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2024 Storytelling Workshop
History is No Mystery Workshop With Eth-Noh-Tec
~ Friday June 28th 1-4 pm in the Schoolhouse~
Eth-Noh-Tec’s storytelling workshop ”History is No Mystery” aims to empower participants to explore their personal and family historical narratives and transform them into captivating performance storytelling theater. Through a series of interactive activities, discussions, and creative exercises, participants will learn how to harness the power of storytelling to connect with their heritage, share their unique stories, and engage diverse audiences.
Tickets for the Workshop are sold separately HERE.
Local Teller- New Time!
This years Local Teller Showcase will be on Friday, June 28th from 5:15-5:45
Shirley Dickard
Shirley is a fourth generation Californian whose ancestors came to the Yuba watershed in 1850 in search of gold. In the 1970’s, Shirley and her husband Richard came to the Yuba River to build a self-sufficient homestead along with a small community of back-to-the-landers. In 2020, at the age of 74, she wrote her first novel Heart Wood – Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future, drawing from her background as a gardener, naturalist, local school nurse, writer, historian, community-builder, and editor of the community newspaper. She has learned that while agencies learn from studies, communities learn from stories. Heart Wood is her way of sharing our stories of idealism, struggle, and hope while living with the past, present, and future of the place we call home.
Heart Wood – Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future will be available for purchase at the festival.
Deep in the heart of an old oak writing desk is a legacy that mysteriously connects three family women across centuries and generations in their fight for the earth’s future: Eliza: Post Gold Rush in the Sacramento Valley, late 19th century; Harmony: Back-to-the-land homestead in the Sierra Nevada, late 20th century; Amisha: Dystopic San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada, late 21st century. Heart Wood speaks of the collective power of feminine energy, as the three women reach across time to listen to the silence, hold the earth in their hands, gather the women, then do what must be done.
Winner for Visionary Fiction: National India Excellence Awards
Finalist for Thought Provoking Books, Eric Hoffer Book Awards
Open Telling
Open Telling~ NEW TIME!
Sign up to tell your own story on the BIG STAGE at the new time: Saturday morning, June 29th~ 9:00-10:00 am.
Story Slam ~ 2024
The 2024 Story Slam theme is Course Correction!
From your personal life to the global situation- tell us a story of a big turn around and how it effected change… or not!
Got a story?… Take it to new levels at this years’ Festival!
Story slam is held in the Schoolhouse on Saturday- June 29th from 5:30-6:30 pm.
You as a slammer will enter the competition by dropping your name in a hat. Twelve names will be drawn.
You’ll have five minutes to tell the tale. Time your tale well. Points are lost if you pass the five minutes.
There will be a small team of judges, some professional storytellers, some not, made up of audience members.
Judges will make decisions based on these criteria: how well the story is told; how well the story is structured; how well the story explores, connects with, and/or reveals some truth about the theme; and how well the time limit is honored.
True stories are the medium here; poetry is discouraged unless it fits the criteria and tells a story. Folktales, myths or fables are discouraged unless, again, they are worked into the teller’s true story and fit the criteria. Copyright laws apply: Don’t use someone else’s work. Audience and judges expect real life adventures.
Props—including notes—are not to be used.
The winner is the lucky recipient of an All-Festival Pass to next year’s Sierra Storytelling Festival.
Story Slam
The 2023 Story Slam theme is HOT WATER!
Hot Water
Have you ever been in need of hot water? Or run out of it?
Have you ever been in hot water?
Or maybe you’ve been in a divine hot spring, AHHHHHH.
Got a story?… Take it to new levels at this years’ Festival!
Story slam is held in the Schoolhouse on Saturday- July 8th from 5:30-6:30 pm.
You as a slammer will enter the competition by dropping your name in a hat. Twelve names will be drawn.
You’ll have five minutes to tell the tale. Time your tale well. Points are lost if you pass the five minutes.
There will be a small team of judges, some professional storytellers, some not, made up of audience members.
Judges will make decisions based on these criteria: how well the story is told; how well the story is structured; how well the story explores, connects with, and/or reveals some truth about the theme; and how well the time limit is honored.
True stories are the medium here; poetry is discouraged unless it fits the criteria and tells a story. Folktales, myths or fables are discouraged unless, again, they are worked into the teller’s true story and fit the criteria. Copyright laws apply: Don’t use someone else’s work. Audience and judges expect real life adventures.
Props—including notes—are not to be used.
The winner is the lucky recipient of an All-Festival Pass to next year’s Sierra Storytelling Festival.
2023 Storytelling Workshop
Creative Spirit Workshop With Eldrena Douma
~ Friday July 7 th 1-4 pm in the Schoolhouse
In her workshop participants will construct a story that has never been told, written or read. Simple techniques and inexpensive tools/props will be provided. Using ones imagination for quick creative thinking will help develop a written story.
The goal of this training is to challenge the participants to think quickly and creatively in writing a basic story.
Eldrena Douma a former classroom teacher turned Professional Storyteller since 1991, is an educator that travels throughout the United States sharing stories, teaching and encouraging the use of imagination, creative thinking and writing.
2023 Festival
Open Telling
Back by popular demand!
Sign up to tell your own story in the Schoolhouse at the new time: Friday, July 7~ 5;30-6:0 pm.
Local Teller
Caleb Dardick
will tell local lore on Saturday morning- 9:30-10:00 am
Saturday, July 9th, 2022
Story Slam
The Story Slam
will be back on
Saturday, July 9 at 5:30 pm in the Schoolhouse.
This years theme is: COURAGE!
5 min. per story
The Sierra Storytelling Festival will hold the hugely popular Story Slam once more this year. It’s your chance to regale the crowd and compete in the art of storytelling for a prize, by telling your own true story that’s in accord with our Slam Theme. It’s a contest of words by talent both known and undiscovered, and anyone over age 18 can tell.
You as a slammer will enter the competition by dropping your name in a hat. Twelve names will be drawn.
You’ll have five minutes to tell the tale. Time your tale well. Points are lost if you pass the five minutes.
There will be a small team of judges, some professional storytellers, some not, made up of audience members.
Judges will make decisions based on these criteria: how well the story is told; how well the story is structured; how well the story explores, connects with, and/or reveals some truth about the theme; and how well the time limit is honored.
True stories are the medium here; poetry is discouraged unless it fits the criteria and tells a story. Folktales, myths or fables are discouraged unless, again, they are worked into the teller’s true story and fit the criteria. Copyright laws apply: Don’t use someone else’s work. Audience and judges expect real life adventures.
Props—including notes—are not to be used.
The winner is the lucky recipient of an All-Festival Pass to next year’s Sierra Storytelling Festival.
