Storyloom: Collaboration— a storyteller's summit

Grounded Futures Presents: Storyloom: Collaboration — a storyteller's summit

Please note: this is an intergenerational space — kids are welcome and we will have a few folks hosting a creative play space for young kids too. When you register, please let us know if kids will be joining you — so we can plan for food! (you don't need to get another ticket for the kiddos).

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focus/theme: Collaboration

What is it?

A one day summit for storytellers to come together to create, co-learn, cross-pollinate our dreams and knowings, and weave our stories together.

On Collaborative Storytelling

The day is an offering of facilitated workshops and creative stations for folks to create a character* (not necessarily human) and then we will work in smaller groups to weave a story together! We will spend the last hour of the day braiding what we have created together.

*what a character is and can be is up to you! It can be self identified as an OC from your favourite anime/manga, etc, or an inanimate object, or an otherworldly being, etc!

The flow of the day:

10-3:45 (doors open at 9:30)

Folks are free to take breaks whenever they want to!

-9:30: doors open

-10 -10:15: open, ground, introduce the stations

-10:15 - 10:30: carla’s introduction to worlding and a prompt garden offering

-10:30-12:00: Open stations (see below)

-12:1230: Movement Jams (optional, you can also continue to work in other stations)

-12-30- 2: Making food together (the making it part is not mandatory!) + eating in our smaller groups where we start to build our stories

-2-2:30: Open Stations

-2:30:3:30: weaving it all together

-3:30-3:45:-Transition Grounding & Clean Up & Goodbyes (for now!)

Who is it for?

• Anyone who creates stories!
• We welcome all artists/storytellers no matter the medium or form or technique, these can include but are not limited to: words, visual arts, textile arts, sound arts, and everything in between!
• Whether you’re emerging or professional, or somewhere else on the continuum you are welcome!
• We encourage all ages to participate
• We honour our difference in learning and creating, whether it’s through “solo”, collaborative, or parallel creation, or a mix of them all, we welcome it! However, we are doing some breakout small group work to honour our theme of collaboration.
• No one is expected to share with or talk to the entire group!

At the Storyloom Summit we want to deepen what storytelling is and can be, while also expanding on the who and the what creates story! To us, a central purpose of art is to tell stories.

Workshops:

Grounding KINetic Jams with Jamie-Leigh

We will begin the day with a brief introduction and a short embodiment practice, inviting participants to move or sit with their bodies. Where we all will learn a few tools for the day, and beyond, to tune into our bodies and practice storytelling from a place of embodiment.

Throughout the day, participants can join in some other spontaneous or planned movement moments. You can also choose to participate by sitting or laying down and connecting to the movement that is happening within your body at all times. KINetic Jams throughout the day will explore how we can be in collaboration with our own body — embracing an embodied way of storytelling.

Worlding prompt-garden with carla joy bergman

Before we begin creating, carla will facilitate a short workshop on what worlding is and provide guidance to approach writing characters for unmaking and making worlds. Specifically, carla will offer writing prompts!

Throughout the day carla will be present for ongoing support, so we can ward off speaking in Empire as we dive deep into listening to our inner selves to hear what stories are waiting to be discovered!

Making Food Together

carla will facilitate a make food together time! We will gather at the cooking station where we will collaborate on preparing a delicious meal! We will decide together what to make. We will provide all the prepared ingredients — pre-washed or cooked, but not cut — for participants to chop, blend, and mix as we work together to feed each other. Many of us have stories that we hold dear that are connected to food — this station is a place to explore and share those stories while creating nourishing meals. If making food is not your thing, that's ok! You don't have to do this part!

Food will be plant based and gluten free, and if you have any allergies, such as nuts, etc, please let us know beforehand.

Weaving it All Together

Part 1: during lunch we will gather into smaller groups! Everyone will be given a group number at the start of the day. During lunch you will join with that group and begin to talk about your characters with each other, and how they might fit into a story together (or worlds).

Part 2: For the final hour of the day, we will bring everything together! This is when we can share our individual and smaller group character(s)/worlds/experience that we played with and created throughout the day. Together, we will reflect on what we’ve shared with each other, and what characters have emerged throughout the day. Through prompts, discussion and collaboration, we will introduce our characters to each other on the page, and actually begin to weave some of our stories together. This final collaborative workshop will be a space for connection, integration, and celebration of our stories!

