March 31 is the new deadline for scholarship applications to attend the Northlands Storytelling Network 2018 Confabulation in Madison, WI in April. The scholarship is earmarked for new tellers from Minnesota. Click here for information on applying.
SAM Annual Meeting & Open Mic - March 21
SAM Annual Meeting and Discussion:
March 21, 7-9pm at the Strike Theater
824 18th Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55418
The annual meeting is just around the corner and you are invited. What a great time to renew old friendships and join the discussion of where SAM is heading from here. There will be food, frivolity and, of course, stories. After the short business meeting, we will be hosting an open mic for anyone who would like to share a 5-7 minute story.
Call for storytellers for Festival of Nations
Again this year, Story Arts of MN will sponsor the Storytelling Stage at the Festival of Nations on May 3-6, 2018 in St. Paul.
Carol McCormick is booking tellers for 30 minute slots sharing stories from their Ethnic Heritage. If you are interested in telling at the FON, please email Carol at mccobuch@comcast.net with your name, email, mailing address, phone #, available dates and times, and what nation(s) from your family tree that you could represent. Also include if you have stories for family and/or adult audiences.
Available times and audiences are:
Thursday May 3
10 am to 2 pm School Age
Friday May 4
10 am to 3 pm School Age
6:00 to 7:00 pm General Public
8 to 9 pm Storytelling Concert (3 tellers)
Saturday May 5
10 am to 5 pm General Public
8:30 to 9:30 Ghost Story Concert (3 tellers)
Sunday May 6
Noon to 5:00 pm General Public
Tellers will receive some free passes to the FON and be paid according to the funds available. (If you're aware of a foundation or nonprofit that might like to support the Storytelling Stage, please let Carol know.)
Call for stories for new digital publication, Midblessed: Stories from the Heartland
Michael Matthews, the Content Curator for a new online journal focused on life in America’s central states, recently contacted Story Arts of MN soliciting stories for the inaugural issue. Michael wrote, "Located at the crossroads of belonging and discovery, Midblessed is a story collective celebrating the spirit of America’s heartland. We trace the threads of Midwestern heritage--generosity, industry, and authenticity--across the patchwork of our native experience." For more information about this venture and how to submit a story, contact Michael at Michael.Matthews@midblessed.com.
Duke Addicks Scholarship Northlands Confabulation! 2018
Duke Addicks Scholarship
Northlands Confabulation! 2018
The Duke Addicks Scholarship has been set up to honor the memory of Mentor Duke Addicks, a storyteller well known for his ghost stories, stories from his native heritage, and of Minnesota characters such as Pigs Eye Perrant. He believed stories are powerful and can transform lives and communities. The Duke Addicks Scholarship is intended to assist new storytellers from Minnesota, with a financial need, to pursue their interest in storytelling.
EXTENDED APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 31, 2018.
Please provide the following information by email to storyartsmn@gmail.com with SCHOLARSHIP in the subject line. Please submit the application by March 31, 2018.
Scholarship funds include conference fee (not including the Friday master class). Meals and Northlands membership are included.
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
Employment and/or Student Status:
Birth Year:
1. How did you hear about the Duke Addick’s Memorial Scholarship?
2. Why are you interested in attending the Northlands Storytelling Conference?
3. Describe your experience with storytelling and/or story listening.
4. What do you think you will do with storytelling in your life?
5. Describe in general terms your need for financial assistance?
Information about Northlands and the 2018 Confabulation:
http://northlands.net/
Download Addicks Scholarship information:
http://northlands.net/wp-content/uploads/Duke-Addicks-Memorial-Scholarship-2018.pdf
Read about Duke Addicks' life and work:
https://www.storyartsmn.org/news/2016/12/30/story-arts-remembers-duke-addicks-1
Santa Enchants Children at P.J. Stories
Santa Claus was the featured storyteller at P.J. Stories in December. He's shown here with emcee (and SAM president) Pam Schweitzer and two audience members, after the jolly old elf shared a wealth of Christmas lore with eager listeners.
P.J. Stories takes place on the 3rd or 4th Monday of the month, 6:30-7:30pm, at the Underground Music Cafe in St. Paul. Check the SAM calendar for dates. Different storytellers are featured each month. The event is free for kids and families, although tips are appreciated. Please join us!
