Storytelling as a Gift
a workshop with Kate Farrell and Sherry Richert Belul

This event is IN-PERSON and produced in partnership with the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Masks are recommended but not required.

Throughout history, one of the ways that has always helped people connect to one another and to our humanity is storytelling. Stories can help us preserve history or shared memories. Stories can ignite our emotions and help us heal. Stories can even be a powerful tool to express our love! Two Mango Publishing authors, Kate Farrell and Sherry Richert Belul, are teaming up to present a workshop experience for participants to learn about how to be better at storytelling — AND to use our stories about people we love as actual gifts we present to them!

During this workshop, both Kate and Sherry will lead participants through prompts and questions to help them easily and joyfully create a Story Love List for someone in their life. (A Love List is a brainstorm of all the specific reasons you love someone and what makes them unique. It is what you appreciate. This list can be sweet, funny, sexy, or serious.) Participants will also be taught the process for crafting one loving memory into a personal narrative that can be shared on video, via audio, as a toast, or in written form.

In this session you will learn:

• Why it is essential to be someone who nurtures and elevates relationships by creating memorable and meaningful moments

• The role storytelling plays in creating and deepening connection between people

• How to create a Love List gift by recalling memories of someone you love using prompts and questions

• How to use a storyboard to create a story narrative from one of your Love List memories

• Practice telling your story in groups of two or three as active listeners

• How to ground yourself in an experience and shape it so you can communicate it in a memorable way through inner focus and intention

• How to present your Love List and your Story Gift in ways that are unique to you

• How to brainstorm other ways to present living, loving, meaningful stories to people you love for entertainment, connection, and deeper joy

What you will take away from this session:

You will leave this workshop with a Love List gift and a well-crafted Story Gift. As well, you will have learned the practice of crafting a personal story that expresses your love and appreciation for someone — a skill you can use over and over again to create more loving and creative gifts.

The authors will have books for sale and signing after the event.

Kate Farrell, storyteller, author, librarian, founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s & 70s, and Cry of the Nightbird: Writers Against Domestic Violence. Farrell’s award-winning new book, is a timely, how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate offers virtual workshops for libraries and writing groups, as well as performing virtually as a storyteller. https://katefarrell.net/

Sherry Richert Belul, founder of Simply Celebrate, helps people find creative, intentional and impactful ways to celebrate life and to express love for family and friends. As a certified high performance coach, Sherry supports people in living their best lives, full of joy, success, engagement, and meaningful relationships. She is the author of Say it Now: 33 Creative Ways to Say I Love You to the Most Important People in Your Life. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Town + Country, and The Wall Street Journal. https://simplycelebrate.net/

Please email Taryn Edwards if you have any questions. [email protected]