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Bobby Norfolk is an American storyteller and arts educator.
| This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(January 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Bobby Norfolk is an American storyteller and arts educator.
He has received three Emmy Awards as host for the television series Gator Tales and is also the host of the Emmy Award nominated cable series Children's Theater at Bobby's House. Norfolk performs internationally for both children and adults and is also a regular performer at the National Storytelling Festival.
Bobby Norfolk began his career as a stand-up comedian. He started in a place called the Funny Bone. He was also an actor that worked with The St. Louis Black Rep and Imaginary Theater Company in St. Louis. Bobby Norfolk also worked as a National Park Service Ranger at the Gateway Arch. To start off his story-telling career, Norfolk made his first appearance in the year of 1979 at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival. This is where he discovered that he could combine his skills of acting and comedic work to become a talented storyteller. With this career, he received many honors and awards. On October 2009, Bobby Norfolk received the national Circle of Excellence Oracle Award that is presented by the National Storytelling Network. This award is given to the most prestigious storytellers. Within the time of his career, Norfolk has also created over ten CD's of storytelling. Some of these CD's have won the Parents Choice Gold Award. He has also co-authored eight children's books. Norfolk is known to travel not only nationally, but internationally as well giving performances, keynotes, and workshops for audiences. Now that he has been a past member of the Board of Directors for the National Storytelling Network, he now has the job of serving on the St. Louis Storytelling Festival Advisory Council. Bobby Norfolk also is a featured artist with Springboard to Learning and the Missouri Arts Council. He now currently owns a storytelling company that began in the year of 1989 that is known as Folktale Productions. [1] He claims that his inspiration for telling stories began when his son was three years old. He would buy him books to read to him before he put his son down for bed at night. The more he read to his son, the more he realized that he would add his skill of theatricals into it. Since then on, he embarked on his journey of storytelling. [2]
Storytelling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view.
Ruth Sawyer was an American storyteller and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She may be best known as the author of Roller Skates, which won the 1937 Newbery Medal. She received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1965 for her lifetime achievement in children's literature.
Antonio Sacre is an American author, solo performer, and storyteller. He writes and performs internationally, in English and Spanish.
Andy Offutt Irwin is an American storyteller, singer-songwriter, and humorist. Born and raised in Covington, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta, Irwin began his career in 1984 with an improvisational comedy troupe at Walt Disney World. After five years he shifted to performing as a singer-songwriter, touring the Southeast. In the mid-1990s, Irwin branched into performances for children and since then has appeared in hundreds of schools and countless public libraries.
Carmen Agra Deedy is an author of children’s literature, storyteller and radio contributor.
Donald Davis is an American storyteller, author and minister. Davis had a twenty-year career as a minister before he became a professional storyteller. He has recorded over 25 storytelling albums and written several books. His long career as a teller and his promotion of the cultural importance of storytelling through seminars and master classes has led to Davis being dubbed the "dean of storytelling".
Jay O'Callahan is a prominent American storyteller for people of all ages. He has performed at numerous national and international storytelling festivals, in theaters worldwide, and on the radio. He performs almost exclusively material of his own authorship. He has recorded many of his oral stories and has written picture books based on several of his tales. O'Callahan is best known for his large-scale oral stories that present the texture of a culture and a time in history through the perceptions of a central narrative character.
Lyn Ford, an American storyteller, teaching artist, author and creative narrative workshop presenter was the first storyteller in the state of Ohio to be nominated for a Governor's Award for the Arts. She is a regular performer at regional and national storytelling festivals and conferences, including the National Storytelling Festival, Hawaii's Talk Story Festival and the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Lyn has also shared keynote presentations, performances and workshops in Australia and Ireland, and for the Transformative Language Arts Network's and Ohio Literacy Resource Center's annual events.
The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival takes place Labor Day weekend at the end of each summer in Lehi, Utah. The festival draws a combined attendance of about 26,000 people each year, making it one of the largest storytelling festival in the United States. The festival typically lasts two days and invites professional storytellers from throughout the United States. In addition to daytime performances on Friday and Saturday, there are typically themed public performances in the evenings, such as Look Who's Talking, Bedtime Stories, My Favorite Stories, and Laughin' Night.
