Home-Fried Tales by Lyn

Lyn's programs often include interactive moments for the whole audience; listeners experience call and response, rhythm and rhyme, humor and heart from the oral traditions of a fourth-generation story-artist.
 

A sample menu of Lyn's "Home-Fried Tales":

 
"Janie, Jack, and Other Bobos" - Multicultural "noodlehead" stories of wise fools and foolish heroes, characters who need to learn a lot as they seek their own "happily ever after" moments.

"Let's Throw Stories" - Call and response, rhythm and rhyme, folk tales and legends rooted in the storytelling traditions of the African diaspora.  An interactive program for all ages.
 
"Rabbit Tales Retold" - Adaptations of African American and First Nations trickster tales from Lyn's father and other family elders, shared with humor, heart, and a little history.  A program favored by all ages.
 
"Spookers & Haints" - from gentle spookers to spine-tinglers, Lyn shares silly, creepy,  and hauntingly created tales, written or adapted with your listeners in mind.
 
"Stewpot Stories from Around the World" - A hodgepodge of tales from many places and many faces.  Interactive, informative, and fun for all ages.
 

A few of Lyn's play shops (interactive workshops) for storytellers, educators, and other mentors:

 
Tell It:  Developing Language Arts Skills Through Interactive Wordplay and Storytelling Experiences - The art form offered as:  a model for improving audience behaviors, a way of nurturing communication, story comprehension, pre-writing, and writing skills, and a tool for developing interest in research, editing, and presenting the narrative format as oral, visual, and/or literary productions.  An experiential session created to help teachers guide students in grades K - 2 toward benchmarks of academic content standards.
 
Heartworks:  Encouraging Personal Story Through Games and Crafts - Story-sharing initiated through tactile-kinesthetic and visual art experiences, as a tool for expression by those who may feel that ways to communicate personal story are limiting and limited.  Simple activities to help reluctant speakers share personal narratives in creative, positive ways.  A craft-making, interactive workshop, adaptable for mentors as well as students in grades 3 - 12.
 
First, You Jump:  Skill-Builders for The Novice Storyteller - The basic elements of story-sharing, and the tools of the teller, noted and nurtured through interactive exercises and personal writing experiences.  For young people in grades 5 - 12, and adults who are honing their storytelling skills.
 

Lyn's latest cds, publications, and other good stuff:

 
"When the Gourd Broke:  Common Sense Stories" - Lyn's latest cd.  A collection of tales from African story-sharing traditions; each one offers a gift of "small wisdom" to those who listen.
 
"Papa God's Gift:  African American Creation Tales" - How-and-why stories adapted from Lyn's collection of family folktales.
 
A taste of Lyn's work is also available in two 2006 publications:
     "The Tortoise and the Hare" in The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum, edited by Sherry Norfolk, Jane Stenson, and Diane Williams.  2006, Libraries Unlimited.  ISBN: 1-59158-305-5
     "Big Fish" in Sayin' Somethin': Stories from the National Association of Black Storytellers, edited by Linda Goss, Dylan Pritchett and Caroliese Frink Reed.  2006, National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc.  ISBN:  0-9779366-1-9
 
For more information, contact Lyn: Lyn Ford, P.O. Box 737, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-0737 or friedtales@aol.com