Centrum is pleased to announce a new Oral Storytelling Workshop November 15-18, 2018, that brings you together with two master artists, Donna Washington and Naomi Baltuck, in a long weekend focused on the oral tradition of storytelling.
This is a generative workshop appropriate for anyone who wants to explore the oral craft of storytelling, regardless of level of experience. In addition, the quiet beauty and relaxation of November at Fort Worden State Park add to the richness of this course and community experience. The weekend retreat features three hours of study with both Donna and three hours with Naomi, as well as the opportunity to hone your voice through a celebratory (and optional) participant performance.
Faculty
Master storyteller Donna Washington graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Speech in 1989. Since then she has traveled across the world performing as a storyteller and presenting workshops about the inextricable link between storytelling and literacy. She has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN as well as hundreds of festivals across the country. She has performed in thousands of schools and libraries, and keynotes conferences about the importance of storytelling and early literacy, using hospice stories for healing and closure, and employing storytelling as an educational tool in the classroom.
Donna’s nine storytelling CDs have garnered twenty-six awards, including Golden and Silver Parent’s Choice awards, Storytelling World and Honor Awards, Children’s Music Web Awards, and National Parenting Publication Awards. She has authored numerous articles about using storytelling in both performance and in the classroom
Washington writes a popular storytelling blog called Language, Literacy and Storytelling, and contributes pieces to other blog sites as well. Donna is also a member of the editorial committee for the National Association of Black Storytellers, and has served as president of the North Carolina Storytelling Guild.
Naomi Baltuck grew up in Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English Literature. After college she packed her diploma into the saddlebag of her bicycle and headed west to seek her fortune. In Seattle, she worked as a teacher, performing dancer, and puppeteer. In 1985, she left the classroom to become a full-time storyteller. She served for fifteen years as president of the Seattle Storytellers Guild and is a recipient of the Seattle Storytellers Guild Golden Circle Award.
Naomi has taught storytelling at the University of Washington’s Experimental College and at Seattle Pacific University, toured with the Washington State Arts Commission’s Cultural Enrichment Program, and was a Washington State Artist-in-Residence. In 1985, she won Seattle and West Coast Storytelling Competitions co-sponsored by General Mills and the American Library Association. She has been featured at young authors’ conferences, storytelling and folk festivals, medieval fairs, schools, libraries, bookstores, and museums.
Naomi’s collection, Apples From Heaven: Multicultural Folk Tales About Stories and Storytellers, was awarded the Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice and three Storytelling World Awards. She is also the author of Storytime Stretchers and Crazy Gibberish and Other Story Hour Stretches, with a companion recording that earned a Parents’™ Choice Gold Award. Her first novel, The Keeper of the Crystal Spring (Viking Penguin), was a Doubleday Book of the Month Club selection.
In her writing, telling and teaching, Naomi celebrates the powerful connections to our past, to our future, and to each other, created through the simple act of sharing a story.