Today we’d like to introduce you to Priscilla Howe.
Priscilla, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve been a full-time professional storyteller since 1993, after five years as a storytelling librarian. I started out reading books to kids, then put the book down and began telling the stories. Though I started with young children, I now tell folktales, stories from books, and my own stories to audiences of all ages. When I’m with the tinies, I bring along puppets. When I’m with older kids and adults, I tell more sophisticated stories with a generous helping of good humor. I’ve been really lucky–I’ve traveled around the US and to 14 other countries to tell stories, mostly in English, though I sometimes tell in French and, weirdly, Bulgarian. In 2015, I had a Fulbright Scholarship in Bulgaria, where I collected folktales, which became a book called “Clever, Kind, Tricky, and Sly: A Bulgarian Folktale Sampler”. I make my bread-and-butter telling stories and giving workshops at schools, libraries, festivals, private events, conferences and even in my own backyard. I live in Lawrence, though I did live in Kansas City, Kansas for five years, in the wonderful Strawberry Hill neighborhood. I’m also looking for the best restaurant pie on earth–fruit, not cream.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
While I love being a storyteller, it’s not the most stable living! For the first five years, I had to hang on by my fingernails, doing temp jobs to augment my storytelling work. My work still has its ebbs and flows. It’s tricky when there are budget cuts to schools, libraries and arts agencies. I guess I’ve learned to be nimble. I add to my live storytelling with bedtime stories for kids on Patreon, story recordings on Spotify, and a subscription based newsletter on Substack–that subscription is free, but some generous folks have upgraded to the paid level.
I still struggle with promoting my work and with the business side of it all. In 2016, I went through MidAmerica Arts Alliance’s program ArtistInc, which really helped me with this.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
People often give me a quizzical look when I say I’m a storyteller. “What does that mean?” It’s fairly simple: I tell stories, out loud, with no costumes, no set, no props (except sometimes puppets, who appear between stories for children for some extra silliness), no script. It’s not improvisation–I do know the stories, but they vary slightly each time I tell them. They’re not memorized word-for-word, but image-by-image, as if I’m watching a movie in my mind. It’s different from theater, in that I’m reacting to the audience as I tell the stories, making subtle adjustments.
I’m an introverted storyteller. I don’t haul you into my story by the lapels, but I invite you into my world. I often feel like the audience and I are sharing a dream. Just after 9-11, I had a performance of the Medieval story “Tristan and Iseult” for adults. One of the listeners came up afterwards to say that she had needed that break from all the horrible news. That’s a 90-minute story, and she wasn’t even aware of the time passing.
What am I known for? That’s a hard question. I do a lot of work with young children, aged 3-5, incorporating stories, songs, puppets and general silliness. In elementary schools, I tell stories to encourage empathy. I love working with middle and high school kids, encouraging them to write. Lately I’ve been doing a program for adults on children’s folklore around Kansas and the world, through Humanities Kansas. That has been great fun! And of course, I love to teach others to tell stories and to use puppets.
What matters most to you? Why?
My work is about connection. I connect with the story and the listeners. The listeners connect with the story and with me, and they also connect among themselves. If I tell my most requested tale, “The Ghost with the One Black Eye,” at a school, often I’ll hear kids retelling it at recess later–they now have a shared story that they might refer to when I’m long gone. In this world that is so connected technologically, but often so disconnected socially, I love that stories can bring us back together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.priscillahowe.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priscillahowe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PriscillaHoweStoryteller/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/priscillahowe
- Other: https://priscillahowe.substack.com/