Open/Drop in Stations

Analog Love Station

This station is where participants bring their characters to life through drawing and writing. Explore the tactile experience of working with typewriters, cutting and pasting, drawing, making small zines, collaborating on an exquisite corpse character, or taking photos — allowing your character to materialize in front of you. This open station will include prompts, ideas, and inspiration for us to explore our characters through analog creativity.

Metamorphosis — face painting with Coulee Ross

Transform into a character through the artistry of face painting! This station offers a chance for us to witness each other in metamorphosis. Explore motifs, themes, or colours that may embody your character, or quite literally dawn the face of your character with the help of our face painting artist, Coulee Ross. Or — pick a design that is just for fun! There will be blank masks to work on as well.

Coulee will also be doing face painting for the kiddos in the space!

Expressing your Character with Madelyn Osborne

Using practices from acting and performance art, Madelyn Osborne will host a drop-in station where folks can explore a physiological embodiment of their character. This station will use tools like improvisation, movement, and vocal exploration to bring our characters to life!

Playzone (Kidzone)

We are creating an intergenerational space for all ages! So, with that we won’t have the typical dedicated childcare space where kids are dropped off and then picked up at the end. Instead, kids will be welcome and invited to participate throughout the day's activities. However, we know that not all younger folks thrive engaging in this way, so there will be a dedicated kidzone within the space with lots of fun activities and a few adults around to engage the kiddos as much as possible! The kidzone is a dynamic area that fosters creativity and community for all ages — adults are encouraged to go play too! Please note this kid space is located in the same space.

On the theme:

Focusing on collaboration acknowledges the notion that we are always co-creating with each other — including with our more-than-human kin and ancestors — because nothing is done in silo, we are always in communion, translating our worlds with and for each other.

When we co-create and co-learn in person, we are engaging in sharing our experiences, concepts, and ideas, and then supporting each other to transform these into pictures, objects, sounds, or words. When we tell stories together with our various crafts, we are communicating meaning as we compose new worlds — animating our abstractions while creating magic and beauty.

AND having fun!

To us, this is what translating our worlds into story can look like — deepening into collaboration we ground our storytelling practice in imagining grounded futures, where both radical story and emerging knowledges begin to bloom in unforeseen and beautiful ways.

Read more about storyloom here

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Venue Info and Accessibility:

• venue and washrooms are wheelchair accessible
• washrooms are gender neutral

More info to come about parking and bus routes etc. — and please feel free to reach out if there is anything we can do to better support your participation at the event!

• A gluten-free, vegetarian lunch will be provided, but if you have any further dietary needs, please reach out and let us know.
• A creative play space for young kids.
• different kinds of sitting options (we will work to get some comfortable seating)
• some quiet spaces (with lower lighting, etc).

A note on Access:

We aim to approach our work through a mind-body disability justice lens, and we are committed to keep learning with each other about all the ways we can support one another in deeper ways.

We also recognize that access is always changing, emergent, and will be informed by who is attending Storyloom!

We are working on securing some funds to cover bus tickets and other travel costs for participants, and will update when we know.

please send us any and all of your access needs!

A note on masks:

We will have masks available but they are not mandatory at this time.

Collaborator Bios:

carla joy bergman (she/they)

carla is a transdisciplinary artist, consultant, and writer who collaborates with humans and more than human friends, co-learning, creating stories, and making media. She co-wrote Joyful Militancy and edited Trust Kids! and Radiant Voices. www.joyfulcarla.com

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales / jams (she/her)

jams is an artist and mother who roots her work in storytelling and collaboration. As a writer, filmmaker, photographer, and podcaster, she has been exploring how to use the tools of technology to tell stories for over a decade. She is a mentor and mentee across many disciplines, but most notably is learning from her 4 year old on how to be a rad human.

Coulee Ross
Coulee is an artist of many disciplines; including poetry, singing, and performance art, with years of experience as an Arts and Cultural Educator. Early in her career, she focused on using human transformations as a conduit for cultural activism and education through body painting in contemporary and public settings.

Storytelling is at the heart of her work today, recently creating and producing an original podcast series titled “Something Else” which explores the medium through an Indigenous futurism lens.

Madelyn Osborne (She/Her/Hers)

Madelyn Osborne is a theatre creator and mover with a focus on community building. She is a graduate of the Douglas College Theatre Program and received an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Acting from the University of Wales. She wholeheartedly believes that connection to the body is essential in understanding ourselves, our stories and more about the world around us.