Call for Storytellers at Festival of Nations
Carol McCormick presents $1,000.00 check to SAM Treasurer Leif Wallin. Carol applied for and received this grant money from Northlands Storytelling Network to help fund the Storytelling Stage at the Festival of Nations (FON) on May 3-6, 2018 in St. Paul.
Carol will be booking tellers for 30 minute slots sharing stories from their Ethnic Heritage. This year Carol is hoping to pair novice tellers with only 10 or 15 minutes of material with experienced tellers. If you are interested in telling at the FON, please email Carol at mccobuch@comcast.net with your name, email, mailing address, phone #, available dates and times, and what nation(s) from your family tree that you could represent. Also include if you have stories for family and/or adult audiences and if you can fill 30 minutes or less. Last year in addition to individual teller slots we had a Friday Night Adult Concert, a Saturday Morning Family Concert and a Saturday Night Ghost Story Concert. Tellers will receive some free passes to the FON and be paid according to the funds available. Please let Carol know if you have a foundation or nonprofit to recommend that Carol could apply to for funding this venue.
Festival of Nations Storytelling Stage hours:
Thursday May 3 School Groups only from 10 am to 3 pm
Friday May 4 School Groups 10 am to 3 pm; General Public 3 pm to 9 pm
Saturday May 5 General Public 10 am to 9 pm
Sunday May 6 General Public 10 am to 6 pm
SAM Meet-and-Greet Brought Together Old and New Friends
November 14, 2017:
SAM members gathered at The Lynhall for conversation and conviviality. Watch for more social get-togethers in coming months!
Message from the SAM Board President - November 2017
Hello SAM Members and Stakeholders,
Brrr… it is hard to believe the spooks and goblins just visited and we are quickly on our way to the winter holidays. The SAM board is working hard and I am writing to highlight a few things that are happening in the SAM community. As SAM president, I will be sending out bi-monthly membership letters. If you have something that you would like highlighted or know of a member doing interesting storytelling related activities please let us know so we can give that person a shout out to the community.
Story Connections: SAM Meet and Greet
November 14th, 7:30- 9:30, Lynnhall, 2640 Lyndale Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55408.
You asked for ways to get to know fellow storytellers better, so we are committed to organizing quarterly social events. Our first will be at The Lynnhall, 2640 Lyndale Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55408. Please stop in for as long as you can. Lynnhall has food and drink available for purchase.
Member Focus:
Dorothy Cleveland’s Wonderful New Adventure
After 40 years of working in administration, Dorothy Cleveland was looking for an opportunity that would allow her to work part-time, set her own schedule, work in her pajamas, and, best case scenario, include storytelling. She got her wish when she was hired to take on the job of Administrator/ Conference Coordinator for the Northlands Storytelling Network. Her new job will allow her to combine her love of spreadsheets with her passion for stories. Dorothy started September first, and is thankful for a year long transition period where Karen Wollscheid will coach her through all the many demands of managing membership, serving the board, maintaining the website, and coordinating the popular Northlands Conference. She asks for patience as she learns the timing of different tasks and becomes comfortable with conference details. Dorothy is excited to be taking on this new position and looks forward to seeing you all at the April 27-29, Confabulation! 2018 conference being held in Madison, Wisconsin at the Pyle Center.
Not one to sit still during retirement, Dorothy has also just published a new book with Barbara G. Schutzgruber called Beyond the Sword Maiden: A Storyteller’s Introduction to the Heroine’s Journey. This project started years ago as a thesis for a master's program. As they developed the book Dorothy and Barbara held workshops across the United States to identify questions people had about the heroine’s journey and what readers and storytellers needed from a book. Beyond the Sword Maiden is a working manual with outlines and examples storytellers can use when writing and telling stories of the heroine’s journey. Dorothy will be having a book signing party later this year or early 2018. Books are available for pre-order right now. For more information www.beyondswordmaiden.com
(We have a very diverse membership, all doing exciting things. If you would like to be highlighted or think another member should be highlighted, please bring them to my attention. I plan to highlight a different member each letter.)
How Can You Help?
1. Member Bios on the website: Regarding the website, we're already working on expanding the directory of storytellers (the "Hire a Storyteller" page) and making the calendar a comprehensive guide to upcoming storytelling programs, classes, workshops, and more. Please submit content for profiles and/or calendar entries directly to Sue Searing (suesearing@gmail.com) or Taylor Dobson (taylor.dobson@gmail.com) or use the form on the website (https://www.storyartsmn.org/new-page/).
