Around the water cooler, on the subway or the carpool ride, in classrooms, work rooms and living rooms, stories are told day and night. From loud boisterous laughs to quiet hush-hush voices, from solitary emails to movie screens around the world, stories of life weave into the fabric of all our lives.

In fact the very point of this website is to feature stories of the inspiring kind, which makes it a perfect place to showcase the art of storytelling.  In that, it’s a also a welcome opportunity to promote storytelling festivals, where the age-old rituals of story-telling are celebrated, enjoyed and given recognition they deserve.  After all, storytelling probably goes back as far as humans do, and there is much evidence that points to such an assumption.

Relics of words and languages have been found carved in stone or wood from ancient civilizations, and stories written on pieces of parchment have inspired science and history research for thousands of years. Today story telling is celebrated in many diverse and popular festivals such as Powell’s Wood Festival, which is held just outside Seattle and was featured in the CBS News story found at the link below.  Another well-known festival is The Moth, which often attracts those in the 20-30 something age group, as well as those willing to expect a wide variety of story themes.

Wherever they are found, storytelling festivals offer masters of spoken word, as well as written word and can inspire imagination, creation and good, old-fashioned communication in young, old and all in between.

For my Examiner.com column and CBS video story, click on the link below

http://www.examiner.com/article/be-inspired-by-stories

For the CBS video story directly, click on the link below,

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/storytelling/festivals/keep/tradition/alive

Enjoy!