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Welcome to
Healing Story Alliance
Founded over 25 years ago, Healing Story Alliance supports storytelling as a healing art. We provide dynamic programming and online resources to promote the healing of self, community, society, and the Earth. We welcome anyone into our circle who is interested in the healing power of story to bring about positive change. We foster collaborations with other groups and organizations who share our mission.
Join our new mailing list to keep abreast of our offerings! Join our Listserv to engage in robust conversation on the power of healing story.
Upcoming Events
HERE IS OUR NEW ZOOM LINK FOR OARS!
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81580670118?pwd=kluogEmpqp8COl7mWvvDl673CCozLS.1
OARS in the Water
Wednesday, January 22
7:00pm-8:30pm EST
Hosted by Laura Simms and Nancy Wang
Theme: For Angela:
Joy, grief and dying | A compassionate conversation
Sparked by the sudden and unexpected passing of beloved storyteller Angela Lloyd, join HSA as we navigate a community conversation about death, loss, and how we uniquely deal with grief.
OARS in the Water is a facilitated Zoom gathering that meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm Eastern Time. The Healing Story Alliance’s OARS in the Water offers a community listening space in which to share the experiences and stories that have emerged in turbulent times. OARS co-hosts facilitate the evening and provide participants with a warm welcome and a meaningful theme, which we hope will be healing, supportive and inspiring.
Format: A typical 90-minute meeting consists of a 20-minute, theme-based opening, followed by 20 minutes in breakout rooms, and then we reassemble for a whole group conversation. Admission is free, although donations are deeply appreciated and help support our programming. Your tax deductible donation can be made here:
https://square.link/u/d9xbGN2I
WE HAVE A NEW ZOOM LINK FOR OARS!
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81580670118?pwd=kluogEmpqp8COl7mWvvDl673CCozLS.1
About our Hosts for January 22nd
Laura Simms is an internationally acclaimed storyteller, writer, teacher and humanitarian. She combines traditional stories with personal narrative.
She is artistic Director of the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center in NYC and served as a Senior Research Fellow for Rutgers University Peace Center under the auspices of UNESCO. She is a founding member of the Healing Story Alliance and serves on their programming committee. Laura saved a zoo in Romania, and won the Sesame Street SUNNY DAYS AWARD for work with children worldwide. She received the Hasbro September 11 Grant designing a manual and training for storytelling for children in crisis. Laura has worked in post conflict and climate disasters with International Medical Corps, and Mercy Corps, Inc. She is a certified dharma art teacher and a senior meditation instructor in mindfulness awareness practice. She has five books and many recordings. Recently Laura was story advisor for the Fetzer Foundation Sacred Story Project. She continues to work with The Constellation. www.laurasimms.com
Nancy Wang’s artist career started in 1972 in modern dance, choreography and teaching under mentor Gloria Unti of the SF Performing Arts Workshop, who taught her to create work that is meaningful and reflective of the burning issues of our time. In 1981, she met her husband Robert Kikychi-Yngojo and together introduced to Northern California the So. Filipino tradition of Kulintang bronze gong ensemble music and dances with a school and performance company: Kalilang Kulintang. In 1987, as Eth-Noh-Tec, they began telling Asian folktales and inspiring Asian American contemporary stories weaving stylized movement, gesture and the spoken word, and now have a repertoire of 200+ story performances being archived. Her concert length multi-media story-play ‘Red Altar’ has inspired her novel of the same name.
Nancy is also a retired Psychotherapist after a private practice of almost 50 years.
Kind Stories in Concert
Sunday, February 2
7:00pm-8:30pm EST
Emcee: Jennifer Munro
Register to Receive a FREE Kind Stories in Concert Zoom Link
Click here to Donate and help make programs like this possible
https://square.link/u/d9xbGN2I
‘Kindness is having the ability to speak with love,
listen with patience, and act with compassion.”
-Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Join the Healing Story Alliance for a special gathering to share and explore stories of kindness in its many faces and forms. Through folk tales and personal stories, we will dive deeply into multiple experiences of kindness. What is it? How does it impact us and our relationships to ourselves, to each other, to the world? Come and listen to “kind stories” shared by both professional tellers and community members and see what memories of kindness emerge for you.
Date: Feb 2, 2025
Time: 7:00pm-8:30pm EST
(Open Mic Story Share and Reflection: last half hour)
Format: The story session opens with a concert of seasoned tellers and community tellers sharing stories with themes of kindness. During the second half of the gathering, audience members are invited to share a story, moment, or reflection about kindness that emerged for them as listeners.
Purpose: We all need a little more kindness in our lives. Perhaps a story can take us there.
“WHEN YOU ARE KIND TO OTHERS, IT NOT ONLY CHANGES YOU, IT CHANGES THE WORLD.” -Harold Kushner
KIND STORIES in CONCERT
ABOUT the STORYTELLERS
Featured Tellers
Renee Spears Emanuel, recipient of the 2023 “Women in the Arts Award,” is a gifted storyteller whose folktale and tall tale renderings have captivated audiences of all ages for over a decade. Renee has performed on public television, at universities, libraries, conferences, and other venues.