2. Serve on the Board: We are currently looking for members who are interested in serving on the board. If you would like to put your name in for consideration please contact Khary Jackson at shazzalives@gmail.com.
3. A new Website and Social Media Committee is being formed to run down the list of recommendations from the membership and implement them. If you have some skills with social media or websites we can use you. The commitment can vary depending upon your interests and availability.
4. Social Events Committee
Do you enjoy organizing social events? Have a great place for people to gather? We would like to hold 4 social events in 2017-2018 for SAM members to meet and greet and draw support from one another.
If you are interested in helping with either of these two committees, please contact Pam Schweitzer at pls2009@live.com .
The board has set a goal of having 50% of non board members help make SAM run and operate. Many of the ideas that came out of the listening sessions were outstanding and with your energy and skills we will be able to make many of them happen.
Yours in Story,
Pam Schweitzer
SAM President
pls2009@live.com
651-724-4723
Message from the SAM board president - September 2017
Hello SAM Members and Stakeholders,
I hope you had a terrific summer and took the time to take in some of the excellent storytelling during the Fringe or at other venues. We finished up our Listening sessions in June and they generated a lot of great ideas. The top ideas include hosting social events which allow the membership opportunities to meet and get to know each other. Another suggestion that surfaced again and again was to beef up our website by adding more content, and by making it more user friendly for both SAM members and the public.
As we head into the Fall, the board will be focusing on making your top priorities in the listening sessions a reality for SAM, but we are a membership run organization, and really need your help.
How Can You Help?
1. Member Bios on the website: Regarding the website, we're already working on expanding the directory of storytellers (the "Hire a Storyteller" page) and making the calendar a comprehensive guide to upcoming storytelling programs, classes, workshops, and more. Please submit content for profiles and/or calendar entries directly to Sue Searing (suesearing@gmail.com) or Taylor Dobson (taylor.dobson@gmail.com) or use the form on the website (https://www.storyartsmn.org/new-page/.
2. A new Website and Social Media Committee is being formed to run down the list of recommendations from the membership and implement them. If you have some skills with social media or websites we can use you. The commitment can vary depending upon your interests and availability.
3. Social Events Committee
Do you enjoy organizing social events? Have a great place for people to gather? We would like to hold 4 social events for SAM members to meet and greet and draw support from one another.
If you are interested in helping with either of these two committees, please contact Pam Schweitzer at pls2009@live.com .
The board has set a goal of having 50% of non board members help make SAM run and operate. Many of the ideas that came out of the listening sessions were outstanding and with your energy and skills we will be able to make many of them happen.
Yours in Story,
Pam Schweitzer
SAM President
Story Arts Remembers Michael Cotter
Michael Cotter died on July 31 at his home in Austin, Minnesota. He was 86. Michael was a third-generation Minnesotan farmer who wrote and told stories from his own life, and who helped others discover the healing power of storytelling.
Story Arts board member Loren Niemi shared these thoughts on Michael's passing :
Today is Michael Cotter's funeral. I've known him the entire length of his performing career from his first story in a Goia Tinmpanelli workshop at the 1979 Mythos conference to his first time going to the Mineral Point Festival before it was the Northlands Conference. I drove with him for his first time at the Jonesborough Festival and heard him the first time he told at that festival soon after.
There is a story about the second time I drove to Jonesborough with Michael with Carol McCormick and Maren Hinderlie, as well. It was the year of the "Bessie Hyde" story - a story in which a new bride has a bad feeling about a journey and a husband who will not listen resulting in their death. I don't remember who told it. What I do remember is that on the way back from the Festival we got into a conversation about the story and its "feminist" interpretations. Maren was at the wheel. Michael was sitting in the back seat, his eyes getting steadily bigger as a silent Maren drove faster - 70, 75, 80 miles an hour - as each comment was made, until finally Michael said as politely as a panicked man could, "Maren, say something or stop the car..."
At every turn his style remained an easy almost offhanded telling of stories where the introduction was often longer than the story but always lead directly to the tale. The content was his life and farming as it was and as it changed over the years. The story of the Killdeer, the trading of horses, or the wanting to be a hero with a front end loader.
He did Two Chairs Telling four times (twice at the jungle Theater, once at Open Eye, once at Bryant Lake Bowl) including a pairing with Colleen Kruse when she made her first appearance. I remeber that he was so in awe of her, so flirtatious and yet so protective all at the same time. Always charming, always willing to laugh at himself, he enjoyed telling and the audience he was telling to.
