Stories Connect Us All

Today I would like to bring you a wonderful little gift from the world of storytelling: Let me tell you about the Stories Connect Us All project and Online Storytelling Festival!

The Fairy Godmother of the whole thing is Chicago storyteller Susan O'Halloran. She has been working with stories of diversity and cultural pluralism for a long time, and she poured her wonderful heart and soul into the project. What Stories Connect Us All is about is simple: Susan gathers storytellers who have something to say, she records them telling their tales to the camera, and then she makes the stories available. To everyone. To you. Free of charge. This wonderful collection of some of the best storytellers near and far exists for a very, very important purpose:

To tell us about diversity.

All the stories are personal stories (although a lot of them also have to do with larger events in history). Storytellers talk about their own experiences with culture, ethnicity, diversity, race, and prejudice in the USA. Many storytellers come from many different backgrounds, and their tales make a mosaic of story that reflects the amazing diversity of the USA, and the diversity that surrounds us everywhere we go in the world.
During the storytelling festival, a new video is posted online every hour, and they are made available for comments and discussion on Facebook as well.

You know what else is great about this? The videos are all online, all the time, and they make wonderful teaching tools! I use them myself quite often in my Cultural Pluralism class. Whether we are discussing civil rights, First Nations history, inter-cultural relationships, or cultural holidays, there is always something useful to find in the project. Students respond very well to stories, especially if they are personal stories from people with first hand experience.
In order to make the teaching experience even better, they also come with a great website that includes tons of information, classroom activities, teaching materials, and of course, stories.

At the start of the school year, I wanted to put this information here in case the teachers and educators among you are looking for new tales to bring to the classroom!

You can find Csenge (@TarkabarkaHolgy) at
The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in Storytelling
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians

National Literacy Month and Happy Labor Day

Co-creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Xmen, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four and Honorary Chair of Library Card Sign-up Month Stan Lee.

September is National Literacy Month and Library Card Sign-Up Month. And as a writer I'm interested in raising awareness about this issue. After all, I write books, and what's the use of doing that if people can't read them? Here are some stats that I discovered when doing research for my latest novel in which my main character is barely literate.

• A 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) revealed that 90 million Americans read at basic and below basic levels. READ MORE
• The anual U.S. cost for low literacy is mind boggling: 80 billion in lost worker productivity, 225 billion lost to unemployment benefits, lost taxes and crime. Literacy Partners 
• L.A. county, population 7,000+ has 33% of its people who are lacking basic literacy Visalia Times READ MORE
• 2 million New York City residents are functionally illiterate (25%) READ MORE .
• 32 million (14%) of U.S. adults can't read and 774 million people worldwide can't read. READ MORE

If any A to Zers are interested in joining the cause here's the LINK to my post about Writers Supporting Literacy. 

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And now LABOR DAY!

Labor Day has been with us for 132 years. The U.S. celebrated the first one on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. Then in 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday.

Over the years, it's had it's poster girl and other spirited patriotic images to communicate the U.S. Can Do spirit.

Here's the famous Rosie The Riveter that was popular WWII. 

AN ICON OF AMERICAN LABOR, 1942

NORMAN ROCKWELL'S SATURDAY EVENING POST ROSIE, 1943

Have a safe, wonderful, restful LABOR DAY! 

#atozchallenge #roadtrip #lifeisgood - Road Trip Detour

A slight detour on today's Road Trip post.

I'm sure you've seen the news by now, that we have lost a very influential and inspiring woman from the blogging world, Tina Downey.

Tina and Nicole Ayers were kind enough to ask Stormy the Weather Gnome and I to join them in the Post A-to-Z Road Trip this year.

I was truly flattered and honored that they asked. Tina was very supportive and understanding when the newbie and her gnome asked the dumb questions.

I'll never forget her funny emails, her always relevant movie quotes, and just her general positive attitude, even when things weren't going well for her.

The Road Trip won't be the same without her.

Check out this POST to find out about the Sunflower for Tina tribute taking place soon.