McCullough: Rediscover the power of telling stories
My earliest memories involve the weather — it is invariably cold in these reveries —and the feeling of going home.
One includes the image of my father pulling my sister and me on a snow saucer in a drift-covered field. It was supposed to be fun, but it was painfully cold, for him and us. The light from the kitchen window of our trailer never seemed so warm as it did in that moment, and I remember willing us toward it.
Another evokes the sound of my grandfather’s voice on the night we evacuated that trailer to take shelter at the McCullough homestead from a brutal March storm. “The snow is blue,” I heard him say from down the hall.
I was afraid, but wondering what blue snow must look like distracted me enough that I was soon asleep. My grandfather died before my second birthday, and I cannot recall ever seeing his face, but the memory of his voice floods over me at every re-telling.
A couple years later, I remember walking with my father down the hard-packed road to Brewster’s station, a cinder block garage less known as a place of commerce than one where idle men with time on their hands would go to “swap lies,” as my dad would say. My great uncle was particularly good at it — something of a local legend.
His face, I’ll never forget. I still smile at the memory of him sitting in a wooden chair, rolling a cigarette and telling me he’d shot the Easter bunny that very morning. Even at 5 or 6, I wasn’t so easily fooled.
Stories. They are the threads that run through our lives, the touch points of our personal histories. When it feels as though everything might come undone, stories hold us together.
Stories have power. They delight, enchant and teach. They help us understand. They connect us to our past even as they ground us in the moment. They are timeless.
Storytelling has been called a dying art form, but I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s been misplaced. The noise of technology and celebrity and the frenetic pace of modern life may have crowded out this age-old form of expression, but storytelling goes on all the time, all around us. We just need to take the time, and make the space, to listen.
The Mosaic Storytelling Showcase, which will make its debut on Feb. 2 at the Warehouse on East Columbia Avenue, is our effort to reclaim that space. With the help of organizing dynamo Michelle Frank, award-winning storyteller Dick Strader and others, we’ve put together an eclectic group of performers to reacquaint local residents with the art of storytelling.
You may very well know some of that the talent. Among them are Crystal Hernandez, Israel Flores, Sarah Lawrence, Matt Lynn, Rose Miller, Nicole Mullis, Sherii Sherban, Martha Thawnghmung, Sean Washington and Joyce Wilson.
Strader, noted for his portrayals of his father-in-law, the acclaimed Michigan sculptor and potter Stanley Price Kellogg, is leading a pair of workshops to help our first cohort prepare.
“We will be telling stories ‘by heart,’ not memory,” Strader says. “I will be working participants through a series of exercises so that the stories will develop as we tell them.”
“Heart” is the essence of good storytelling, and our aim through this series is to reveal and celebrate the heart of our community, because that’s exactly what a local newspaper should do. If you come, expect to laugh, cry and reflect.
The first of our storyteller evenings will focus on the theme of “home” — although our storytellers have the latitude to interpret that anyway they wish. Proceeds from the event will benefit SAFE Place and The Haven, two places that know something about needing a home.
It seemed an apt way to begin our series — both of these vital organizations have been struggling of late — but we’ll branching out, with events already in the works for spring, summer and fall. Future themes include food, memories and, always a crowd favorite, animals.
We hope you’ll join us for all of them, and if you’re interested in getting on stage, we can help you with that, too.
Now gather round.
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Michael E. McCullough, better known as Mac, is the Enquirer’s content strategist and executive editor. Email him at mmccullo@gannett.com, or call 269-966-0670.
If you go
What: Mosaic Storytelling Showcase
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 2 (doors open at 6)
Where: The Warehouse, 1299 E. Columbia Ave., Battle Creek
Tickets: $5 at door or via https://tickets.battlecreekenquirer.com/e/mosaic-storytelling-showcase/preview
MOSAIC STORYTELLING SHOWCASE | Battle Creek Enquirer Ticketing