The last time he did Two Chairs Telling we were talking before the show and he offhandedly began a anecdote about a mistake he made harvesting corn while driving in a computer controlled cab. Ed Jones, who would be in the other chair said, you should tell that when we're on stage. And sure enough, Michael did tell the story again, polishing and tweaking it as he went to make it both funnier and more human in the telling.
His passing at 86 is a real loss. In an era of genuflection at the altar of the Slam, we don't make storytellers like Michael Cotter anymore.
Michael's storytelling accomplishments are highlighted in his obituary in the Austin Daily Herald:
In the 1850s, his pipe-smoking great-grandmother brought her family to America from Ireland’s potato famine and, in 1875, his grandfather broke the Southern Minnesota prairie sod with a team of oxen. Michael began sharing this legacy when, at 50 years of age, he was introduced to storytelling. His stories of the farm, his strict Irish Catholic upbringing, the hoboes who worked there during the Depression, the animals and their personalities, his Irish sense of humor, and his love and respect for the natural world carried him across the U.S. to festivals, schools, conventions, reunions, workshops, the Smithsonian Folk Festival, and the Jonesborough, Tennessee International Storytelling Festival. For 22 years he served as artistic director of the Minnesota Storytelling Festival held annually in Austin; for 13 years he hosted “Remember When” on KAUS Austin radio, and for three years the Michael Cotter Show on WHO Des Moines. He is the recipient of the Circle of Excellence Storyteller award presented by the National Storytelling Network. His legacy and stories will continue on through his voice and words on cassette tapes and CDs and in his books.
The complete obituary is available at http://www.austindailyherald.com/2017/08/michael-cotter-86/. Story Arts of Minnesota joins in celebrating Michael's contributions to the art of storytelling, as we mourn his passing.
Tellers Needed for P.J. Stories
P.J. Stories is a monthly, family friendly venue. Our goal is to promote storytelling for young audiences and to grow young storytelling audiences. Each month (the fourth Monday, 6:30-7:30pm) we feature a storyteller.
If you would like to tell stories at P.J. Stories, please contact Pam Schweitzer at cantenastories@gmail.com.
This is not a paid venue, but it is a great place to practice program material and get your name out there. Several tellers have been hired for other programs after performing at P.J. Stories.
Here's how we describe P.J. Stories on the SAM event calendar:
Appropriate for: All stories are family friendly and aimed at a school-aged audience.
Tickets: FREE. Suggested $5 tip per family.
Location: Underground Music Café, 1579 Hamline Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108
What is P.J. Stories? Some people may confuse P.J. Stories with a peanut butter sandwich because even between stories we squish a lot of fun. Each month we invite a local storyteller to tell some of their favorite stories. We have been fortunate to hear stories from all over the world by storytellers with very different backgrounds and styles. Some tellers use props or even puppets. We even had Santa stop by a few times to tell us about his adventures at the North Pole. Storytellers change, stories change, and styles vary, but one thing always stays the same: P.J. Stories is always fun!
Invitation to SAM listening sessions - June 6 and 17
SAM is holding two listening sessions – please join us!
Tuesday, June 3, 2017
7:00pm-8:00pm
Quixotic Coffee
769 Cleveland Ave S, St. Paul, MN
Saturday, June 17, 2017
9:30am-10:45am
Common Roots Café
2558 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis, MN
SAM is an organization which is membership and volunteer driven. We need to hear from everyone who is passionate about storytelling, so that we can better meet your needs as tellers and listeners of stories. Please take the time to add your wisdom and energy!
SAM at the Festival of Nations
Story Arts MN organized an entertaining program of multicultural storytelling over the four days of the 2017 Festival of Nations.
African storyteller Danielle Daniel and musician Tony Paul
David Zander, Banlang Phommasouvant (Lao tales) and organizer/emcee Carol McCormick
Phuoc Tran, Vietnamese storyteller. Her book, Vietnamese Children's Favorite Stories,
won an Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award for 2015-2016.
Ghost Story Concert. Sue Searing, Danielle Daniel, Richard Rousseau,
and organizer/emcee Carol McCormick.