Fran Stallings is an American storyteller for people of all ages. She has performed at numerous national and international storytelling festivals, in schools and libraries, and on the radio. She performs primarily folktales from around the world. She has authored several audio recordings and books of stories and songs.
Australia traditional storytelling, handed down from generation to generation, has always been part of the landscape. Since the beginning of time storytelling played a vital role in Australian Aboriginal culture, one of the world's oldest cultures. Aboriginal children were told stories from a very early age; stories that helped them understand the air, the land, the universe, their people, their culture, and their history. Elders told stories of their journeys and their accomplishments. As the children grew into adults they took on the responsibility of passing on the stories. These stories are as much a cultural necessity as they are entertainment and are still passed on orally though many are now recorded in print, audio and video
Oral storytelling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. The storyteller and the listeners are physically close, often seated together in a circular fashion. Through the telling of the story people become psychically close, developing a connection to one another through the communal experience. The storyteller reveals, and thus shares, him/her self through his/her telling and the listeners reveal and share themselves through their reception of the story. The intimacy and connection is deepened by the flexibility of oral storytelling which allows the tale to be moulded according to the needs of the audience and/or the location or environment of the telling. Listeners also experience the urgency of a creative process taking place in their presence and they experience the empowerment of being a part of that creative process. Storytelling creates a personal bond with the teller and the audience.
Lenard Ray Hicks was a renowned Appalachian storyteller, who lived his entire life on Beech Mountain, North Carolina. He was particularly known for the telling of Jack Tales.
Hugh Morgan Hill who performed as Brother Blue, was an American educator, storyteller, actor, musician, and street performer based principally in the Boston area. After serving as First Lieutenant from 1943 to 1946 in the segregated United States Army in World War II and being honorably discharged, he received a BA from Harvard College in 1948, was accepted into the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) before transferring to receive a MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute, having delivered his doctoral presentation at Boston's Deer Island Prison, accompanied by a 25-piece jazz orchestra, with a video recording for his dissertation committee's further consideration. While performing frequently at U.S. National Storytelling Festivals and flown abroad by organizations and patrons from England to Russia and the Bahamas, Brother Blue regularly performed on the streets around Cambridge, most notably in Harvard Square. He was the Official Storyteller of Boston and of Cambridge by resolutions of both city councils.
Mark Lewis was an American storyteller, actor, and teacher.
Judith Black is a professional storyteller, who has toured internationally, telling stories to a wide ranging audience in the United States, Europe, and the Near East. She has produced thirteen CDs, and won a variety of awards, such as the coveted Oracle Award. Her work has been featured in venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Montreal Comedy Festival, and has been featured seven times at the National Storytelling Festival. In addition she has produced a variety of seminars and workshops for storytellers. She has been commissioned by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Public Radio, religious institutions, and non-profit organisations to create original stories that strengthen their respective missions.
Margaret Read MacDonald is an American storyteller, folklorist, and prolific author of children's books. She has published more than 65 books, of stories and about storytelling, which have been translated into many languages. She has performed internationally as a storyteller, and is considered a "master storyteller" and the "grand dame of storytelling". She focuses on creating "tellable" folktale renditions, which enable readers to share folktales with children easily. Macdonald has been a member of the board of the National Storytelling Association and president of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.
Liz Weir is a Northern Irish children's writer and storyteller. She is currently Storyteller in Residence in Belfast and has written 27 stories. She is involved in a number of storytelling organisations including The Early Years Organisation, where she talks to children about racism, anti-bullying and respect for the elderly.
Pleasant DeSpain is an international storyteller, world traveler, and author of multicultural story collections and picture books,. many of which are used in elementary schools and libraries as multicultural teaching aids. He has performed in more than 3,000 schools, theaters, conventions, libraries, and churches in America, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and Central America.
Linda Goss, sometimes known professionally as Mama Linda, is an American storyteller and performer in the African diasporic oral tradition. She is a co-founder of the National Association of Black Storytellers, which works to preserve folk traditions.
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