“...stories are a fundamental unit of knowledge, the foundation of memory, essential to the way we make sense of our lives: the beginning, middle and end of our personal and collective trajectories.”
— Bill Buford, former fiction editor at The New Yorker
Lisa Waltuch has produced and participated in storytelling community and retreat-oriented storytelling events in Brooklyn, Costa Rica, and Mexico. She is an artist and designer currently living in the California bay area. She created a storytelling event series in Guanacaste, Costa Rica where she lived with her family for three years. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. For other work see:
https://www.lwsilkstudio.com/
https://www.lisawaltuchstudios.com/
A good storytelling session is a cross between an extremely fun dinner party and group therapy. It gives us the power to connect to each other and to learn about ourselves.
Understanding the process and sharing stories builds community, develops empathy and ultimately leads to greater self awareness. Learning to tell a good story can be an asset to your career and inspire relationships.
Scheherazade (shuh-her-uh-ZAHD)
Meaning:
noun: A storyteller, especially one who tells long, entertaining stories.
Etymology:
After Scheherezade, the wife of a king in One Thousand and One Nights.
Notes:
In One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories from the Middle East, the king Shahryar discovers his wife being unfaithful. He learns that his brother’s wife is unfaithful as well. He kills his wife and decides to take revenge on all women by marrying a virgin every day and having her executed the next morning so she never gets an opportunity to cheat. One day it’s the turn of Scheherezade, the vizier’s daughter, to be the bride. She asks the king if she could say farewell to her sister Dunyazad first. The king agrees and the sister, who has been prepared in advance, asks Scheherezade to tell a story. The story is engrossing and the king is awake listening. Scheherezade stops the story just before dawn saying there’s no time left to finish. The king spares her life to find out what happened. The next night she finishes the story and starts another, even more captivating story. And so it goes for 1001 nights and by that time the king has fallen in love with her beauty and intelligence and makes her the queen.
Site illustrations by Syuhada M. from Freelancer.com