David Novak made his storytelling debut in St. Louis in 1979. He has since been featured at the National Storytelling Festival, Timpanogos, Talking Island and many others. International appearances include the Singapore StoryFest, Czech Children’s Theatre Festival, Sydney International Storytelling Conference, and China international schools. David is proud to have been in the dynamic storytelling trio, Triple Crown Tellers, with Milbre Burch and Angela Lloyd, and co-creator
of The National Yakker’s Theatre Ensemble with Nancy Donoval and Gerald Fierst. He is recipient of the NSN Circle of Excellence, and the Aurand Harris Playwrighting Award. David lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Liz Mangual was “kidnapped by stories.” Her childhood was filled with an ever-changing cast of unusual characters fresh off the boat from Puerto Rico whose lives were difficult but who still found time to laugh, dance, play music and tell stories. Liz thinks of her storytelling as a sancocho (a rich stew) seasoned with encounters with life, people, cultures and the universal concerns that make us human. Her storytelling has brought her to the usual places; libraries, schools, festivals…and to more
unusual places like migrant farm worker camps and youth prisons. She enjoys many rich collaborations with colleagues, and organizations across the country. What keeps Liz on the story trail? The constant re-discovery that storytelling is a powerful tool for creating safe, and welcoming environments, for bringing joy and fun to the lives of children. What better way to build connections and community than through story? Look for Liz by the banks of the nearby Rio Grande. The River, where past, present and future meet, just like they do in stories.
Emcee
Jennifer Munro, a recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, tells original stories about rogues and heroes that resonate with the frailty and courage of the human condition. She also puts modern spins on ancient tales, often combining them with personal experience. She has produced three award-winning CDs and a collection of short stories, Aunty Lily and other Delightfully Perverse Stories, also an award winner. Jennifer has performed at the National Festival and the Timpanogos Festival. Her most recent project, a tour-de force performance of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, has been hailed by critics as “dazzling and spellbinding”.
When Storytellers Write About Healing
An Interview with Dr. Annie Brewster Facilitated by Lani Peterson
Thursday, February 20th
Online ~ 7:00-8:30 pm EST
Admission $16.50
Join us for the fourth event in a new Healing Story Alliance series where authors are interviewed about their creative writing processes and the healing power of storytelling. Storytelling, unique among all narrative arts, engages listeners in a profound way, deepening our understanding of what healing means and how it functions.
In this session, noted storyteller and therapist Lani Peterson will interview Dr. Annie Brewster about her book The Healing Power of Storytelling.
Audience participation is encouraged, with opportunities to ask questions and share observations inspired by Annie’s work and the interview. This event benefits The Healing Storytelling Alliance, dedicated to promoting healing through the art of storytelling.
While it will not be necessary to read Annie’s book in advance, copies may be obtained on Amazon at: Click Here
To learn more about Annie Brewster visit https://www.healthstorycollaborative.org/our-team
Author
Dr. Annie Brewster is an Assistant Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, a writer and a storyteller. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. In response to the disconnection she experienced in healthcare, both as a patient and a provider, and motivated by her belief in the power of stories, she started recording patient narratives in 2010. Integrating her personal experiences with the research supporting the health benefits of narrative, she founded the nonprofit Health Story Collaborative (HSC) in 2013. HSC is committed to empowering patients and their loved ones, building community, strengthening patient-provider connections, and ultimately transforming healthcare through storytelling. Annie is widely published in the press and is author of The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss (2022)
Interviewer
Lani Peterson, PsyD, is a psychologist, storyteller, and story coach who has been teaching about the power of story at universities, organizations, hospitals, homeless shelters, and prisons for over 25 years. She is known for telling and encouraging personal stories, has a specialty in story exploration as a healing art and change agent. She holds a doctorate in psychology from William James College, a master’s in counseling psychology from Lesley University and an undergraduate degree in literature
from Smith College. She has taught Effective Organizational Communications Skills for Non-Profit Leaders in the master’s program at Wheelock College as well as Healing through our Stories in the Expressive Therapies masters’ track at Lesley University. From CEO’s to scientists, doctors, mental health providers, ministers and the homeless, Lani has worked with individuals, groups and organizations to help people find their stories, share their stories, and come together with a deeper level of connection and understanding. Her ongoing mission is to bring to light and share the stories that will open doors within and between storytellers and listeners alike.
NEWS! The Book upon which this concert is based has won a Storytelling World Award!
ABOUT the Healing Story Alliance Website
This website offers resources, guidance and practical applications for storytelling, revealing and reflecting the many facets of healing story in the world today and in the past. In addition to bibliographies, and links, there is a library of articles on Healing Stories and Storytelling. Our acclaimed Journal, Diving in the Moon: Honoring Story, Facilitating Healing, is available from 2013-2017 as an e-journal on the HSA website.
All authored writing on the Healing Story Alliance website is the copyrighted property of its author. These resources are intended for not-for-profit educational use. Any commercial use of resources on this website must be arranged directly with the author of the text or video.
Many are drawn to our site in search of answers or resources for dealing with the pain and tragedy of turbulent current events in the personal, social and global realms. This interest is addressed in our compilations of stories which we encourage you to explore.
- Healing Treasures: Stories intended to precipitate conversation, and guide teaching and healing with participants.
- Stories We Live: Personal stories and methods for gathering and applying life experiences as healing references.
- Stories for Children in Crisis: Compiled by Laura Simms, includes stories, articles, and links, drawn from years of research and professional work with children.
- Stories for Peace: storytelling in pursuit of peace and understanding.
- Healing the Earth: featuring stories contributed by storytellers working in environmental settings or on educational projects with an environmental theme.
HSA was a long standing Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network. In 2022 it became fiscally sponsored by Story Arts Inc, a NY state 501(c)(3) arts organization dedicated to the fine art of storytelling and to its educational applications. Story Arts is directed by Heather Forest. As a subsidiary project of Story Arts Inc., HSA functioned as a not-for-profit arts organization under Story Arts Inc.’s fiscal umbrella while establishing it’s own not-for-profit organization in New York State. In January 2023 HSA Inc. received IRS recognition as an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Healing Story Alliance Inc is now an NSN Collaborative Partner.