Diane Aoki, Creativity Activism
  • Home Page
  • Blog
  • Poetry
  • Songs
  • Art
  • Plays
  • Reviews
  • Travel Journal
  • Artists of Note
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog

Travel Journal

 Does travel make you more creative? More compassionate?Yes, if you travel with those intentions. 

Storytelling Retreat Revisited in Oaxaca

4/22/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Life is like a tapestry; the things you do and the people you meet are woven into the design. It seems so random that I would end up in Oaxaca for a second time. First time was in 2012. I had met Illinois storyteller Jim May when he came to Honolulu for a Storytelling conference organized by Jeff Gere. I got on his mailing list, went to a weekend retreat when NEA (teachers union) was in Chicago. There, I learned about the retreat he does in Oaxaca, and went there the following spring.  I loved it and made some good friends. I met Jewel Murphy back then who was staying at the Casa and told me about her Art Tours.. I wrote about that in my previous blog entry. So Jim’s workshop was during Holy Week, a 2-week interim between the art and storytelling workshop. And I had been wanting to learn Spanish, so things fell into place. Art-Spanish-Spanish-Storytelling. That was my month.
Picture
Durango, the owner’s dog, probably has a lot of stories to tell.
Jim’s style of storytelling is a mix of fun and games (he works a lot with kids) and serious personal stuff. But you choose how deep you want to go and how much of your personal story you are ready to tell. My group was ready! They opened their hearts and souls and I am humbled and fed by the stories they told.
Picture
A banner seen in one of the churches seen during Holy Thursday visits.
I haven't quite processed what I experienced during this retreat.  I made some good friends, really nice people with interesting life stories. My project for the week was to share a story from my Okinawan roots. Since then, I have developed it more as a play. It is now a draft. There was something about this week that was deep. I was touched, somehow, by the storytelling, by the people, by the collective energy of the group. It was a good week.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I have traveled quite a bit, and am using this page to record some memories. Travel is a wonderful education, expanding your view of the world, of other cultures, of the beauty of diversity. 

    Archives

    June 2021
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    November 2016
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Go to the contact form to subscribe to my newsletter or send me a message.

Contact Form
t
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home Page
  • Blog
  • Poetry
  • Songs
  • Art
  • Plays
  • Reviews
  • Travel Journal
  • Artists of Note
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog