and Tickletoons Introduces Classical, Thursday, June 21 at 2 p.m.
On Nature's Trail with Sonoma County Regional Parks, Thursday, June 28 at 11 a.m.
Nick Baron Puppets in "T-Rex Thunderlizard Wild West Review," Thursday, July 5 at 11 a.m.
Cotton Candy Express: Kids with a Groove, Wednesday, July 11 at 7 p.m.
Make a Clue! Crafts! Thursday, July 12 at 11 a.m.
Finale! Get a Free Book! Thursday, July 26 at 11 a.m.
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Here's the article about Jackie Baldwin as it appeared in Storyline Winter 2005.

Spotlight: Jackie Baldwin, Healer and Community Builder
by Susan Ford

This is the beginning of a series in which we go behind the scenes and Spotlight the stories of the people who make our lives as storytellers both richer and easier. Through the years one of the names that comes up over and over again is Jackie Baldwin. A more in-depth interview can be found at storysaac.org.

In our delightful conversation sitting by the water in Vallejo, I learned about Jackie’s website: http://www.story-lovers.com, the exceptional organizational skills that she uses to build community both on the web and throughout the Bay Area with Teller-to-Teller, along with her gift of healing through her storytelling projects.

I asked her how she came to storytelling. She laughed and said, “Story has always been part of my life. As a child I was an avid reader; it was a way to deal with the turmoil of my life. I was always interested in drama and from the age of six I was acting. In my mid-thirties I returned to college. I started out to be a social worker, but became enthralled with dramatic writing and the theatre. After receiving my B.A., I went on to receive an M.A. in Educational Technology and Instructional Design."

Years later she saw a listing for a storytelling class taught by Gay Ducey and Joan Sutton. "Until then, I never knew there was such a thing as a professional storyteller." She attended Turning Straw into Gold, a conference put together by Ruth Stotter, focusing on the healing elements of storytelling. She realized that if there was such a thing as this, it was what she wanted to do. "The whole healing aspect of storytelling is what drew me in." She eventually studied with Ruth and graduated from the Storytelling Program at Dominican University.

Because of her heavy workload as a public television writer/producer, Jackie found it hard to fit telling stories into her personal life. But she perceived the various needs of storytellers, and after conferring with her mentor, Ruth, she started her website: story-lovers.com, where she offers promotional materials: business cards, stationery, notepads, calendars, greeting cards with beautiful illustrations from pre-1923 and remarkable quotes about storytelling. "I joined the national listserv, Storytell, hosted by TWU, Texas Women's University. I noticed on Storytell that people kept asking for the same thing over and over again. So I decided to collect the information and create an archive called SOS: Searching Out Stories. I have done this with a number of categories: stories, places, storytellers' information and general questions, etc. Six years later, with the help of Storytell listserv members, SOS is one of the largest archives of stories on the Internet. It gets about 1000 visits a day, 350,000 a year.

"When I see a need, I try to create a solution. Last year when the tsunami hit southeast Asia, I started a special category about the tsunami as Storyteller Lee-Ellen Marvin pulled together a group of national storytellers to do benefits. I created an archive of stories and folktales from the countries affected that storytellers could use for their performances. Then when Katrina hit, I started to collect stories from those states. Those benefit performances are still going on.

"I have published a series of Bare Bones books, eight in all. These are books in which thematic stories are reduced to their "bare bones," so that storytellers can "flesh out" the story and make it their own. The first book, which I wrote by myself, included Ancient Persian Tales. By the second book, Old Russian Tales, a few storytellers became interested and contributed their stories. From then on, the books became communal work efforts with as many as thirty-three national and international storytellers contributing to a single book.

"All of this led to Teller-to-Teller, a three-times-a-year event throughout the S.F. Bay Area where regional storytellers get together to meet and share information. I find that what I am doing mostly is trying to pull storytellers together, to build community locally and nationally, so that we realize we are all in this together. Our next meeting of Teller-to-Teller is January 14th in the South Bay, where we will focus on honoring the diversity of storytelling in different styles and eras, cultures and traditions.

"I have also taken over from Cathryn Wellner the Yahoo! listserv, which is now called CAstorytelling. People have been working on the idea of forming a statewide storytelling organization for years. I am archiving all the information collected so far so we can all become a more cohesive force. Everyone is very excited about this."

Just prior to my interview with Jackie, Tim Mautz posted a request on Storytell asking for responses on how story-lovers.com has impacted them. A slew of responses came in, all filled with gratitude toward the work that Jackie has done. Here are just a few: "'the historian of our cyber community,' 'Jackie knows no borders,' 'The keeper of memories, the keeper of lists, the keeper of stories,' 'Jackie's place is still the first place I go to when I need "bones" for a story,' 'She doesn't just storehouse our stuff for us, she weaves and casts that interconnected web that gets us into the treasury and back out with our prize.'"

Jackie teaches creative writing in Sonoma. In January she will start a writing group for breast cancer survivors, of which she is one. Also, she is working on a proposal to help at-risk kids write and illustrate their own stories and books. "I want to help them give voice to their own stories." One of Jackie's gifts is allowing people to be authentic in her interactions with them and giving them permission to explore and express their true self through their stories.

Jackie shared a story, which is definitely a 21st-century story. I believe it happened because of her curiosity that continually sends her searching, her love of community, and her gift of communicating on the computer. She has searched throughout the years for her two half-sisters, Lynette du Fresne, Australia, and Shirley Porter, New Zealand. Through Google, which posted a ten-year-old e-mail from a niece who was trying to locate Jackie, they have connected. Both Lynette and Shirley wanted to express their joyous congratulations to Jackie for being spotlighted for her fine work.

