We Are All Storytellers
Julie Bozza ponders on something we all have in common
2 May 2023
“StoryFest”: the name says it all. We celebrate storytelling in all forms and we celebrate storytellers. And that includes you..
When the current StoryFest committee first got together for a strategy planning day, we talked about possible themes for our 2023 festival… but pretty soon we realised that the theme was already an intrinsic part of the wonderful event we’d inherited. We celebrate storytelling.
Not only the storytelling that you find in books - though we all love books and the authors who create them. We also love and want to celebrate the stories told in other forms. Illustrations, myths and yarns, songs, stand-up comedy, film, craft, history, food, slam poetry - you name it, we’re there listening, watching, imbibing. Being a part of it.
But the other thing we love about storytelling is that it’s something we all do.
We might not write it down or even put it into words, but we all understand things (or try to!) by working through them, by working them out, as stories. We might not talk about ourselves much, or not in great depth, but we all express ourselves in creative ways that reveal something of our own story whether our past, present or future. It could be through our choice of clothes, colours, hairstyles, through our homes and how we decorate them, through our cars or bikes or our preference for walking, through our baking and our travels and our favourite music.
We tell stories to ourselves about the world, and we tell the world stories about ourselves. Stories about how things are and how they could be. Stories about who we are. True stories. Even if you’re spinning a fantastic yarn, you’re telling something true, whether on the surface or down deep.
Lately I’ve come across these notions of “everyday” creativity in the most unexpected places.
I was reading a book titled Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists, by philosopher Mary Beth Willard - and I was delighted by her very democratic consideration of “aesthetic projects”. We all have them, and they're a significant part of our life, whether it's a playlist of beloved songs, the colours and imagery we surround ourselves with, our love of a particular genre or artist in any creative field, our fannish passions (and the characters we ship), our collections of the weird and wonderful, and so on.
It was terrific to read about how vital and necessary these projects are to anyone's life. I found it hugely validating!
I’ve recently finished another book called Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by designer Don Norman.
In it, Norman says, “We are all designers. We manipulate the environment, the better to serve our needs. We select what items to own, which to have around us. We build, buy, arrange, and restructure: all this is a form of design. …
“We transform the otherwise anonymous, commonplace things and spaces of everyday life into our own things and places. Through our designs, we transform houses into homes, spaces into places, things into belongings."
We are all designers. We are all storytellers.
Come along to StoryFest in June, share the storytelling love with each other, and enjoy the creative talents of our awesome guests… Or if you want to really get involved, poets and spoken-word performers can share their stories in the local heat of Australian Poetry Slam 2023 at historic Milton Theatre. (And oh my word, does that theatre have some stories to tell!)
Either way: Be Part of the Story.
What kind of story are you thinking about right now? A structured story with three acts, a climax and a denouement? A slice of life, an anecdote, a yarn? A coming of age tale, a memoir, a romance? A mystery, a thriller, a drama? A quick sketch or an epic oil painting? The possibilities that you found tucked away in the lyrics of your favourite song? An alternative ending to a television episode that just didn’t quite hit the spot?
How are you going to tell that tale, and who are you going to share it with…?