©2000-2010 Diane Wolkstein / Cloudstone Productions, New York City. All rights are reserved.
Left to right: Raouf Mama (Benin), Anita Ratnam (India), and Diane Wolkstein (United States).
New York City's First Storytelling Festival
Central Park, New York City
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007, from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Diane's storytelling career — and with the blessing of wonderful sunny weather all day — nineteen internationally and nationally–known storytellers and musicians came to Central Park to share stories from the Native American, European, African, and Asian traditions.
Visit the CelebrateStory 2007 Gallery
One storyteller writes…
"Last June 22nd, on one of New York's rare and impossibly clear days, I am caught in a crowd in front of Central Park's Hans Christian Andersen statue. Old–timers bounce on their benches and laugh; Frisbee players stop in mid–throw; young mothers wiggle babies on their laps. They are all gawking at Gioia Timpanelli, one of the world's finest storytellers, recounting an old Italian folk tale. She is one of dozens of performers celebrating forty years of storytelling at the Statue.
"This was the City's first Storytelling Festival. New Yorkers from Astoria to Carnarsie descended on the park, and for one glorious summer afternoon, our city of ten million became a little village at a Sunday afternoon band concert. Strangers nudged each other; teenagers nodded and laughed. Stories can melt even the hardest–skinned New Yorkers.
"Why not have a storytelling festival next year, and the year after that? Cities all over the world do it. Why not us? We deserve to feel like a village every now and then, don't we?"
Bob Reiser
And a listener writes…
"I went to CelebrateStory in Central Park with few expectations but a lot of excitement. I was personally touched and impressed by the overall sense of abundance that surrounded the festival. The universe provided perfect weather. I found all of the tellers and volunteers to be friendly and warm. The tellers seemed to be very supportive of each other and part of a close-knit community. This sense of community permeated through the entire event. I saw people of all ages, cultural backgrounds and lifestyles stop to listen to the story tellers. It was a delightful day.
"I was impressed to see how the tellers for younger audiences handled the inevitable fidgeting and short attention spans of young children. Bill Gordh played the guitar and chose story songs with a lot of repetition so the children could sing along. Regina Ress elicited a lot of audience participation and appeared to focus on moment to moment connection with individual members of the audience. Raouf Mama used a variety of character voices and dance–like movements. He had vibrant energy and looked like he was having a tremendous amount of fun. I also saw one of the student tellers, who I think was in 5th grade. She was clearly nervous and struggled a bit to remember her story. The listeners were very supportive, and it was so wonderful to see her discovering her own voice and her ability to affect the listeners. I also saw Laura Simms tell a personal story about her grandmother giving her the gift of dreams and a pair of diamond earrings that were plucked from the star–filled night sky.
"If I were to write a story about the festival, I would title it 'The Day New York Got Smaller.' I witnessed the power of story to create community out of strangers. I had a great deal of fun, and left the festival feeling tired yet exhilarated and very glad to live in New York."
Pamela Edgar
Thank You
We are grateful to all of the tellers and musicians who gave sheer pleasure to the parkgoers who joined us for all five hours of CelebrateStory 2007:
For the Andersen Statue program: Dovie Thomason, Laura Simms, Gioia Timpanelli, the three young tellers representing P.S. 242, Raouf Mama, Anita Ratnam, and Therese Folkes–Plair.
For the Families program at the Levin Playground: Bill Gordh, Regina Ress, Raouf Mama, Rafe Martin, Ron Sopyla, Michael Parent, and Emma Cotter.
We also send our special thanks to Olivier Bernier (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Michael Brandman, Rob Cahill, Terri Carter, Julie Della Torre, Sally Fischer PR, Jill Mainelli, Rose Marie Morse, Eli Rarey, Randy Rosen, Kate Shelag, Rachel Whitehurst, musicians Michael Braudy (violin) and Emiliano Valerio (guitar and percussion), Mark Voelpel (videography), and Ari Ress.
And of course, we thank and bless everyone who came to the Park to celebrate the gift of the story with us.
Visit the official CelebrateStory website
(Adobe Flash Player required)
Our Vision
Our mission is to create an awareness of the artistry of storytelling and to present a full day of storytelling programs in Central Park in order to promote the importance of community, diversity and tradition.
Support the CelebrateStory project
Make your checks or money orders payable to:
National Storytelling Network
132 Boone Street, Suite 5
Jonesborough, TN 37659
Tax ID: 621–76–0203
Memo: CELEBRATESTORY
Please e–mail Diane Wolkstein if you would like further information or want to help develop the CelebrateStory project.
Celebrating Diane Wolkstein's 40 years of celebrating
both community and story