Jackie Baldwin's website: http://www.story-lovers.com
E-mail: bubbul@vom.com; Phone: 707/996-1996

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2) ARTICLE IN SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE ABOUT
JACKIE BALDWIN and STORY-LOVERS
February 7, 2006

"I want to make storytellers' lives better because I believe so much in
stories and what people can get from them. Going back to stories
restores one's soul." –Jackie Baldwin

Jackie Baldwin's dream is to expose as many people
as possible to the art of storytelling and to help make
storytellers' lives better.

ONCE UPON A TIME...
by Carole Kelleher
Special to the Index-Tribune

Psst—let me tell you a little story. It's about a lady who lives in the Valley of the Moon. Her imagination is as tall as the Mayacamas and her heart's as warm as the Wine Country in August. She's a storyteller and her name is Jackie Baldwin.

So who is this storyteller and what is the story she has to tell? Well, once upon a time, Baldwin took a class called "Spinning Straw into Gold," and there she learned about the healing aspects of storytelling. She found the idea so enchanting that she continued her studies, receiving a certificate from Dominican University in professional storytelling. And a whole new world opened up to her.

She realized her dream was to expose as many people as possible to the art of storytelling and to help make storytellers' lives better. So she set out to make her dream come true. Now she manages a Web site, http://www.story-lovers.com, that is visited by more than 375,000 people a year. It offers information about where to find thousands of stories to tell and provides beautiful graphics for storytellers to use.

In 1999, in the early days of eBay, Baldwin started buying old books on the Internet, amassing a collection of pre-1923 artwork that is no longer copyrighted and making beautiful reproductions of them. From "The Tortoise and the Hare" to "Bremen Town Musicians," Baldwin offers hundreds of intricate images on her Web site in the form of prints, notepads, business cards and calendars.

The Web site also has a section called SOS, "Searching Out Stories," that indexes where to find stories on every subject imaginable, from circus stories to anger stories to octopus stories. It is a great tool for storytellers, librarians and teachers.

"Storytellers are always arguing about what a storyteller is. Some think storytellers are changing the world and others believe they are just entertaining," Baldwin said. But she believes that everyone is a storyteller.

"When you tell someone else something about yourself, you become a storyteller. When you listen to others tell you about themselves, they are storytellers. When your loved ones tell you about their lives and those of their mothers and fathers and grandparents, it come to you through stories. That is why storytelling is so important in all our lives.

"It is how we know who we are and how we know others. The more we go through the process of exploring our personal world and tell each other about it, the more we discover about ourselves," Baldwin said.

So you see, for Baldwin there are two storytelling worlds. There are the "tellers," who share animated versions of "The Three Bears" and "Rapunzel" and all sorts of myths and fables at libraries and around campfires and sometimes, if they are really good, to large audiences who pay to hear them. And then there's everyone else.

There are people telling the stories of their own lives in their everyday existence. "At a very basic level, our whole world is simply a collection of stories," Baldwin said.

So for tellers who are spinning yarns and tales that have a moral, Baldwin is helping to create a community bond. She provides research and has organized seminars called "Teller-to-Teller" where storytellers get together to share ideas and techniques. But for people just wanting to talk about the stories of their lives, she puts together workshops.

Her next eight-week workshop begins in Sonoma on Wednesday, Feb. 22, and is called "Healing Stories from the Heart." It is for people who have had to deal with serious or life-changing illness or injury. The workshop is to provide a safe, caring and private healing atmosphere where participants will talk and write about their difficult thoughts and feelings. It is free with a $20 materials fee.

"The theory is that getting your stories from the inside to the outside allows you to objectify them," Baldwin said. Baldwin is a breast-cancer survivor and has had two knee replacements, so as the workshop leader she brings her own understanding of illness.

"Stories have always been a part of my life," Baldwin said. "I was the kind of kid who would crawl under the covers with a flashlight at night to read."

Baldwin's parents divorced when she was very young, and she was raised in a series of foster homes. At 17 she married the man she still considers the love of her life, and they had three children. He died of a brain hemorrhage when he was 23. A few years later, Baldwin remarried and had two more children, but that marriage didn't last. Baldwin was a single mother who raised five children on her own.

She would take her family to the library and "we would bring home huge stacks of books and read every night." She worked hard as a court reporter for many years, eventually being able to go to UC Santa Barbara, where she earned a degree in dramatic art with an emphasis in directing and scriptwriting. She then started her own business and produced films and documentaries for large Bay Area-based corporations, such as Chevron, Shaklee, Apple and Bechtel. Many of her shows were aired on PBS stations.

It wasn't until she stopped working full time that she had the time to pursue her storytelling dream. She is herself a storyteller and has performed in schools, libraries and hospitals. She has also published a series of eight "Bare Bones" books, which are available on her Web site. They provide illustrations and the outline of stories that she describes as "100 years of story skeletons from around the world." They include compilations from Persia and Ireland as well as Halloween and love stories.

"I'm sort of a community builder," she said, "I bring storytellers together. Storytellers often don't know each other, and it is such a shame." But she is changing all that. Her last "Teller-to-Teller" seminar attracted 60 professional storytellers from throughout the Bay Area.

"I want to make storytellers' lives better because I believe so much in stories and what people can get from them. Going back to stories restores one's soul," Baldwin said.

But her main emphasis now is creating venues where people can tell their own stories. "Everything I do from now on will be about creating spaces where people can tell their own stories."
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(This web page updated 12/5/05; 2/7/06; 6/14/07)