On or around March 20 each year, events occur worldwide with the inherent theme, IF I CAN HEAR YOUR STORY, IT'S HARDER FOR ME TO HATE YOU. The 2019 global theme is “legends, myths, and epics.”
LEGENDS, MYTHS, AND EPICS OF COMING HOME FROM WAR, this year's World Storytelling Day, is March 20, 2019, 6-9 p.m. at Landmark Center, www.landmarkcenter.org, by Rice Park in St. Paul.
Larry Johnson, Carol McCormick, and Elaine Wynne, all on the program, are members of Story Arts MN. Mark Wagler, of Madison, though absent for some time from organized storytelling circles, is the person most responsible for getting Northlands Storytelling Network going.
The evening is cosponsored by the Landmark Center and the Veteran Resilience Project, and stories reflect the epic struggle of veterans to come home whole in mind and body. Odysseus took 10 arduous years coming back from the Trojan War. Psychiatrist Jonathan Shay documents war trauma journeys in Achilles in Vietnam. Veteran legends like Jesse Owens and Hugh Thompson are rivaled only by the epic courage of recent women veterans daring to stand up to the travesty of military sexual assault. All this and more on March 20.
We expect at least one celebrity guest, but confirmed tellers include: Veteran couple Hector and Trista Matascastillo. Hector is an EMDR therapist, and Trista a Ramsey County Commissioner. Also Elaine Wynne, Founder of Veteran Resilience Project, and Derek Anders-Turner of U.S. Bank, a National Guard combat engineer and member of National Black Police Assn. Also telling are Carol McCormick, a veteran spouse and board member of Story Arts MN, and Mark Wagler, Legendary Founder of Northlands Storytelling Network, and an Amish Mennonite C.O. during the War in Vietnam.
This event is free, but listeners are invited to make a donation at the door, or at www.resiliencemn.org, for the mission of the Veteran Resilience Project to make EMDR trauma therapy available to all veterans. For more information, or to reserve a seat, contact Larry Johnson, Storyteller/Past President of VFP/Advisory to VRP at larryjvfp@gmail.com. The evening also includes tabling by veteran support groups.