African storyteller Danielle Daniel
Carol McCormick, organizer and emcee of the Storytellers Stage,
with Vietnamese storyteller Phuoc Tran
SAM display table
Storytellers at Festival of Nations 2017
May 4-7
http://www.festivalofnations.com
Storytelling on Cultural Exhibits Area Stage
THURSDAY
May 4
10:00-10:30 AM
Beverly Cottman as Auntie Beverly delivers wisdom of the ages by telling stories, folktales, and fables rooted in African and African-American traditions. Her storytelling sessions pass on values, celebrate culture, and invite the listener to join in the telling.
11:00-11:30 AM
The Wonderweavers: Tina Rohde & Colleen Shaskin present stories from their French, Norwegian, Swedish and Scottish heritage.
Their distant relatives told these stories.
1:30-2:00 PM
Phouc Thi Minh Tran, librarian, storyteller and award winning author brings alive her favorite stories and legends from Vietnam. In 2015 her Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Folktales won the Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year Award and the Moonbeam Children’s Gold Medal Book Award.
FRIDAY
May 5
10:00-10:30 AM
Nothando Zulu shares stories of wit and wisdom that bring to life colorful folktale characters from the African Diaspora. Nothando has been sharing stories professionally since 1976.
11:00-11:30 AM
Larry Johnson tells tales from Scandinavia, Germany, and the North Sea that separates them. Because the Nobel Peace Prize comes from Scandinavia, and since his people all come from the imaginative "make do on nothing" land of Smaland, Sweden, Larry also plays “Music for Weapons and Wasted Reduction” on items rescued from the landfills of the world.
1:30-2:00 PM
Nancy Donoval tells some of her favorite stories for older students and adults. Tales may come from the British Isles, Germany or Slovakia/Bohemia.
8:00-9:00 PM
Adult Storytelling Concert
Carol McCormick shares Irish, German and Czech tales to tickle your funny bone and warm your heart. www.carolmccormick.net
Nancy Donoval weaves a Celtic folk tale with a late night rerun of the Oprah show, and discovers new relevance in an ancient story.
David Zander will tell Swedish and Irish tales of the white horse including “Finn McCool in Search of His Youth.”
SATURDAY
May 6
10:30-11:00 AM
Young Children & Family Concert
Carol McCormick shares Irish tales of enchantment and sings in the “Key of Free.” www.carolmccormick.net
Brother Timothy (Tim Frantzich) plays music and shares a story from Norse Mythology. These are wild tales full of red beards, arrows, golden apples, evil, mischief, protection and wooden ships. www.wisdomstories.weebly.com
Kevin Strauss an Award-Winning Author and Storyteller, tells “Saving the Moon and Other Silly Stories of Germany and Russia.”
11:00 to Noon
Storytelling Workshop “A Crash Course in Storytelling” is a hands-on workshop for Adults and Children Grade 4 and older led by author and storyteller Kevin Strauss. It will help you discover easy ways to find, craft, and tell short folktales.
1:00-1:30 PM
Pam Schweitzer shares traditional tales from her German heritage. Pam is a teacher who loves getting a daily dose of energy from her students.
3:00 to 3:30 PM
Kevin Strauss an award-winning Author and Storyteller shares stories that make you smile, make you think. You can watch him tell stories at www.StoryLibrary.org and visit his website at www.NatureStory.com.
Sue Searing shares a classic tale or two form Germany or England, almost certainly including “The Bremen Town Musicians.”
8:30-9:30 PM
Ghost Story Concert
Danielle Daniel Whether you believe in ghosts or not you will love these haunting, spooky tales. Some are true creepy stories inspired by real life events. Others are pure fiction designed to send a shiver down your spine.
Sue Searing tells the spooky-funny British story “The Ghost of Gruesome Gables” and a scary tale form the Brothers Grimm.
Richard Rousseau shares a ghost story told through the voice of the captain of the Titanic.
SUNDAY
May 7
Noon-12:30 PM
Mrs. Banlang Phommasouvang, a Lao instructor in the Minneapolis public schools for 29 years, shares Lao tales. Since she was a teenager in Laos she has told stories which she learned from her parents and other Lao elders.
1:00-1:30 PM
Danielle Daniel tells some of her favorite African stories and folktales while moving to the beat of the African drum. You will laugh, sing along and leave inspired. www.danielledaniel77.com
5:00-5:30 PM
Margaret Meyers tells stories drawn from Norwegian folk tales and Norse mythology, honoring her Grandpa Gus, who was a Norwegian immigrant.
Story Arts Remembers Jack Pearson
Many of us knew Jack from performing at Storyfest and TELLABRATION!, working with him at the same schools or churches, attending his library, festival, fair or park performances. He was a friendly guy with a ready smile who was always ready to lend a hand or answer a question.
