Stories and oral storytelling remain an integral part of our modern lives, and they continue to shape our relationships with family, community and language. Steven brings a wry perspective to his passionate belief that our informal, everyday storytelling can bridge generations, strengthen families and communities, and wrap us in the joy of language.

 

Steven draws from his broad experience with his own family’s

traditional storytelling as well as from his work in the theater and

as a folklorist to examine and share how storytelling fits into our everyday lives.

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One keynote, Stories and Joy, charts in story and observation how his family’s storytelling inextricably connected the wonderful shared memories that shaped his sense of family and community with an appreciation of the language that the storytellers in his family used to explore and share and play with life. The oral literacy that grew in this informal setting provided a firm foundation for his developing literacy in reading and writing.

 

Steven’s belief in the power of storytelling can shape a warm, often funny, and incisive keynote for your community or organization.