Photos are snippets from the stories of our lives. Here are a handful of mine, from left to right.
Delight plays across the faces of these storytellers at the November 2004 Tellabration in Oakland, California.
I was working for the sponsoring organization, Stagebridge, as Storytelling Director, and had the pleasure of emceeing the event.
These Maori youth were performing as part of the Glistening Waters Story Festival in Masterton, New Zealand.
We loved their energy, their commitment to Maori tradition, their talent. I wrote about them on the Crossroads blog.
During my years as a farmer and rancher on Vancouver Island and then in British Columbia’s wild heart, the Cariboo, some of my best sources for stories and poems were sheep.
This beautiful Shetland ram was a pal. He loved chin scratches. Here he’s accompanied by a ewe and a weeks’-old lamb.
William (Bill) Smith was a skilled natural storyteller. He had retired from government service and was living in Sacramento when he lost everything to an electrical fire.
His daughter persuaded him to move to Oakland, where he would be closer, but he was a bit lost until he found Stagebridge. As one of the company’s finest storytellers, he recovered his vitality and shared his remarkable storytelling gift every chance we could find for him.
His voice has stilled now, but his legacy remains.
Philip Kaake is a skilled photographer based in San Francisco. Approaching Stagebridge, he offered to take photographs of some of the actors and storytellers in exchange for photos he could add to his portfolio.
I was one of the lucky ones he photographed. On the day of the shoot, two of my dearest friends, Theresa Healy and Wendy Young of Prince George, B.C., were visiting. No wonder I had such a big smile on my face.
Lady Laura (Laura Combs) glowed when she told stories as part of Stagebridge’s storytelling troupe. We became fast friends and kept in touch when I left the Bay Area to move back to British Columbia. She died of cancer. I miss her still.
One of my favorite photos of her is on Philip Kaake’s Web site. It’s in the “Active Vibrant Seniors” section and is a photograph of a woman in red, whirling a hula hoop, with arms outstretched.
I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome than the one I received from the storytellers in Adelaide, South Australia. After a couple of sessions with the group, I was ready to pull up stakes and move to Adelaide.
There’s a posting about the group on the Crossroads blog.
I love the faces in this photograph. They’re in an Oakland community center, listening to one of the Stagebridge storytellers, weaving word magic to one of the many intergenerational audiences lucky enough to hear these talented storytellers.