In addition to being a popular storyteller, Jack was a gifted musician. He played guitar, fiddle, 5-string banjo and an assortment of small percussion instruments--including an amplified toy box lid. A songwriter “with one foot in American folk tradition and the other joyfully lost in the landscape of imagination,” Jack was also a published author of children’s books plus a collection of his songs. There are ten CDs and 8 simple folk instruments for sale on his website http://jackpearson.org/store/.
Since 1973 Jack performed full-time for kids and families in the Upper Midwest and around the country. He worked with K-6 kids in schools as both a performer and resident artist. He also worked with churches helping with worship or doing a concert for the kids or families.
Jack died unexpectedly on January 5th, less than two weeks after checking into the hospital and being diagnosed with aggressive lymphatic cancer on December 27th. He was only 63.
During his time in the ICU, Jack incurred significant medical bills. It's unclear how much will be covered by insurance. His wife Nancy is on medical disability for MS and can't work. You can make a contribution to help Nancy at https://www.gofundme.com/jack-pearson-memorial-fund or mail a check to
Nancy Pearson, 4533 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55407.
On Saturday, May 6th there will be a celebration of Jack's life St. Joan of Arc church, 4537 3rd Ave. So. Minneapolis, MN 55419. The doors will open at 1:00 pm and the program begins at 2:00 pm.
RISK! Live Show: Call for Submissions, Minneapolis
RISK! Is a live show and podcast “where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share in public” hosted by Kevin Allison, of the legendary TV sketch comedy troupe The State. RISK! has featured people like Janeane Garofalo, Lisa Lampanelli, Kevin Nealon, Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, and regular folks from around the world, dropping the act and showing a side of themselves we’ve never seen before. The RISK! podcast gets over 1.5 million downloads each month. Slate.com called it “jaw-dropping, hysterically funny, and just plain touching.”
RISK! is not like other storytelling shows. It’s “where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share in public.” We encourage our storytellers to step out on a limb, be brutally candid and emotionally raw. This is an uncensored show where taboos are tackled and people talk about things they ordinarily might not share in mixed company, but might save for their therapist.
To hear some of our stories, go to http://risk-show.com/listen
The Minneapolis live show of RISK! will be held at 7:30pm on April 29th at Brave New Workshop. Deadline for submissions is April 1st. The theme for this show is 'knockout' but stories are not required to fit under this theme. It is just meant to serve as a jumping off point to help you brainstorm. For more information about what we look for in story pitches and how to submit, go to http://risk-show.com/submissions.
Send pitches to pitches@risk-show.com.
Story Arts Remembers Duke Addicks
Mentor Charles Jr. Addicks, or “Duke," as most of us knew him, “went to walk with his ancestors” on November 12, 2016 at age 76. His contributions to the Twin Cities storytelling community were great. Duke was a founding member of the then North Star Storytelling League, writing up the initial articles of incorporation. Duke learned the power of story at his Cherokee grandmother’s knee. During his summer visits to Georgia each morning his grandmother would tell him a story and make him recite it back. Duke was considered a “living storytelling legend” and was known as “Minnesota’s Master of Real Ghost Stories”. He made ghost stories seem natural and true. When he told ghost stories at hospitals and jails he stipulated that his audience was expected to share their own ghost stories with him. In 2008, he was presented with the prestigious honor of the Story Stick from North Star Storytelling League for his contributions to storytelling and in that same year he was made the official storyteller of the Shakopee Sioux tribe.
Duke traveled seamlessly between many worlds as a naturalist, historian, musician, Scottish and Cherokee tale teller. At the time of his death he was working to complete a Masters in Divinity. He could just as easily tell a tale about Singing Bird, The Woman Behind the Blackhawk War, as the life story of Pig’s Eye Parrant, a St. Paul icon, or be a fur trade era re-enactor. An expert eagle handler, Duke worked closely with the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN, presenting eagle programs. Music was an important part of Duke’s life. He played over twenty-five instruments and led a drum circle.
Duke embraced life, squeezing everything he could out of it. He grew up in Minneapolis and lived his whole life in Minnesota where he practiced law and lobbied at the Minnesota legislature. His generosity touched many lives. He founded an African charity, Hope Multipurpose Incorporated; volunteered at TELLABRATIONS! ™; and did pro bono legal work. We will miss this multi-talented and generous man.